CONTENTS

• Weekly Tips (If I've learnt 3 things in recruitment)
• Article One (Ask the Expert! by Steve Finkel)
• Article Two (Electronic Pre-employment Screening by 192.com Business Services)
• Online Recruitment Update (Hitwise Top 10 Recruitment Sites - Louise's UK Recruiter Blog - Discussion Board Summary - Vacancies from UKRecruiterJobs)
• Don't Miss This (PR: reed.co.uk launches new advertising campaign - PR: Securing a career move in consulting in 2009 Workshop)
• Subscribe/Unsubscribe
• Feedback & Advertising Information

Visit http://www.ukrecruiterjobs.co.uk for the latest recruitment industry jobs.

Weekly Tips - - If I've learnt 3 things in recruitment

1. Its frustrating waiting on feedback from client’s on CVs submitted, but … it's not always as important to the client as it is to you or your candidate

2. If you say you’ll call a candidate at a specified time … do it, don’t let them down.

3. Keep in contact with candidate’s you’ve placed, they could be your next client.

Provided by Su Middleton of Sales Resource Associates Ltd

Why not submit your 3 favourite web sites. See the guidelines at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/articles.htm

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Article One:  Ask the Expert! by Steve Finkel

Dear Steve the Expert:

I keep hearing that I should be making “100 calls a day” in this business. Okay, some say 80. Putting aside that I have difficulty doing so consistently, does this seem reasonable? How do I do it?

Confused

Dear Confused,

Focusing on “number of calls” is a holdover from the days when we as an industry focused on “numbers” to the exclusion of skills. In fact, it is a direct relic from the day when all people did was market candidates! To a good recruitment consultant, this business is not primarily a “numbers game”, and there is much more to do than market candidates. In our modern complex sophisticated business, while good numbers are important, this is a skills game!

A better number to focus on is the quantity of substantive business conversations (SBC’s) you have in a day. If you are an experienced person, you will likely never hit 100 calls a day — and shouldn’t. Experienced people will always achieve fewer calls than new people — but will get much better results due to more in-depth conversation. That’s why “calls” are the wrong thing on which to focus.

How many substantive business conversations should one strive for? 30 such calls (SBCs) per day for experienced people or 35 for those with less than two years is a reasonable goal.

Here are a few suggestions for achieving the appropriate number of Substantive Business Conversations per day. Brief calls or messages left do not count.

1) Plan

Substantive conversations are the goal, but they must involve the proper direction of your day. This means a written out Daily Planner at the end of every day. Chapter 6 in the book Breakthrough! addresses planning in the proper order to achieve maximum results from your calls.

2) Quantify

US President Bush, in promoting annual testing for school children during the 2000 elections, is the insightful author of the phrase “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it!”. It is true for us also.

There is no reason to strive for much quantitative improvement beyond 30 or 35 SBC’s a day; the place to focus beyond that is on skills. But it is true that if you don’t measure it, you can’t maintain it. And the number will drop unless you do.

Keep track every day by plain old “hash marks” as you progress through your plan. At some point, you’ll develop a habit pattern of maintaining this activity level but until you do, monitoring this number is critical. Even then, regular counting of this number is advised to make sure you don’t backslide.

3) “Group of Five”

The absolute best foundational tool ever developed for our industry is top trainer Larry Nobles’ 300-page hardbound book Search and Placement! A Handbook for Success (available via Amazon US). It should be on every recruitment consultant’s desk.

Mr Nobles suggests in this book that an excellent way to maintain effectiveness and enthusiasm is to clump your calls in Fives, and to burn through them without putting down the phone, getting full information on each call. Then put down the phone and do other things.

While Mr Nobles addressed this purely to a marketing program, he doubled his results — interviews, search assignments and qualified clients — by doing so. You may well see similar results. For more on this, see his extraordinary book.

Focusing a high volume of “calls” directs one almost inevitably to brief shallow calls. Focusing on substantive business conversations focuses on effectiveness, which leads to far better results. Try it and see.

Questions? If you have a question for Steve Finkel, e-mail to louise@ukrecruiter.co.uk. Put “Ask the Expert” on the subject line. We cannot reply to every question, but will publish those that are most broadly applicable.

Acclaimed author and trainer Steve Finkel is a veteran of 30 years and 6 Recessions in our industry. He is referred to by Personnel Consultant Magazine, produced by the US National Association of Personnel Services, as “possessing the most in-depth knowledge of search and recruitment in industry history”. The producer of many excellent training products, his newly-revised 380-page hardbound book “Breakthrough!”, designed for experienced recruiters and available in the UK via Amazon US, is the best-selling book in industry history. For information, access his website at www.stevefinkel.com or call 314-991-3177.

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Article Two:  Electronic Pre-employment Screening by 192.com Business Services

As a recruiter the candidates you send to employers are your reputation, so it makes sense to vet them before you send them out into the workplace as the ambassadors of your agency and even your brand.

Screening for Right to Work
Every employer in the UK must carry out a ‘Right to Work’ check which ensures that a person has the right to work in the UK and is not subject to special immigration controls. Right to Work checks are commonly carried out by Recruitment Consultants, who often do not have the time, or international knowledge to be able to accurately vet an ID document such as a passport, driving license or visa, especially where the document originates from outside of the UK. 

Screening to Safeguard
Being able to accurately vet an ID document and verify that a candidate is who they say they are, also becomes increasingly important when placing someone in a role which is subject to a CRB check. After all, if the candidate is using a fake name and therefore ID documents, the CRB check is worthless. Such occurrences are rare, but by carrying out proper candidate vetting, you are minimising all possible risk. 

Screening for Fraud
Figures from the UK Fraud Prevention Service, CIFAS, put the estimated cost of recruitment fraud at £40million and say that employee fraud is the reason for 1,500 dismissals per year; with some large organisations sacking over 100 people per year for employee fraud. Fraud screening tools can help you overcome this risk.

So how can you make sure you’re providing a quality recruitment service?

Know Your Candidate.
Don’t rely on a few crumpled old household bills; consider using electronic id checking as a more robust, and impartial form of identity checking. It’s easy to forge a paper phone bill, but not so easy to create a fraudulent electronic phone bill check, credit record or electoral roll history. 

Verify ID documents and Right to Work.
The story of Prawo Jazdy made everyone laugh at the beginning of the year; police in Ireland had recorded masses of driving offences against his name, before finding out that Prawo Jazdy, is actually the Polish term for Driving License. Could your recruiters tell the difference? Passport verification tools can, and will help take the stress and hassle away from your recruitment team, leaving them free to do what they do best – make placements! 

Take references and validate your referees! 
Over 60% of employers surveyed by CIFAS reported that the employee frauds they had uncovered involved collusion with people outside the company, so it makes sense to not only take references, but ensure you validate that they are genuine referees! Consider checking that their previous work organization still exists via Companies House or Dun and Bradstreet records, and also consider the value of vetting educational history and professional qualifications.

For more information on online ID verification for recruiters please visit: www.192business.com/recruitment-compliance 

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Online Recruitment Update  

Hitwise top 10 Recruitment Sites, week ending 13th June 2009
The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the most popular, were www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk, www.linkedin.com, www.jobs.nhs.uk, www.reed.co.uk, www.totaljobs.com, www.jobsite.co.uk, www.monster.co.uk, www.tes.co.uk, www.jobrapido.co.uk and jobs.guardian.co.uk. For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk

Louise's UK Recruiter blog
Since the last newsletter Louise has posted the following: 
- Recession Affecting Teamwork
- Speed Networking at 18th June Event
- Review of National Sales Competition
You can read Louise's UK Recruiter blog at http://ukrecruiter.typepad.com  You can keep up to date with other recruitment blogs from the UK via the UK Recruiter blog watch page at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/blogs.htm.  

Discussion Board Summary
Don't forget to visit The Discussion Board. Current topics on the site include:
- KPI Research
- Desk Space for a % of my Monthly Billings
- Need more jobs to be posted
- Can anyone recommend a good factoring broker?
You do not need to be registered to post or view messages on the discussion board.  Visit the site, ask questions and share your knowledge.  

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Twitter and LinkedIn Guides for Recruiters

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LinkedIn is a vital and free resource for recruiters. Because of the recent massive influx of users it provides a potentially extensive network for recruitment purposes. It has an estimated 35 million registered users worldwide of which more than 2 million are based in the UK. This figure is growing at around 5% per month as more candidates find themselves on the market. If used correctly this offers the recruiter a vast number of free contacts with a huge amount of associated information.

To purchase the Twitter or LinkedIn guide for only £4.99 each please visit the UK Recruiter Site. 

Don't Miss This 

Press Release: reed.co.uk launches new advertising campaign
"Online recruitment giant, reed.co.uk, today announces a new multichannel advertising campaign, launching on Monday 15 June. As with last year's highly successful 'Love Mondays' advertising campaign, forthcoming activity will start with heavyweight outdoor media, including posters and bus side advertising. Initially the campaign will run across the London Underground network and on buses throughout the Greater London area. Outdoor activity will be complemented by a wide-ranging digital campaign, targeting jobseekers across a variety of sites. www.reed.co.uk" 

Press Release: Securing a career move in consulting in 2009 Workshop
"The course will kick-off with an intensive evening workshop on 29th June, followed by a series of further conference calls to provide tailored and objective advice (with a variety of dates and times to suit each participant’s schedule). A key success factor for such courses is that there is continuous interaction between participants and the course leader. Hence irrespective of the level of demand, this course will be capped to a maximum of just 50 participants. Enrolment costs £249 + Vat and the course comes with a full money-back guarantee. More information and registration form at http://events.top-consultant.com/UK/careerconference.aspx?ID=413"

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