My kid is home from college for spring break. It’s been an awesome week - when she’s not sleeping she’s actually hanging out with me. Inevitably the conversation turns to work stuff – recruiting for me, school work for her, and what the future holds now that’s she’s a grown up (sort of). I asked her what she thought of Donglegate. Ok, maybe not the best intro, she looked both confused and disturbed until I explained. For those that missed it, two guys at a tech conference made a bad joke and…

Lessons from the Wolf Pack is an ongoing series of recruitment advice articles taken from, or inspired by, situations and events observed during our phone coaching sessions with recruitment consultants making real, live calls to win business and find candidates. This is advice directly from the…

This week I want to talk about those candidates who stalk us. You know the candidate I mean. They are the one you ask the lady at the front desk to send directly to voice mail. I use the word stalk in fun really. Mine has never threatened me. We have a love/hate relationship. Let me explain:

We had a thing once. By "thing" I mean I had a really hard to fill job order this guy was…

If you are like me, this year’s March Madness has led to a lot of busted brackets and little hope of winning any of my bracket pools.  But with all the upsets, have come some great teams and stories especially among the Cinderellas.  With one of the best stories being Florida Gulf Coast.

From the coach and his supermodel wife to the players that barely played before the new regime to the university that was often confused with a Junior college, this team has been media gold and one of…

After discovering that the current conditions of the SAP, Oracle and IT recruitment markets are very promising, I felt it was necessary to talk about how you can go about finding the increasing number of opportunities. One way, is through a recruitment consultant. But what is it that makes a good recruiter? And why would you choose to be represented by one?

There has long been…

2013 is certainly the Year of the Employer Brand.  41% of companies have developed an employer brand strategy, but how do you measure the effectiveness of your employment branding investments?…

"Realize that your environment might not be the best fit for every candidate; let them make that decision by providing the information. You don’t create your employment brand, your candidates and employees do."

Click here to read more

On "If you want to fix shit" [as in our industry]

Let’s require anyone that intersects with HR to pay a toll…that of becoming a SHRM member and supporting our accreditation process and outcomes. Apply this to everyone…vendors trying to sell you software to analysts that sell reports to bloggers that write about workplace stuff. Filter them. Are you a SHRM member? No, then fuck you. Yes, how are you supportive of HRCI? Oh, you’re not… then fuck you. It really…

Some days, don't you wish you could just say it out loud?  When the company business is hopping, and things get hyper busy, time becomes a rare commodity. Time is golden. One day, I had one of those candidates that was extremely persistant (I have caller ID, they really did call 4-5 times in one day), and it took alot of energy not to respond in a fashion that would have probably cause trouble with my boss.  Let me…

Staffing firms are being brought into the ongoing debate about immigration reform.

U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, D-Iowa, is introducing legislation that would prohibit staffing firms from bringing in H-1B visa holders, according to Staffing Industry Analysts.  Specifically, it…

Yorkshire based online recruiter Blue Octopus have done it again! They have managed to win the ‘The Creative Offline Marketing Award 2013’ by a recruitment supplier.

The awards ceremony was held at the contemporary Grange St. Paul’s Hotel in London’s West End on 21st March. It began at 7.00pm with a Champagne reception and the representatives of Blue Octopus…

One half of existing employees will consider looking for a new job if the economy improves according to theFourth Quarter 2012 Glassdoor Employment Confidence Survey. This may prompt employers to take a look at their retention efforts. Employees don’t search for new job opportunities merely when they are unhappy. Many people are constantly evaluating their options in…

With any job, it's important to know where you stand and then set goals for yourself, and often times this is a numbers game. As the hiring manager, your goals need to be something tangible and quantitative. It's not enough to show the metrics of your busywork (humber of job ads posted, hours logged or resumes read).

To prove your recruiting and hiring methods work, you…

People trust people. It’s a fact. You can spend millions on advertising trying to persuade people to trust and choose your brand over others, but ultimately your success comes down to people. People and what they say about you. People and what they think about you.

So who are the best people to speak about your brand? Your employees of course!

Why?

They are at the heart of your business.

They are your voice from within.

And if you treat them right,…

According to research undertaken by the Corporate Leadership Council an effective EVP can:

• Increase how committed new hires are by 29%…

So you're sick of earning money for someone else? Good for you. But what's your next step to getting your business off the ground?

The fact is - and it's a harsh one indeed – 4 out of 5 recruitment businesses don’t last beyond 2 years. We all know the recruitment industry is one of the toughest sectors to work in, selling a product that can say no and only being as good as your last month. But with no barrier to entry to set up a recruitment company it’s even more challenging trying…

So in the course of any one day I get a stack of emails from people that seemingly have no idea how/why to apply for a role in the creative industry.

Normally it’s cool, I’m polite and reply with a, “thanks but no thanks…” sort of thing, trying to offer a piece of advice where and when I can. But occasionally, towards the end of a long day, I don’t. And I write something like this:

“Dear *****…