Why companies watch your every Facebook & Twitter move.

The recent banning and fining of a number sports stars for tweeting rude comments about their lack of selection has once again brought attention on modern networking sites back into focus and a reappraisal of how they’re used by commercial organisations.

Once upon a time companies could afford to be rude. I might grumble to a few friends and walk to the next shop on the high street but there was little else that I could do. These days I’ll still grumble to my friends, but now I do it online, using social media websites like Facebook and Twitter.

Today one witty Tweet, one clever blog post, one devastating video - forwarded to hundreds of friends at the click of a mouse - can snowball and kill a product or damage a company's share price. It's a dramatic shift in consumer power. But what if companies could harness this power and turn it to their advantage?

Social media is quickly becoming a customer relationship management system, as companies have for the first time access to people's minds in near real-time. It may be all the buzz, but I suspect that in reality only a few firms understand it and know how to use it, it's been of peripheral interest for most. Few realise that using social media has become much more than customer service and reputation management.

Most importantly, it can act as an early warning system when something goes wrong. But for many companies social media tools are poorly integrated into the corporate structure, if your system tells you that your customers are unhappy about a product or service, it can be critical that the tool immediately alerts the team in charge of it.

It also makes business sense. Good use of social media can reduce complaints and costly calls to a service centre. But there are dangers that the obsession with social networking can make management lose focus. If a company needed a random tweet to alert them to a problem, surely something was wrong in the first place.

Even in normal times social media marketing has its quirks. I was told that the single most important rule is to try to sound genuine, "don't push... and don't pretend you are hip". Just as readers can quickly tell whether a CEO's blog is really written by the boss or the PR team, Twitter and Facebook don't lend themselves to spreading the corporate message.

As companies are getting to grips with social media, the very business model of customer relationships looks set to change. Consumers are spending their attention on social media but firms don't know how to repay them properly. There's no manual for that yet and there probably never will be.

After all, what works today, might not work tomorrow.

Should you be worried about age discrimination?

In the twenty something years that I have worked in recruitment I’m pretty sure that almost every client I have worked with who’s above the age of 40 has asked the same question at some point: Do I need to make myself look younger on my CV? The fear that they are being skipped over for younger candidates is clearly a widespread concern among today’s job seekers, just as it has been for many years.

During these conversations I almost certainly encourage those with 30 or more years of work experience to edit their CV’s and to only include what’s most relevant on them. There was a recent article which caused me to wonder whether age discrimination is really as rampant as is made out.

There was one passage in particular that stood out:

The number of people aged 25-34 living with their parents jumped to 13.4% in 2010 from 12.7% in 2008 … whilst the poverty rate for adults age 25-34 living with their parents was 8.5%, but in that case they are considered part of a household. If their status was determined solely by their own income, 43% were below the poverty threshold for a single person.

The article also reported that those aged 25-34 suffered the highest unemployment rate of any age group in August 2010 whilst those aged 55 and over actually had the lowest rate of unemployment.

Please don’t misunderstand me; I’m not suggesting that age discrimination doesn’t exist, there have been enough law suits in recent years to show that it does, but if colouring your hair and buying a trendier interview suit will help you feel more confident during your job search, then go for it.

However, the reality is that with the current economic downturn affecting the UK & Europe, younger workers are facing a job market that’s just as tough as it is for older workers — and in many cases the younger ones have an even harder time finding roles because of their lack of experience. With more than 13% of the young worker population still living at home with their parents, it’s clear that even many with jobs are not making enough to find a house deposit and live independently.

These statistics show that the job market has been tough on everyone in the jobs market. If you would like to increase your odds for an interview and to the job offer stage then you need to ensure that your CV is tailored to each and every position that you apply for. For help in creating a strategy that overcomes the “age issue” on your CV, talk with one of our Directors at www.intersearchuk.com

An everyday tale of stress and how to manage it.

As the working world returns to some form of normality after the summer break it seems obvious that Stress is the hot topic of the month as I have received a number of emails offering me workshops on how to manage it for our employees, one to one counselling, legal advice and all sorts of other emails that received the delete button treatment. Whilst I have no qualifications in stress management, there were a couple that appealed to me, though they are far from new or original, and I offer them up to you:

A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked; 'How heavy is this glass of water?'

Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g.

The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter.

It depends on how long you try to hold it.

If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem.

If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm.

If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.

In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.'

He continued, 'And that's the way it is with stress management’.

If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on. '

'As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.'
'So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow.

Whatever burdens you're carrying now, Let them down for a moment if you can. So, my friend put down anything that may be a burden to you right now. Don't pick it up again until after you've rested a while’.

And from another round robin email, here are some great ways of dealing with the burdens of life:


* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue.

* Always keep your words soft and sweet, Just in case you have to eat them.

* Always wear stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be "Recalled" by their maker.

* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

* If you lend someone £20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to be kind to others.

* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

* When everything's coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.

* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.

* We could learn a lot from crayons... Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colours, but they all have to live in the same box.

*A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.

They all, in their own home spun philosophising way, offer a few gentle thoughts on the quality of life and how to perceive those problems. If you have any that you live by and would like to add, then drop me a line and I might just run a follow up to this in a week or so!

Is it all about the money?

Despite stories to the contrary, the recruitment world mirrors the real world!

We too have seasons that match the working world. The New Year, following a traditional quiet December has historically always been busy. There tends to be a hiatus over Easter followed by a spurt leading up to the summer break, which brings us to where we are now: September.

Economic concerns are still reflected in the market but we have successfully wrapped up a number of assignments and helped clients with the contract negotiations. In three of the four assignments the candidates have promptly been countered offered by their existing employer. Fortunately our consultants have addressed this issue with the candidates right back at their first meeting with them and discussed it again with them leading up to our clients offer; with the result that in each case they have declined the counter offer. In fact, one was counter offered three times. In many ways this is very satisfying as it shows that we really have found the right person.

Yes the candidates were offered uplifts on their original salaries but in each case the candidates were making the decision to move for career reasons. It’s not always purely about the money.

So what happens next? I take no credit for this piece but I did think that it gave a different perspective of the relevant issues:

• We are watching you. Suspicions confirmed. We want to make sure that you leave quietly. With dignity. No drama. You would be surprised at the stupid things people do when they leave a company.
• We are watching your internet traffic. Don’t even think about leaking something or sending out company information.
• We are thinking of letting you go early. Some HR people will tell you to stay home during your notice period. Don’t be offended. We’ll pay you. Enjoy the time off before you start your new job.
• If you’re really great, we might want to counter-offer you and tempt you to stay. Never accept this offer. Never. We will always wonder when you’re going to threaten to quit again (because we suspect it was just a fake threat) for more money.
• Co-workers and colleagues will bug you and ask for the real scoop. It’s not your job to expose the soft underbelly of an organisation. Stick to your story. You’re leaving for personal reasons.
• We will ask you to participate in an exit interview. This a pointless exercise. You have the right to say no. HR rarely does anything meaningful with the data. Managers assume sour grapes. Employees are too afraid to burn bridges. If you have any questions about your benefits, use this meeting to clarify your questions — and leave without burning a bridge.

Beach towels

So here we are once again at either the happiest or most frustrating time of the year.

Yes, it’s August.

The world is divided into two camps; those who disappear off on holiday and those of us left holding the fort. Whilst the good news is that I can get to work considerably quicker than at any other time in the year, the bad news is that the assignments that we are running slow to a crawl as assorted decision makers within clients pack their bags and head off to holiday villas scattered around the world.

Many of my colleagues across Europe think that we’ve lost the plot by remaining ‘open for business’ in August whilst they leave one secretary to man the ‘phones. Which of us is right is one of those age old questions that could be debated ad infinitum.

Suffice to say I’ll still be beavering away over the next few weeks tidying my desk and preparing for the September onslaught of new business. If you’re lonely and want to discuss one of those crucial recruitment issues that pop up at the most inconvenient of times, then rest assured that one of us will be here to talk to you.

Enjoy the summer and I’m off for an ice cream!

Locations, Location, Location - AKA does life exist outside of a Capital City?

In my previous blog we were discussing the issues around candidates relocating and over the last ten days it has come to our attention that there are wider issues around where businesses are based and the general perception of those locations.

As a southerner living in Birmingham, England’s official second city no matter what Manchester might claim, I thought that hosting the major global events such as the G8 Summit and Eurovision had placed the City on the world map. This just goes to show how wrong I can be.

My ire was raised by the discovery that there are currently three searches for top Global and European roles, which are to be Birmingham based, being conducted by two London and a German based search firm. This surprised me as Birmingham has offices for most of the UK’s top search firms (including InterSearch) who by rights would probably expect to be asked to pitch for these assignments. Yet, the decision was made to choose London based firms. Do those recruiting companies believe that whilst they can base their businesses in Birmingham, it is bereft of the expertise to recruit its Executives? Or is approaching a firm in a country’s capital the default option?

This led me to wonder; do the other major European countries have this same default option or is it a peculiarly British thing?

Your thoughts and comments on the matter would be welcomed.

Relocation, Relocation, Relocation

These days it seems hard to escape Phil & (The Right Hon) Kirstie on their numerous, and it appears never ending, TV programmes about moving house locally or across the country. One of their oft repeated mantras is that the couples need to talk to each other about what they are expecting from their move, as opposing views regularly lead to major stress levels for the couples and the whole move collapsing.

This has (unexpectedly) hit home twice recently as one assignment collapsed after a candidate accepted a role then discovered his other half wouldn’t move and another was nipped in the bud when the candidate withdrew early in the interview process for many of the same reasons.

Over the many years that I’ve been doing this job it’s an issue that has cropped up endlessly and when I’ve been recruiting international roles it is one of the first questions that I ask candidates. The conversation goes something like this: ‘Have you discussed relocating with your wife/husband/partner?’ ‘Yes, I have and we’re agreed it’s best for my career.’ ‘That’s great news, but have you really discussed relocating. The impact upon your children’s education? Setting up home in a new region? The change in culture and languages?’ My role is not to stop candidates progressing through the interview process but simply to ensure that they have addressed “in detail” all of the issues not simply touched on relocation in a general conversation.

The fact is that relocating in the UK or globally is a big decision and really does need to be thrashed out before starting the job application process. Fortunately we have been able to resolve both assignments successfully before the situation became unmanageable.

If you would like to discuss with one of the Directors any issues about recruiting and relocating employees then please don’t hesitate in contacting us at www.intersearchuk.com