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Dan

07/07/2010

Feeling a little guily about not writing anything for a while, so in case you're wondering we're currently looking for:

A CCO for a major beverage company (one year Israel, location flexible after that)
A Process Plant Manager for a copper business in Kazakhstan (start in Brisbane, move to Almaty)
A Mine Manager as above
A Global Head of Marketing for a BPO organisation based from the UK
Various sales people in the banking technology space
Various sales people in the BI / Data Warehousing sphere
A Production Director in the Slough area
A Product Manager in the clinical information technology space
A Category Insight Manager in the FMCG space based in the North West of England

dan

27/04/2009

Recruiters won’t bother to look me up on facebook…. Oh, hang on. They don't even need to look any more.

You can't beat a good social networking story. Something with a bit of human interest for a readership that needs distracting from the ‘real’ ills of the world. And what better story than facebook? Whether it’s about who owns the rights to the holiday snaps you’ve uploaded or how much personal information advertisers can get their hands on to target you with pinpoint accuracy. Millions of us are on it every day and it quite deservedly is regarded as a game changing site. And it's easy to take a laissez faire attitude to pictures we allow to go up. Or the emotional status updates. Very big mistake.

The media’s missed a trick. And that trick is called Xobni. Xobni (as in inbox backwards) is an add on for Microsoft Outlook. It’s been around for some time now and provides real time intelligence to the user about the person they’ve received the message from and a breakdown of all the interactions they’ve had. It’s truly one of the greatest pieces of free software I’ve ever used.

But the most frightening thing about Xobni is that as soon as a user receives an email from the same address that a person uses on facebook (and LinkedIn for that matter), images associated with the person sending the message as well as their status updates can appear on the users screen.

Think about it. This isn’t saying that a curious recruiter is going to give up an hour of their time trudging through facebook to do some heavy digging once you’re on the shortlist to see if you spend weekends indulging in wildly inappropriate activities. No, your profile picture and a randomly selected collection of images from your photo albums could start appearing in the corner of their Outlook screen within seconds of your email landing in their inbox.

Alongside the CV you've lovingly crafted and mailed over they could see a side you didn't intend to share. . The one of you gurning on a stag weekend… the one of you dancing on the table at the wedding reception - I don’t think anyone would intentionally share this with someone that cold called them ten minutes previously. But many unwittingly now do. And as a recruiter I really don't want to know how much you hate your job that day. But I've been unwittingly told several times already without even having to switch screens when the email arrives just by virtue of status updates landing on my desktop.

Xobni doesn’t care what it shows the person receiving your email but you probably should. Time to update your facebook privacy settings maybe?

EDIT clarification received on Twitter very quickly from @xobni "@Accite Xobni doesn't make anything new public, we just streamline it. If only friends can see it on FB only friends will see it in Xobni."..Which returns me to my previous point - time to update your privacy settings.

dan

15/04/2009

Thank you to all the new connections that have joined us on LinkedIn or are following my movements on Twitter. All this talk of recession has become rather dull, so at Accite we've come to a new conclusion, and it's this: It's not a recession, it's a new market. The aim of Accite is to be recognised as being synonymous with providing research, resourcing and researcher training support to the executive recruitment market. The company that has a defined pledge to clients and candidates alike. That provides structured research but always whilst looking for value. That stays abreast of new technology and maximises its efficient use. That actively pursues customer feedback, both positive and negative. We want to speak to as many consultants as possible. Not because we expect work from them tomorrow, but because when hiring freezes start to thaw we want to be the company that makes sure they're making placements.

dan

27/03/2009

Cognitive dissonance in action - against every instinct I really liked this event!

Raising The Bar – 26th March 2009, Harrogate

I’m going to start this review with a disclaimer. I’m a sceptic. I despise The Apprentice and everything it stands for. I have a degree in Behaviour in Organisations and spent three years being trained by some of the most eminent academics in the field to thoroughly dislike management gurus. I should also mention that I look at people on trains reading misery life stories and wonder why they couldn’t be reading something more respectable. Hard core adult material springs to mind.

And I think this disclaimer is important because I spent yesterday at an event that offered an ‘Invitation to improve your Company’s Performance’. An event that was organised by two former Apprentice contestants in which a firebrand Glaswegian motivational speaker was the headline act and a true life story author got the biggest cheer of the day. And I loved it.

Raising the Bar is a new series of events that’s been created by Kristina Grimes and Jenny Celerier. Held at the ever wonderful Harrogate conference centre, action was split between four key areas. In the main auditorium were speeches and presentations from the main contributors of the day, their focus being towards the more general areas of motivation, inspiration, sales, marketing and customer service. In the adjoining conference room were more focussed sessions from contributors in areas including email marketing, recruitment and pricing.

As an adjunct to this, the organisers had also cannily squeezed in some high calibre, relevant exhibitors and ample opportunities for networking either formally via speed networking and round table networking or informally over a generous cold lunch.

I would try and individually review and detail the content of each speaker, but that would end up devouring the whole newsletter, so you’ll just have to trust me on this one. Jack Black, (creator and evangelist of the mindstore methodology) is a fabulous orator with a simple but effective message. Did I agree with everything he said? No. Did he give me the motivation and inspiration to come up with new ideas during his talk that’ll hopefully help me make more money? Yes. Time well spent then.

I was going to describe Gaving Ingham’s one hour seminar on ‘The Importance of Selling for Success in the Current Climate’ as lively and engaging until I decided that sounded rather dull and patronising, so instead I’ll say it as is – it gave me just the kick in the backside I needed to get selling again. There’s a quote for a PR team if ever I wrote one.

Richard McCann’s presentation on overcoming adversity was utterly inspirational and drew a well deserved standing ovation. He had the perfect mix of content and delivery and there was barely a dry eye left in the house by the time he’d finished.

Moving in to the afternoon, the hour spent listening to Tink Taylor from Dot Mailer about email marketing was just the practical information needed to get future campaigns going, whilst Gavin Ingham and Jack Blacks later presentations on cold calling and visualisation were again time well spent. I should also mention the Machiavellian masterful self promotion that was Carl Hopkins talking about ‘Marketing Yourself from Mediocre to Millionaire’. I spent the presentation not knowing whether to love or loathe the guy – I feel he’d take that as a complement.

In the current climate there’s a lot of misery in the recruitment industry and sometimes we need a big fat shot in of enthusiasm, ideas and inspiration. Raising the Bar gave me that and more. Kristina and Jenny intend to repeat the event at venues in the South East and the Midlands. If this happens then I can’t recommend attendance highly enough. It’s very sensibly priced and offers real value for money. Sir Allan would approve.

dan

04/11/2008

An article that went in the recent Search Consult magazine of mine. I prefer this version - the photo they used of me really wasn't good...

Now that the media are reporting on what many of us in the research world have been aware of for months, it’s time for the wider search market to acknowledge that a lot of economic indicators are not great. In short, the executive search and recruitment market is going to become a lot tougher to make money in.

Many consultants like to claim that they only ever handle high level strategic appointments and that to an extent these are recession proof. In reality very few consultants reading this will be in such a fortunate position. ‘Bread and butter’ assignments resulting from growth and diversification are familiar to all of us, even if we do prefer handling the more interesting (and let’s be frank, easier to research) roles that sit higher up the organisational tree. Most search consultants expect to see less hiring taking place and more people chasing their clients. Many of those chasing your clients will be instantly offering lower rates, and others quite possibly offering better service.

I experienced the downturn in technology search at the start of the millennium. There are parallels that were apparent from that time and lessons that can be learned now. My key point is this; when the market is buoyant, clients are expanding rapidly and vacancies are easy to come by. It is very easy to forget that you are an executive search consultant and focus instead on making as many placements as possible. In times of plenty, many senior recruiters transition from being head-hunters to bounty hunters.

In this article I will suggest from a researcher’s perspective (albeit a more experienced one than most) how individuals and firms should be looking at their people and processes to weather the storm and come out stronger than ever.

The first thing I would suggest is that most search firms do not maximise the value they could and should be extracting from their research, either internally or externally. The stated outcome of any research project is to find the best candidate for your client, but it can and should be more than that. It should be a process that leads not just to a placement fee, but which adds value to your activities at every step of the way.

The most obvious thing to do is present your client with a structured assignment that justifies a retained fee. This may seem an obvious thing to say, but during fast paced times when your clients were expanding at break neck speed they may not have been too concerned about process so long as you found the right person. So think about how your research is presented. Are your researchers aggressively targeting every firm on the target list, or are they shying away from those that are too difficult or complex to effectively identify in? Are you (and your client) able to cross reference the target list and the identification work? If the answer at all times isn’t a resounding yes, then there are clearly issues in your research that need to be addressed.

When growth slows you need to be able to stand out. To differentiate what you do from those (and I’ve seen a few) whose definition of executive recruitment does not extend far beyond spraying details of candidates from job board across to your clients. As a search consultant, you are providing a premium service based around a combination of industry expertise and structured, time consuming research. Don’t make the mistake of keeping this research hidden or of allowing searches to go fallow. Just because the client doesn’t seem to be treating the search as a priority, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t still be providing them (even if only by email) with regular report updates.

Salary surveys are a further way in which you should be extracting value from your research. Even when candidates reject an opportunity, if the approach made to them is professional and courteous, the chances of them providing the researcher with current salary information are generally good. By adding a couple more minutes to the conversation your researchers could be adding a lot more value to both the service you provide and to the knowledge you have of your client’s market. And on the subject of researcher / candidate conversations, are you also missing out on business development opportunities? There is an old mantra in the search world that ‘today’s candidate is tomorrow’s client’. What are you doing with your research team to market your business to potential clients approached as candidates for other roles?

Another question – what can you tell your client about how they are perceived as an employer in their industry? Qualitative information from potential candidates concerning their perception of your client as an employer is something that the run of the mill recruiters out there will not be offering. It costs you nothing to get it as part of your research so why not provide it (assuming that you are not keeping the Client’s name anonymous)?

Going out of your way to provide value that other recruiters are not offering is one more way that you can delight your client and justify your place as a trusted recruitment advisor. This, I would suggest, is preferable to being perceived as an expensive resourcer to call on when all other cheaper recruitment channels have dried up. It has always struck me as a shame that the term ‘recruitment consultant’ seems to have such negative connotations. I have never seen anything wrong with being an expert recruiter, a recruitment consultant if you like. I am able to offer consultative advice to my customers on the subject of recruitment. In an industry that has a reputation for utilising more than it’s fair share of smoke and mirrors, honesty, integrity and value will go a long way to maintaining your business relationships during difficult periods.

Of course, maximising research value alone is not going to be the only way your organisation will be able to weather the storm. For all of us, quiet times are an opportunity for reflection, and it is these times that you will be thinking about where your organisation could be more efficient and more effective. People and processes are the two key areas that you will doubtless be on your list.

On the process side, if you already have dedicated applications in place to manage your search activities, but have been too busy to use them effectively, then now is the time to do something about it. It is also the time when you should be auditing data and updating candidate information that has been left to go fallow as your business resources have been more delivery focussed. You should be making sure that everyone in your organisation knows how to use the technology that is in place effectively through both internal and external training.

On the people front, it’s time to start asking harsh questions about how your research team operates. Is the eager but unskilled graduate that you took on as an executive researcher value for money now that you need more than basic database resourcing? Is their phobia of the telephone an endearing quirk or a drain on your company bank account? Do your people have the telephone skills necessary to both identify and approach candidates in challenging times? Are they capable of selling an opportunity to candidates for whom staying put appears to be the safest career option in an uncertain economic climate? If you are struggling to answer these questions then there’s an issue to be addressed, either through training, restructuring or the use of specialist third parties for all or part of assignments.

I make no apologies for pointing out during the course of this article what to most of you is gratuitously obvious. Also, I appreciate that the expansion of your client base is going to be a pillar of your growth strategies. But as owners of search organisations and successful consultants you’ll know more about this than me. I’m a recruitment research consultant, and proud to be so.

dan

07/04/2008

A huge thank you to Louise at UKRecruiter for putting me in her first list of Top Ten LinkedIn contacts. It's great. Like getting an award at an industry ceremony without first having to pay for a table or sponsor a trophy.

dan

04/02/2008

Episode 7

Hopefully by now my series of articles on the use of the Seven Deadly Sins has given our readers something to think about before they pick up the phone. None are meant as the be all and end all of candidate acquisition. The objective with these articles has always been about encouraging you to think before picking up the phone. It’s about tailoring your approach to the specific candidate. It’s about not being viewed as just another recruitment consultant launching out at pre-prepared spiel. It’s about empathising with the candidate and tailoring your approach to what you believe will motivate them to consider a move.

With this in mind it’s now time to draw the series to a close by considering our final sin for motivation. It’s a nice easy one this. It’s Pride.

Pride is essentially the human desire to be regarded as more important or attractive than those around us, either through right or achievement. In other words, we want to be recognised as being something special. Phil Hesketh (web ref. www.heskethtalking.com) is a sales guru with whom I had the chance to learn at an early age (admittedly as a teenager helping him renovate his new home!). He states that one of the most powerful things you can say to an individual is this – ‘do you know what I like about you?’ Think about it. You are letting someone know that they have something special, something they can feel proud of. Just the use of a simple phrase - ‘what I like about you is…’ will be absolutely invaluable in getting that borderline candidate interested. If you remember nothing from the last seven articles then do remember this.

dan

17/01/2008

Episode 5 – Wrath. An apocryphal tale

Once upon a time there was a farmer. She worked hard for her landowner and the land she farmed was bountiful. Sadly one day that land was destroyed by a flood and her old landowner perished. She travelled to the next valley, where the local landowner offered her work farming a patch of land at the far side of his boundary. He would pay her a small wage and she would get a share of anything that was sold from the land she farmed.

Now this land was nowhere near as fertile as the land that she previously worked, but she did her best with what she had. The work was hard, the land was rocky and the drainage poor. It was a miracle that anything grew at all, and that it did was testament to her hard work.

Unfortunately, her new landowner didn’t see this. All he was interested in was what she produced, and didn’t care that the land was barely worth farming in its current state. The farmer had done the best she could on her own, but what she really needed was someone else to help her improve the land. And the landowner could have pitched in and helped. But instead he stood looking over her shoulder, criticising the slightest thing and picking out petty faults. The Farmer soon grew resentful of the landowner, watching him grow fatter on what small profits she’d been able to make whilst belittling her work and giving nothing of himself to help her be more productive.

The farmer’s resentment soon turned to anger, and anger soon became wrath. Thankfully, help was at hand when the new owner of her old valley (who saw how good she was and how badly she was being treated) saw his chance to come and get her working for him. He told her that the land was nearly drained, and that if they worked together they could make that land more productive than ever. He didn’t offer her any more money, just the conditions to do better. He also saw the resentment she felt towards her old boss, so to seal the deal he offered her a nice chunk of fertile land easily visible to her old landowner. She didn’t need asking twice.

Back on fertile ground and toiling hard to reach her full potential, the farmer’s fields flourished. With the money she made she built a big house high on the mountain that overlooked her old employer, just to make sure he didn’t forget the opportunity he’d missed when she was working for him.

I don’t really think I need to explain to anyone what I’m getting at here, do I? Especially not to anyone hiring sales people or working in recruitment to recruitment. There are probably a few managers who could learn from this tale too.

dan

09/01/2008

It's the New Year so here's a little extra catch-up - this article that should be appearing in the UKRecruiter mail out on the 16th January

Episode 4 – Sloth

This week’s look at how we can use the Sinful Seven to get candidates on board brings in the motivator that is often overlooked, both by recruiters and line managers alike, namely Sloth. Or, as we like to call it these days, ‘work life balance’.

There must be few people that don’t sometimes feel even a little bit resentful of time that is wasted unnecessarily on aspects of their jobs that don’t really require several hours of travel. Why expect a recruitment professional to spend two hours each day commuting to an office when even one day a week working from home would make them feel a whole lot more positive towards their employer? Why shouldn’t a sales director rather be working closer to home? Most people would rather spend more time being productive (or just staying in bed half an hour longer) and less time travelling.

So don’t overlook maximising their work life balance when speaking to candidates. Remind that potential country manager of a start-up operation that they’re going to be the one that (within reason) could be choosing the location of the new office. It’s amazing how candidates ears will prick up then they start thinking how they could be spending less time stuck on a motorway each day.

When picking up a brief, discuss with your client what sorts of home working opportunities are going to be available for new starters to their business. Companies that don’t expect needless time to be spent in the office are always much more attractive than those that do.

Again, if you’ve got more than scant knowledge about your candidate then use it. If you know that they currently have a long commute then play up the advantages of a more local position. If there is going to be a whole lot of travel involved then talk about proximity to their local airport and the benefits gained from working from home in between times.

The message I’m trying to get across every week is this. Thinking just that little bit harder about what’s going to motivate a potential candidate is a no lose technique. Even if they’re not eventually interested they’ll be impressed by the quality of your pitch and more inclined to help you find the right person. And when you put the phone down you’ll feel better about a call well made.

dan

08/01/2008

The latest installment of my Seven Deadly Sins series for UK Recruiter. Thanks to everyone that's given me positive feedback from this. And whilst I remember, a very Happy New Year to you all.

This week’s deadly sin snippet that we can use to get our candidate is in some ways the easiest of all to write about, and in other ways the hardest - Greed.

Money is always going to be a major consideration when it comes to moving candidates, but it’s rarely going to be everything. Any experienced search consultant will tell you that when the economy is strong greed is a huge motivator. The chance to move to higher rewards for greater risk is one that will likely receive a positive response so long as the candidate has faith in the company’s offerings. Since probably 2002 emphasising the money on offer has played a large part in gaining interest from potential candidates. Then we get to stock opportunities. Board level searches that I have carried out in the past have taught me that stock and greed are indeed common bedfellows. But especially where there’s a past history of M and A activity there’s also a fair amount of wrath to contend with, particularly if the candidate’s felt cheated in the past. I’ll talk about that one another time.

Right now though, there are a lot of signs that confidence in the economy is not what it has been, and as a result we should be careful how we sell the greed angle when looking to acquire our shortlist.

During challenging times, the emphasis should be placed more towards the immediate tangible benefits the candidate will be getting. How good is the basic salary? How reliable are bonus schemes? What sort of guarantee of future earnings is on offer? What sort of detail can you give about the rest of the benefits package? Instead of emphasising the earning potential, talk about the realistic tangible rewards on offer right now. Of course it doesn’t hurt to paint a dream of big earnings as well, but make sure it’s tempered by reality.

Finally, how well established is the client’s organisation and its earnings consistency? During a storm there’s nothing more appealing than a big ship. Even during uncertain times greed is still going to be a big motivator, just think carefully about how you sell it.

dan

05/12/2007

Artticles currently running in UKRecruiter - here's a preview of week 2...

The seven deadly sins part 2 – Gluttony

As discussed last week, thinking just that little bit smarter about what will motivate a candidate to move can reap great dividends when it comes to presenting your shortlist. Last week we looked at lust. Now it’s time to look at gluttony, the next deadly sin that could just be the trigger to ignite a candidate’s interest.

Gluttony is all about over indulgence to the point of waste. In our culture it’s something we do a lot. And lots of us enjoy it. Our question is how will gluttony attract candidates? For sales people, there’s the annual quota club trip. If you know about it, tell them about it. Many people wouldn’t consider a long weekend in Dubai as a holiday, but few would turn their noses up at it if the company’s paying for them to go party. And lots of companies do more to appeal to candidates – Christmas parties, summer parties, staff nights out, after work drinks… the list goes on. Lots of companies do these things, but plenty of them don’t. And telling your candidate about it also lets them know that this is a company that thinks about its staff and doesn’t just regard them as wealth creators. So if you think appealing to the candidate’s inner glutton is going to make your opportunity more attractive to them then get on and do it!

dan

31/10/2007

Does anyone else find gyms an amazing place to think about work? I've been thinking about the roles we should pay attention to in orer to be truly great at sourcing candidates through research. So far I've come up with pscychologist, anthropologist, project manager, account manager, actor, empath, counsellor, writer, investigator and most importantly listener.

Keep an eye open for a series of articles I'm going to be writing for UKRecruiter.co.uk over the next few months as I explore my thoughts in greater depth

dan

05/10/2007

I recently attended a conference that was somewhat derisory towards telemarketers. This made me feel a little upset. Not because I enjoy poor quality sales staff calling me at inconvenient times and putting my back up by addressing me by my full name, but rather because we are all telemarketers.

Maybe I should explain.

Like most people in search, most of my interactions take place on the phone. I’ve always felt there’s a certain kharma attached to phone calls. If I can leave the person at the other end of the phone feeling good about themselves, then even if it was an immediately wasted call it wasn’t a wasted long term interaction. And this applies as much to a conversation with a receptionist as it does to the chief executive.

By and large, the best (and ineed most senior) candidates I have ever dealt with have been incredibly friendly on the phone, from the first phone call onwards. This despite their initial suspicion being that I was yet another recruiter trying to sell my services. These are the people who have also achieved the highest level of personal success from being polite to me. Conversely, there are people in industry that have probably done their long term career prospects no good at all by being objectionable or superior during our first conversations.

This cuts both ways though. An administrator or PA that answers the phone does not have to give you what you want just because you ask for it. You’ve got to give them something in return. As the saying goes, good manners cost nothing. I’d add to that that they create value, and that value is the good will you get from the person on the other end of the line who may just help you out. There is nothing more painful in our industry than watching a junior researcher or consultant attempting to assume an air of superiority over the phone to intimidate an administrator in to handing over information. Why bother? You won’t get what you want, you’ll irritate the person on the other end of the phone and everyone in your office will regard you as naive and objectionable.

Of course, this isn’t just restricted to sales and canvassing situations. In every one of our phone interactions we should be upbeat and positive. Let’s all be telemarketers - It’s good for everyone.

dan

18/09/2007

It's been a busy old summer for us. We've moved servers so news articles that appeared since June seem to have vanished. For those of you who want to know what sort of things we've been up to here's some of the highlights:

We found a VP for a confectionary business in New Jersey. No he wasn't called Willy Wonka but yes we loved working on that search - it's amazing what you can learn going in to new markets.

We've also been working closely with a division of DHL, brining on board a new manager for one of their depots as well as building up an external talent pipeline of candidates who are warm to the long term possibility of joining the Company.

We've also been busy finding a UK Marketing Head for a US software outfit, finding numerous high ranking sales people in the UK and European software market, searching for a sales director for a capital equipment firm in the US, doing numerous roles for people in architecture and design, plucking out railway people and lots of other positions.

Outside of work, Dan completed the 100 mile 'Ride of the Roses' from Lancaster to York - thanks to all our generous clients for sponsorship, and Jo acquired Corky the Puppy, a cross between a Yorkshire Terrior and a Lhasa Apso (affectionately referred to as the Yorkshire Asbo).

Finally, if anyone reading this is going to be in Harrogate between the 18th and the 20th of September for the CIPD annual conference then do please get in touch. We can grab a coffee and tell you a bit more about how we work. Or else we can tell you where all the best bars in Harrogate are. We don't mind. If not, you'll be able to catch Dan at the 2nd Executive Search Practitioner Conference on the 4th October where he's going to be reviewing the event for ukrecruiter.co.uk

dan

29/05/2007

Just kicked off a new project in the logistics world with a company that are trying to do things just that little bit differently. It's called positive external talent management and it's rather good in many circumstances. Give us a call and we can tell you all about it.

dan

03/05/2007

Here's what we're looking for this week:

an account director that knows the upstream gas market (60k plus), a business development director for a big electronics company (100k plus), a global product director for a document software company (100k plus), senior engineers and project managers in the rail industry (40k plus), someone to manage the establishment of an insurance software business in the UK (150k OTE), someone to establish a technology consultancy for a big services business out in Dubai (90k plus), a sales manager in the construction software market (65k plus), a part time chairman in the hardware space (200k pro rata).

Phew.