Recruitment Leaders Podcast with Barclay Jones

Read the full blog on our website: https://bit.ly/3NJsWvT Recruiters can always improve their performance, whether it be marginal gains or drastically improving failing pipelines. Right now is the time to dig deep and ask: Where can I improve? And What can I improve? Take a speedy 30mins and listen / watch to my latest Recruitment Leaders' Podcast. Take a few notes and grab a few takeaways for your recruitment business and your recruitment desk.

Read the full blog on our website: http://bit.ly/3U1IdcB ​Recruiters are drowning in data and this makes them unproductive. It's paralysing. Whether you're a recruitment leader wanting a sustainable business with higher-performing recruiters, or a recruiter that wants to run a successful recruitment desk, this podcast is a great listen (or watch). Too Much Recruitment Data, Not Enough Performance? We know the recruitment data stats: - 72% of the candidates placed are on your Bullhorn CRM before you spend time and money sourcing them externally. - The best candidates are off the market in 10 days - If a recruiter has 10 jobs, they'll likely only place 2 These recruitment stats make recruitment a process of luck and sometimes hope! I'm joined on my Recruitment Leaders' Podcast by the mighty Andy Hill from Bullhorn Analytics. We talked about weaponising recruitment data. We looked at how recruiters can use data to be more productive, improve recruiter performance, and make some money. I asked Andy some questions: 1. The role of the recruiter is evolving, and data is at the centre. How does Andy feel about how recruiters should evolve to capitalise on your Bullhorn data? 2. What skills does Andy feel recruiters need to be effective? 3. What do recruitment leaders need to stop doing? 4. What is a recruiter's “real” job? 5. Andy talks about tridents and bows and arrows (and data) –what's that got to do with recruitment? 6. What key takeaways does Andy have for recruiters and recruitment leaders regarding how they can use data to run their desks and businesses? 7. Recruitment leaders and recruiters – buckle up! Listen/watch, and whether you have an analytics tool or not, get at least one takeaway to help you improve performance. Thanks, Andy, for being such a great guest on my Recruitment Leaders' Podcast, even though I'm disappointed you didn't show up in your “Men in Tights” outfit! Listen and subscribe to the rest of Barclay Jones' Recruitment Leaders' Podcast Series on SoundCloud or find us on iTunes! ​…Talking of Improving Recruiter Performance and Data... We have some great analytics training on our recruitment training platform, Recruitment HIIT. Recruitment HIIT helps onboard new recruiters, and refresh experienced recruiters so they can improve their performance. Our Bullhorn Analytics recruiter training helps busy recruiters focus their precious time on the recruitment tasks they need to complete to be high performers. We'd love you to try Recruitment HIIT for free. TRY RECRUITMENT HIIT FOR FREE https://bit.ly/hiitcourse

We know through our research and working with recruiters for 20+ years that too much time is spent sourcing. Almost a 3rd of the average recruiter's time is spent sourcing, and profits are often unnecessarily spent on salaries and systems – but they are not necessarily being 3rd more competitive. This recruitment podcast will give you some key takeaways to help improve focus, function, and ROI from sourcing. Effective Sourcing Strategies for Busy Recruiters This Sourcing Strategies podcast is a “must-listen” for: Recruiters who want to spend less time sourcing so that they get as much phone, face, and screening / selling time as possible. Recruitment Leaders who want to make their recruitment businesses more competitive and profitable. Marketing / Operations teams who want to help their recruiters focus their time and attention on candidate and client management, and thus improve sales. Oh! And if you need to cut spend and improve speed. In this episode of the Recruitment Leaders' Podcast, I'm joined by Alex from Broadbean, who knows all about sourcing and recruitment technology. Alex is here to help us work our way through this big topic, and help us focus on how to ensure sourcing is not time or budget consuming, and how to ensure sourcing delivers results! Alex from Broadbean and I talked about: What do native (and ancient) Greeks know about Sourcing? How can you assess the true ROI of advertising channels? What are Programmatic VS subscription advertising strategies? Sourcing is just one part of the recruitment lifecycle, so how do you balance your sourcing strategies and time? How do you ensure that you're not a hostage to one application source? In the current market, speed often means the focus is on active candidates. But often active candidates are not enough to sustain your pipeline. What do recruiters really need to do to activate the passive candidate market? How do you source candidates and secure future value? How can you reduce dependency on LinkedIn? Recruitment technology: integration is key how do you develop a marketplace approach so to future-proof your recruitment business This is a 30-minute Recruitment Leaders' Podcast packed with sourcing ideas and tips for recruiters, their leaders, and their marketing ops support. Listen, and let me know which tips you will take away. Read more about how we work with recruitment leaders to generate ROI from your people, data, systems with our recruitment training courses on Recruitment HIIT. Thanks, Alex, for being such a great guest on my Recruitment Leaders' Podcast. Listen and subscribe to the rest of our  Recruitment Leader Podcast Series  on  SoundCloud or find us on  iTunes! How to Make Your Recruiter Your Coolest Tool Our high intensity interval training - Recruitment HIIT - helps recruiters and resourcers source, convert quicker and develop healthy pipelines. We aim to save every recruiter and resourcer at least 1 hour per day (6 working weeks a year). Hence, more billing time and more fees! We'd love you to try Recruitment HIIT for free.

Recruitment leaders! You want to do more with less. You need less costs, more profit, less data, more placements, less systems, more process. You need to ensure your recruiters, systems, and processes are super effective and drive a sustainable recruitment business. This podcast has some game changing insights for rec leaders who want to scale. Top Recruitment Insights for Recruitment Leaders​ Who Want to Grow​ As a recruitment leader, you want to know how to get more out of your existing staff and reduce the need to hire. The stats show that 1/3 of recruiters quit due to lack of training and it costs a whopping £$€14,000 to replace just one recruiter! In this episode of the Recruitment Leaders' Podcast, I spoke with Alex Evans from Talint. He is the Managing Director at Talint Partners. Alex is passionate about the recruitment industry and how recruitment leaders can grow their businesses. We looked at the constant disruption that recruitment leaders and their recruiters have had in recent years.  Why we feel that this will be a continuous disruption. And, more importantly, what we feel needs to happen to build resilient and effective recruitment businesses, able to tackle this disruption and the disruptions that will affect recruitment in the future. We talked about: 1. Aliens 2. Assertion of control by the individual and how this affects recruitment businesses. 3. Candidate shortage??? Is there one?  And if there is or is not, what do we do about it? 4. Digital transformation in Recruitment – what does it really mean and how can it actually help the 3cs – candidates, clients, colleagues? As well as cash flow. 5. How do recruitment leaders get more from their people, data, and systems? 6. Alex shared some ideas and data from their insight report about that recruiters' clients actually want – and it's not hard for the average recruitment business to deliver.  We talked a lot about people and how they drive (or drain) a recruitment business: 1. Why did 1/3 of recruiters leave in 2019? 2. How much does it cost to replace a recruiter if they leave? 3. How do you get more from your people in 2022 and beyond? 4. What do we need to do to be ready for the next disruption in Recruitment?

As a recruitment leader you're likely having to make some drastic decisions for drastic times. For those of us who have been through a recession, we know that this is different. There's more to think about, more government help, more variables, more questions than answers - and there is no rule book for this. This is why I'm delighted that this Recruitment Leaders' Podcast has a guy called Kevin!Kevin Green ran the REC for 10 years, and has perspective on recession, how to run a profitable recruitment agency, and how to be a sane recruitment leader. He has evolved as HR Director at Royal Mail – to the Chief Exec of the REC – to now a Non-Executive / Strategy Director / Public Speaker for recruitment firms and “mere mortal” non-recruitment businesses with his What's Next Consultancy.  He has also written a book called Competitive People Strategy. Coronavirus and Recruitment Leaders Staying Sane As part of my Recruitment Leaders’ podcast, I grabbed some airtime with Kevin and discussed 4 things about the recession, how the Coronavirus is affecting recruitment, and recruitment leaders staying sane.I asked him:What are the differences for recruitment leaders, in the 2008 recession and this 2020 recession?  And how will this affect us in 2021 and beyond?How will the agency recruitment market change as a result of this recession and the Coronavirus?Are there ANY positives about what is happening right now?What specifically do you need to do to manage your business through this time?  And what should you do for yourself?This is indeed a massively painful time for recruiters and their leaders.  Listen you this 30- minute recruitment leaders podcast – give yourself that time to think about where you are, what you want, and how you’ll get it. It's a fascinating listen, with some very useful takeaways and a pep talk for recruitment leaders who need an ear. Listen to Kevin Green on our Recruitment Leaders' Podcast

​Recruitment leaders know more than ever that with the rise of the internet, their recruiters have become addicted to data and systems. You want to monetise your CRM and recruitment data, but it’s so under threat! Every 4 seconds there is a new version of ransomware created… (Software which spies on you and steals things!) These attacks will not be restricted to big corporations or public sector bodies. This podcast is a “must-listen” if you want to protect, not just grow, your recruitment business. Cyber Security: What is the Biggest Risk to a Recruiter? Did you know that 4000 internet ready devices are connected to the internet every hour (!?) – this will include devices from your staff!Ask yourself… How many devices are your recruiters bringing into work every day?95% of attacks come from email! Plus...Ransomware attacks and data security breaches are a common news item in your feeds.  Is your Recruitment business safe, when what you trade in is simply data? In this episode of the Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast, I’m joined by Francis West from Westtek.  He is passionate about creating awareness for recruiters to help them secure their data (and thus businesses). We talked about:What does cyber security actually mean? What risks / bad practices does Francis see in recruitment businesses? And what is the biggest cyber security risk to recruitment? What do you need to do about “unknown threats”. What have onions got to do with cyber security? What cyber security tips does Francis have for recruitment companies? Recruiters are data-junkies and rightly so – here’s another podcast which can help you with recruitment data and monetising your CRM. Read more about how we work with recruitment leaders to generate ROI from recruitment technology strategy and recruitment training. ​Thanks, Francis, for being such great guest on my Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast.

​Recruiters and recruitment leaders tell me all the time that they are suffering from a lack of data. The so-called candidate shortage combined with an overload of crap data on CRM systems means that recruiters often shun the CRM in favour of hunting down more candidates from LinkedIn and job boards… even if that means they’re searching for candidates who are already on the CRM. Vicious circle! So how do you monetise your CRM effectively? Too Much Marketing, Not Enough Sales? 70% of the candidates you source on LinkedIn, and 70% of candidates who apply for jobs are already on your recruitment CRM. How can you and your team of recruiters be more targeted on LinkedIn so that you gain more phone and face time?In this episode of the Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast, I’m joined by Adam Gordon from Candidate.ID.  He has been in recruitment for nearly 20 years, starting as a recruiter, then spotted a problem – “too much data and not enough information”. We talked about: How can you tell when a candidate is actually looking for a job? How can I generate a list of warm calls? Lead scoring (for both candidates and clients) and how this can be automated to help recruiters see the wood for the trees – ie. sales qualified leads! How many different sources of information does a candidate look at before applying for a job? What does marketing need to do to get trust from sales? How can we get recruiters to “pick up the phone” and make more sales calls? And call more candidates? How can we do more with fewer systems? With the vast majority of recruitment businesses having only 1 marketer, how do they create a high performing marketing team of 1?How can you make a marketing function a profit, not a cost centre?What should the ratio of marketer to sales person be? Which “cool marketing tool” does Adam really rate? ​I got the opportunity to use all of my mantras: The 4Cs – candidates, clients colleague sand cash. Too much data and not enough information. Too many systems, not enough process.​​ Thanks, Adam, for being such great guest on my Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast.

Most recruitment leaders I speak to just want their recruiters to pick up the phone. But with so much data, systems, and an apparent lack of process, over 150+ distractions a day, the phone is often the last thing a recruiter is likely to use. Then add to that recruitment marketers supposedly needing to create blogs and websites to attract candidates, and needing recruiters’ insights to drive this content, the role of the 360 recruiter may now be 720! Automating the Candidate Attraction Process Content is a great word if you’re in marketing, but a dirty word if you are a recruiter. It can cause conflict between marketers and their recruiters – marketers need it, recruiters have no time for it. I’m joined by Jason from Herefish. This podcast will give you ideas on how to tackle: client and candidate loyalty, which is at an all time low recruiters who are saturated with systems, but need to sell more how to get the concept of inbound sales easily and fully embedded into recruitment to “make the pain go away” and get the right candidates and clients engaged and “buying” We talked about: What is a recruitment automation tool? There’s a lot of talk about AI How recruiters can combat this nasty stat: Only 24% of sales emails are opened. How can you generate “inbound sales” as a recruiter when you have 1000s of candidates on your database? How can automated recruiting and content enable you to make more phone calls? How can you get candidates to show their faces? With 30% of Google searches being job-related, how can recruiters genuinely cope with this volume of data? Content curation v content creation – what’s best? What’s the difference between a cold and a warm call? How can recruiters generate more warm calls? And once they have generated a warm lead, how quickly should they follow up? Where does the marketer fit into this model? What can recruiters actually say on the first call? We talked about my “dig up stupid” model for recruitment data. It’s crucial that the data that recruiters are collecting is used by marketers to generate warm leads, not simply stored on a recruitment CRM ready for the next GDPR purge. Read more about how we work with recruitment leaders and marketers to generate ROI from recruitment marketing with our recruitment marketing mentoring and training courses. Thanks Jason from Herefish for being such great guest on my Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast.

Recruiters! Is This Why You Suffer from Too Many Jobs, Not Enough Placements? With the average UK Recruiter only placing 2 out of every 10 jobs they have, recruitment leaders confused as to why technology is not driving more profit, and marketers trying to add real value to the recruitment process, it’s clear that recruitment workflow is not as simple as it was in the early 2000s. This episode of my Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast can really help all 3 jobs within a recruitment agency tackle the so-called candidate shortage. Too Many Systems, Not Enough Process If we know anything about recruitment workflow, we know that it has become more complex due to “too many systems, not enough process” and “too much data, not enough information” – and this has led to the worst… Too Many Jobs, Not Enough Placements. Is this the Fix for the Candidate Shortage and Client Loyalty Problem? I feel the myths around the “candidate shortage” – or what I call the “interested candidate shortage” need to be tackled head on! The content of your database whether it be the likes of Bullhorn, Adapt etc..… relies on the content of what comes out of a recruiter’s mouth, goes into their LinkedIn profiles, their job adverts, and what their marketers post online. It could be said that the path of data to your Recruitment CRM is littered with good intentions! (But good intentions never made a placement!) Your Content Fuels your Placements, Recruiters! Content has become a big buzz word in recruitment marketing. The marketing mentoring I deliver focuses on content as the “fuel” for your recruitment marketing engine – and coupled with SEO, this can turbo boost your candidate, client and colleague attraction and conversion, as well as, if done properly, create less of a need for content. The people at Paiger (formerly ContentApp) have joined me on my Recruitment Leaders podcast to talk about content fuelling placements (and hence profit!). Darren and Rohit (ex the mighty Broadbean) have created Paiger to help recruitment business drive growth through effective recruitment workflows driven by content. We talked about: 1. There’s a lot of talk about personal brand – and to be fair it can often be a little too fluffy for the average recruiter (and a risk for their leaders). What do recruiters and their leaders need to think about when it comes to a recruiter’s’ personal brand? 2. What is the one hack every recruiter can adopt to do improve their personal brand in 2019? 3. How can we fix the “candidate loyalty” problem that many recruiters suffer? 4. What practical hacks do we need to really leapfrog our competitors? 5. How can you get your recruiters to engage with your own content? 6. What is the ultimate hack to get your candidates and clients to engage with your content – this driving leads and opps? 7. Let’s say “I’m a recruiter and I have no real idea about my market, how on earth can I find content to share?” 8. What can recruiters do with content in just 5 minutes a day to generate more placements? 9. Why do I feel that recruiters writing blogs is not a good use of time? 10. What has sex got to do with content? 11. Why has it become normal for recruitment and engaging candidates to be difficult and painful? And what do we need to do to fix this issue?

Recruitment Leaders and their marketers who need their marketing to be sales-led: about convertible leads, retained candidates, recruiter attraction, need to listen to this Recruitment Leaders' Podcast. Today the focus of this Recruitment Leaders’ podcast is recruitment marketing driving sales.  This is a crucial listen for recruitment leaders and their marketers – and recruiters who know that getting on the “right side” of marketing may be the key to their sales pipeline success! - If we have learned anything from the last 24 months, cleaning up your data (because the govt told you to) may not necessarily get you the financial benefits that your common sense tell you you should be getting from a clean database… I’m joined by someone who can bring data cleanliness and recruitment marketing to whole a new level.  Starting as a dustman (who’d have known?)  Segued into website build.  Became the mighty Broadbean’s 3rd employee.  Then moved to Ebsta.  His purpose now at Cube19 is to help recruiters generate growth from decisions based on real-time recruitment data. It’s all been about recruitment data (and the odd bit of “dirt”). We talked about two key things: 1. What Tips Can Ricky Give to Recruitment Marketers? What has Ricky learned about recruitment marketing from his vast experience in some high performing recruitment software businesses?  He answered the following questions: What are Ricky’s “hacks” for successful recruitment marketing? How do marketers make their functions a profit, rather than a cost, centre? How does Ricky define a high-performance marketing team look like? How do marketers navigate the (what I call) the marketing “love-in” that I see online and at events, which really offer little value, but give generic “tips” on marketing, but often don’t really add any real substance to help the average recruitment marketer add real value to the recruiting workflow? How can recruitment events REALLY work? (when so many of them don’t work…) What do recruitment leaders and recruiters need to “do” with their marketer to get real value and how does the marketer interact with their leaders and internal clients to ensure that they deliver the 4Cs (candidates, clients, colleagues and cash!) 2. What does Ricky think that Recruitment Marketers need to do with their data... ... to help them become more effective? Which data does a recruitment marketer actually need? How do recruitment marketers actually help the sales funnel? How do personas actually help recruitment marketers with their content / SEO strategy? Where does recruitment CRM fit into a recruitment marketer toolkit? Which tools are critical to a recruitment marketer? And which is the most important recruitment marketing tool? Recruitment Leads / MQLs / SQLs We discussed recruitment leads – and our tips for lead generation for recruitment leads, where recruitment CRM fits and how to manage the leads into successful conversion.  It’s about MQLs (marketing qualified leads) enabling SQLs (sales qualified leads) ... and our thoughts that if you’re waiting for automation to transform your business then you’re likely to stagnate your growth by not engaging data and humans in the best way. And what do recruitment leaders and their time-starved recruiters need to stop asking their recruitment marketers to do? We also talked about my concept of the “dashboard recruiter” – you can also hear more thoughts on this in my Mark Hodgkinson "Taming your Recruitment Data" Podcast: https://www.barclayjones.com/event-and-hack/recruiters-do-you-have-too-much-data-and-not-enough-information

Every recruitment leader, marketer and IT leader in recruitment wants their data and CRM to be of value and ideally monetised. But often, when my team and I begin working with a recruitment business on their CRMFirst projects, we find even though GDPR made you look at your data, and delete it / clean, many recruiters still suffer from what we call “too much data, not enough information”. This Recruitment Leaders' podcast will give you ideas on how to reverse this recruitment data issue, and turn your recruitment software into a key recruitment business enabler.  Plus, it points to an ebook from Adapt about Taming Your Recruitment Big Data. - In this episode of the Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast, I spoke to Mark Hodgkinson, of Erecruit, about: How can I use data to run my desk and make more money in 2019? If 65% of the population are visual learners, but the majority of recruiters are not yet “jiggy” with dashboard reporting – rather they are simply drowning in data – what needs to change? How can data make a recruiter more effective? If 2/3 of the UK workforce who quit their jobs in 2018 quoted “not enough training”, what do recruiters need to do in 2019 to prevent the average 25% churn? And what does that figure actually tell us about the average recruitment business who suffer churn… and if 25% churn means 100 staff – 25 leavers – 16.5 people leave because of not enough training… who knows what the people who stay think… and how effective they are? Do we have too much data? Most recruiters have KPIs, or least a best practice model – how do we get “data” on the agenda? If 55% of your workforce will be under 36 by 2020 – and these people are classed as “digital natives” – what does this actually mean for your business? What does Mark want every recruitment leader to “crack” this year (and how does he think they should do it?)? And a great question… How do we get recruiters to respect data, keep it clean, and make money from it? Listen to the Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast here Thanks Mark for being such great guest on my Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast.

Winning a recruitment award, attracting passive talent, and having a website to drive your 3Cs (candidates, clients, colleagues) is a key goal for recruiters, their leaders and their marketers this year. I’m delighted to be talking to Stephen O’Donnell. He has had such a relevant and varied career in recruitment, the content of this podcast has something to offer all levels of recruitment. This podcast will give you some tips on how to make your website award-winning, as well as tackling many other topics such as how to get the right candidates to apply for your jobs, job advert hacks and passive talent attraction tips. Recruitment Award Hacks, Passive Talent Tips, and Websites We discussed: • Which 3 things MUST a recruitment website be able to do in 2019 • Want to win a NORA? What do you need to do? What do the judges look for? • Why go for an online recruitment award – what is the point? • What is the point of a recruitment website in 2019? What is the ROI? • What is the one thing that a recruitment marketer can afford to “throw out” before the new year? • What do recruitment websites need to stop doing? • Any “best job advert” tips? • What does passive talent want? • Any thoughts on how to get super-passive candidates to apply for your job? Stephen gave some hacks about what to do if you win an award – ie. How to generate more fees / candidates etc… Stephen and I disagreed about whether a recruitment website should candidate or client-centric… another podcast for another day? Thanks Stephen for being such great guest on my Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast.

Every recruitment leader and IT leader in recruitment wants their CRM and recruitment software to deliver real value into the business.  But often, when my team and I begin working with a recruitment business, we find that the system seems to be the "sales-prevention-software" and thus an expense rather than an investment. This podcast will give you ideas on how to reverse this problem, and turn your recruitment software into a key recruitment business enabler. --- In this episode of the Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast, I spoke to James Payne, of Erecruit, about: We all know what our recruitment software costs… or at least how much cash we give the supplier, but how do we know that it’s working? And what does “working” even mean? Uptime? Creating loads of admin for busy sales people? Creating a great datadump of candidates that recruiters won’t have time to source from, so go “off-piste” on to LinkedIn instead of being on the phone.  Of course not, recruitment leaders! How do you know that your system is not working for you? And by working, we mean delivering what your business needs, not just a database to host GDPR compliant data? Which 3 barriers to changing recruitment crm should you ignore or further research? What are the opportunity costs of not moving from one recruitment software to another? How to lose clients by not moving your technology forward How is your CRM actually restricting your more experienced (and high value) recruiters? How can you use recruitment tech to retain your staff? Recruiter churn is embarrassingly high in a sector which professes to be able to recruit Do we have too much data? And a great question... How can you make your Recruitment CRM cost neutral?

Every recruitment leader needs to spend more time ON their business, and they often need insight into the recruitment sector, their locale and their competition. In this episode of the Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast, I spoke to Ann Swain, Founder of APSCo, about “In the Round”. We talk about: • What is “In the Round”? • How do these recruitment meetings differ from the usual APSCo recruiter events? • What data is Ann bringing to these meetings which will help you as a local recruiter? • Is there such a thing as a free lunch? Yes! The recruitment market has a great concentration is certain parts of the UK, but there are some areas, for example, Leeds, who need to maximise their growth and have contact with each other, and people who can bring insight into a super-busy and competitive sector. You can see the list of Ann’s “APSCo Tour” here; http://www.apsco.org/apsco-in-the-round-with-ceo-ann-swain.aspx These are on a “first come, first served” basis – so get cracking and book your place. Oh! And these are open to non-members as well as APSCo members. You can see the APSCo events list here http://www.apsco.org/news/upcoming_events.aspx. Barclay Jones is an affiliate of APSCo, and we were proud winners of the APSCo “Affiliate of the Year” award https://www.recruitment-international.co.uk/blog/2017/10/barclay-jones-named-affiliate-member-of-the-year-at-the-apsco-awards-for-excellence

Recruitment leaders and marketers who want to scale and grow their businesses next year, and have invested their time and passion into their content, need to listen to this 15 minute Recruitment Leaders Podcast. I was delighted to talk to Louise Triance from the very popular and passionate recruitment UK Recruiter. She is in her 11th year and has setup the UK Recruiter Blog Awards to champion great content in the Recruitment sector. Awards are something very close to my heart – they help massively with sales pipelines, share value and recruitment strategy – as well as give the company a psychological boost.  We won APSCo Affiliate of the Year, UK Recruiter Blog of the Year and Influencer of the Year and so know the impact it can have. Could you Win a Recruitment Award? Recruitment Awards are not simply about “Best CSR” “Best Company to Work for £40+million” – they can be, and should be, about what you need to excel at.  As a judge on four Recruitment Awards, I see entries who boast great stories, rapid growth, innovation... but what about the thing recruiters need to absolutely nail...? Why is the UK Recruiter Giving a Damn about Content? Content, whether it’s on your blog, in your LinkedIn profile, in your phone conversations - is a critical element of your recruitment workflow.  Sourcing has become a defence mechanism for your clients (and candidates) and so attraction strategies are crucial for you.  Content is the driver of this.  Louise is recognising the power of content, not just to drive traffic, but to attract and engage your ideal (what we call) 3Cs - candidates, clients colleagues. I talked to Louise Triance, passionate CEO of UK Recruiter, about: Why do these awards exist? Who should be applying for these recruitment awards? What is the nomination process? What are the judges going to be looking for with this “blogging” award? What is the benefit of one of these awards? The deadline is 23 November – nomination is simple and quick.  Judging happens in December with the lucky winners announced in January. Nominate your blog and content for the UK Recruiter Blog Award here Oh! And if you’re not convinced about why Louise and I think you should enter and win – here’s some compelling reasons and benefits of winning a recruitment award. Listen to this Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast

Recruitment leaders who want to scale and grow their businesses through their data, systems and of course people, need to listen to this 15 minute podcast. It’s crucial that your team engages with your recruitment software and generates the process and management information you need – this podcast contains some insight into how recruiters and their leaders can be more effective with their people, systems and data. ___ As a business the Barclay Jones team spends a lot of time in the board room and training room talking to recruiters about their Recruitment CRM. We find the same challenges over and over and so wanted to put the common obstacles together and share our thoughts on how you can overcome these challenges in your recruitment business. In this podcast, Chloe Reynard and Luke Lynam of Barclay Jones discuss the key issues that prevent Recruiters from being “addicted” to their CRM system, creating great data and using that data to make money. It will be 16 minutes out of your day, and will give you some sustainable ideas to save you time and money. Chloe and Luke are both Recruiter Success Trainers at Barclay Jones. One of their key goals is to train recruiters how to be effective using their CRM. We take recruiters to the next level when it comes to knowledge of the systems they use, good process within those systems and ultimately enable them to make more money through the technology they are currently using. **Why doesn’t my team of recruiters use our Recruitment CRM?** So, you’re a recruitment leader who needs to see your CRM engagement improve. This will lead to more candidates, clients and cash. In this podcast, Chloe quizzed Luke on: • Why doesn’t my team of recruiters use our Recruitment CRM? • How has recruitment technology changed over the last few years and what impact has this had on the businesses they have worked with? • Why are recruiters still using spreadsheets? • Why is recruitment office culture important to effective adoption? • Why do recruitment leaders need to improve adoption of systems? • And how do they improve adoption? With GDPR, recruiter retention and wanting to grow before 2020, recruitment leaders need some practical and sustainable advice for how to get their teams and systems more connected to sales-led processes.

Visit our recruitment blog: http://bit.ly/RECblog Download our recruitment resources: http://bit.ly/ROIFirst Recruitment leaders need more convertible leads, placeable talent and more staff – so that they can grow their recruitment and staffing companies. This podcast is a speedy “must-listen”. ___ I am a busy lady – anyone who works with me knows that I milk every second out of every day… Also, I am a consultant, so it’s natural for me to forget about my own business, and focus on that of my clients… this means that I can sometimes ignore my own business’ needs. As a small business leader I have little time to spend on my business (!) and that coupled with the fact that I feel that no-one can help me, means occasionally I need a butt kick! At the beginning of this year, my business partner looked me in the eye and persuaded me to drop my ego and really look at what help I needed to deliver my role. Literally that day, I got a call from an apprenticeship training company… and now I have a fully-trained apprentice, giving me massive support in sourcing leads, cleaning data, delivering market research – and that’s just the beginning. I’ve recorded this podcast with Charlotte Clark (APSCo’s Head of Talent Development) and Chloe Reynard, Trainer at Barclay Jones (and apprenticeship evangelist), to deliver some takeaways in 20 minutes which could really help you focus your attention on fixing some key issues in your recruitment business. _____ You’re a recruitment leader who needs more candidates, lead generation, engaged staff. APSCo and Chloe talked about: • What are the practical elements of having an apprentice in your recruitment business? • Do apprentices need to be new staff? Or can you upskill your existing team? • What can apprentices actually do for a recruitment business – what impact will they have? • What apprenticeship qualifications does APSCo offer to recruitment and staffing companies? • What is NOT an apprenticeship in recruitment? • How much does an apprentice cost? And are they free? • How does a recruitment leader get an apprentice into their business? • What roles can an apprentice deliver? • How long does it take to get them “ready”? The answers to all of the questions above will make you really think about this “no-brainer” – and also tap into what you are likely to have already given the government as part of your “levy”.

Every recruitment leader needs more staff – or at least they want their existing staff to be loyal, effective and successful.  This podcast is  a great listen to help you spend a little time creating a strategy for fixing your talent shortage.  No recruiters?  No fees?  No business!  Here's a fix! ___ In this episode of the Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast, I spoke to Ann Swain, Founder of APSCo, about their initiative, Women in Recruitment, something that will fix over 70% of Recruitment Leaders’ issues this year (and beyond…) We talked about what Women in Recruitment is. What does Women in Recruitment do, and what's in it for recruiters? Recruitment leaders have a lot to benefit from understanding how a focus on diversity and inclusion in their recruitment business can fix a lot of problems (namely recruiting and retaining the best recruiters!) and help them create more profitable, successful businesses. We talked about some key issues that can affect / help the talent shortage in most recruitment businesses: Why there is a talent shortage within the recruitment industry Women in Recruitment: WIIFR (what's in it for recruiters?) What really motivates salespeople and recruiters? How are men and women being done a disservice in the workplace? What do millennials and Gen Z really want, and how can we deliver it? How do recruitment leaders fix the gap between employing and retaining staff? Does Ann think women are better salespeople than men? How do we help our staff perform to the best of their ability? What are the benefits to joining Women in Recruitment? Women in Recruitment isn't just about ticking a box, feeling better, "doing the right thing". There's LOTs of commercial benefits - which if I'm honest, I feel I shouldn't need to outline, but, I may as well. If the average recruitment business needs more staff, what do they need to do to hire and retain women? Do women make better sales people? (Contentious!) Recruitment awards and vendors often ask about diversity - what do you really need to say about your approach to "women in recruitment"

Want to stay updated with our latest recruitment videos, podcasts and blogs? Subscribe to our newsletter: bit.ly/RecruitNews The Key to Recruitment Business Scalability and Growth, Mark Constable, Next Gear and Lisa Jones, Barclay Jones In this episode of the Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast, Lisa Jones spoke with Mark Constable, Founder of Next Gear. After 15 years working in recruitment as a consultant, leader and business owner, Mark works with recruitment businesses who are either start-ups / micro and want to scale, or more established recruitment businesses which have reached barriers to growth. This is a must-listen if you own a recruitment business, no matter how large, or what style of recruitment. We talked about: • How recruitment leaders want more time, more money and less stress – but often find that when they stop and look around, they haven’t gained any of those things… • A recruitment leader’s focus is on revenue – but the most successful recruitment business focus on something else – what it that? • What do you need to do to scale up your recruitment business? • How do you create assets in your business? • What are recruitment leaders doing every day to ensure that their systems, marketing etc… merely a cost and not a sales-driver? • How do you deliver change? • How do you know if your recruitment business is not delivering what you want? • How do you know whether your business is capable of delivering what you need? • What is the one thing every recruitment leader needs to do this year? It was fascinating to talk about mindsets / culture / leadership with Mark: listen to the podcast and don't forget to subscribe!

Like this podcast? Don't forget to subscribe and share! Sign up to our recruitment newsletter: http://bit.ly/RecruitNews Data should drive decisions and recruitment businesses, and drive the best 3Cs into your business (candidates, clients, consultants) – and, of course, content onto your recruitment CRM. GDPR is kicking the average recruitment leaders’ butt and DATA is key to this. Growth is key this year too. I had great chat with Joe, Sales Director of Cube19 on our Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast. It’s all about data: the good, the bad and the relevant. We talked about: • Fish and KPIs! • GDPR (it’s a data-driven initiative) • What should data be used for? • What should data NOT be used for? • Data is the new Oil – says the Economist (although the BBC takes this “new oil” concept to another level) and so does Cube19 – why? • Gut-feel versus data – and why does the average recruitment leader not trust their data? • What is the plan for Cube19 in 2018? • Should you delete your recruitment data? • What is the one KPI he would set for a new recruiter in 2018? • How can you incentivise your recruiters to “get good” with data?

Sign up to our recruitment newsletter: http://bit.ly/RecruitNews On the Barclay Jones’ Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast I talk this week to Jason Martin from Safe Computing Safe Computing, part of the Access Group, specialises in delivering technology for global staffing organisations, both on a SaaS and in-house software delivery model. Lisa and Jason talked about: • How will the job of the recruitment consultant change in the next 5 years? How will automation change it? • Integration in recruitment systems – what does this really mean and how should it impact on recruiters? • Data is “the new oil”! Data economy is the new black. We talked about this “new” concept • What do recruitment businesses need to do NOW? We talked about GDPR – some nifty ideas and tips for recruitment leaders in this section of the chat! • Too much data, not enough information? • What is TempAGo? • What are Randstad and Adecco doing with data that may “cut out” the recruitment branch network and reduce their headcount? • Which KPI does Jason think is key for every recruiter next year? • We talked about the Relationship Economy – is it new? • How can a recruitment leader manage their staffing more effectively in 2018? • What does the average recruitment leader need to STOP doing - and what should they nail in 2018? • What is $2billion being spent on by ONE recruiter before 2020?

Sign up to our recruitment newsletter: http://bit.ly/RecruitNews What Does John Think Every Recruitment Leader Needs to Get Their Head Around in 2018? Cardiff City fan, John Rose from Vered Consulting, joined me on my Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast. He has been a CEO in 3 different recruitment businesses, namely Hudson, FiveTen and Kellan. John talked with me about his passion for recruitment and how he now is a “hands on Executive Support for Recruitment Businesses and their Leaders”. He brings to this podcast an absolute gold mine of ideas for recruiters, recruitment leaders and recruitment marketers. This is a “must-listen” podcast: • What does John think every recruitment leader needs to get their head around in 2018 • What frustrates him about recruitment leaders? • What does John think that Recruitment Leaders need to stop doing next year? And what do they need to do more of? • What KPI would John set for recruiters in 2018 – and what is the difference between an input and an output KPI? • We had an interesting chat about “what are recruiters really selling in 2018?” • What is the key to every recruitment business? • How can you help your recruiters to be impressive and niche? • John talks about recruitment awards, why he is a judge and why recruitment leaders get to take part. And what does John think that an award-winning recruitment awards submission needs? • What does John think is the future of the recruitment industry – is it RPO, the internet, job boards, social media, Google Jobs, AI (artificial intelligence)…? This was a fascinating podcast – it’s not often that you get the chance to listen to someone who has been there and done that in recruitment – is that respected in the industry, and has such practical approach. Listen out for the Greyhound racing tips at the end…

We discussed on the Recruitment Leaders' Podcast: • Recruitment is all about data • How to use data to put the right people in the right place at the right time (and for the right fee!) • How can recruiters use data to run their businesses? • And is it just about candidate data…? or is it about recruiters, resourcers, managers, your sectors, your business? • How can data improve the skillset of a recruitment team manager? • How many dashboards does it take to manage a recruiter? • How can you get your recruiters get engaged in data without distracting them away from selling? • What’s “innovation” in recruitment? Everyone is talking “AI” in recruitment… what does Rob think? • How can data improve the candidate, client and recruiter experience? • What’s the ONE THING Rob feels recruiters can do NOW with data to make a drastic improvement to their businesses? • We of course discussed GDPR – hat does Rob think about GDPR? He made some really valid points about sales and process improvements • What’s a perfect Data KPI?

I’m joined on this Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast by Natasha Clarke – CPO for SThree and Chair of the Women in Recruitment body. Women in Recruitment was formed to give recruitment firms practical support in attracting, developing and retaining their female talent, as well as providing a tangible demonstration of a commitment to gender equality for clients and candidates. Obviously, there are women in recruitment. I, one, Natasha is another. We talked about the reason that this organisation has been born; what its goal is… who's sponsoring it? And importantly, how a woman (and probably a man) gets involved in this body. • Are women better recruiters? • Are women better at sales? • And what stats did we have to prove or disprove this? • Why is there a need for Women in Recruitment body? • What’s it’s mission and how does it support women (and men)? • What is the business case for change? • What practical advice does Natasha have for creating a more diverse workforce? Listen to the podcast and find out! I suggest you check out the Women in Recruitment website. It gives access to unique development tools, mentoring and networking opportunities designed to support successful and sustainable careers in recruitment. Company Membership is open to all UK recruitment firms. Individuals can join Women in Recruitment independently, or as employees of Company Members. (Thanks Natasha)

Sign up to our recruitment newsletter: http://bit.ly/RecruitNews I’m delighted to be speaking in my latest podcast with Neil from Volcanic about GDPR. Why am I delighted to be talking about the General Data Protection Regulations? Am I a total geek? Because there is so much online about this, that I felt the need to get vital facts about GDPR in front of my sector: Recruitment. Plus, this is a great chance for you to gather some practical ideas on what to do. What did we discuss? • Why is Volcanic talking about GDPR? Why do they care, and what are they doing for the recruitment industry? • GDPR: What is the size and the problem for the Recruitment Industry? • BUT what do you need to do BEFORE you start being GDPR compliant? • What is the opportunity for recruiters with GDPR? What are the positives? (there are loads!) • What is Volcanic doing about GDPR for their recruitment clients?

Sign up to our recruitment newsletter: http://bit.ly/RecruitNews In this recruitment leaders’ podcast I’m delighted to be speaking with James Payne from Bond International Software and Rod Smyth from TempBuddy. They recently joined forces, leveraging each other’s strengths of world-class staffing software and award-winning technological innovation. As providers of world-class recruitment technology, they are in a great place to talk about our new #CRMFirst mantra at Barclay Jones. Who is this Recruitment Leaders Podcast for? If you are a recruitment leader, IT leader or marketing leader in recruitment, and you want to make your CRM “FIRST” (ie. First port of call), then this is will be a key listen. What did we discuss? • Why the content of your CRM can massively impact whether your recruiters use it • How to improve the content of your CRM? • How can you get managers and directors engaged with Recruitment CRM? • What things do they advise recruiters to stop doing? Bond International Software: www.adapt-recruitment-software.com TempBuddy: www.tempbuddy.com

What makes a bloody great recruitment business? with James Osborne from The Recruitment Network We’re passionate about recruitment leaders growing their businesses, and we setup our recruitment leaders podcast to get recruitment industry leaders and thought leaders to donate their ideas into the industry. There’s a lot of change happening in the sector, and being competitive has never been more key to growth – candidates and clients are working more closely together than ever before. But in our goal to stay afloat, are we losing site of the core premise of what, as James Osborne from The Recruitment Network, calls a “bloody great recruitment business”. Bloody Great Recruitment Everyone is trying to predict what tomorrow is going to look like, but really, sometimes we lose sight of what we are doing today – the key focus of every recruitment leader • What are the leaders doing who are running great business? • Do great recruiters use CRM? And should they? • What is recruitment 101? • What is the coolest tool in recruitment? • What are the 3 things that James thinks work well in recruitment? • Where do pigs and hens fit into recruitment? • How does a recruiter really make an impact? Or just a sale? • What are the 3 things that James thinks recruitment leaders need to STOP doing? • How are we devaluing our recruitment businesses? Listen to James I loved talking with James. He is clearly proud of the recruitment sector and passionate about injecting this pride into the industry to help it outperform its competition. Listen to Our Recruitment Leaders Podcast Series Listen and subscribe to the rest of our Recruitment Leader Podcast Series on Soundcloud or find us on iTunes! So far we have interviewed the following recruiting / marketing / tech leaders: Brandon Metcalf, Talent Rover: Listen to Talent Communities and Recruiter Contol Tracey Barrett, BlueSky PR: Listen to Recruitment Marketing and PR in 2015 James Nathan, The James Nathan Experience: Turning Candidates into Clients Stephen Barnhurst, Broadbean: Listen to Jobs and Marketing for Recruiters Stephen O’Donnell, PC Evaluate: Listen to Psychometrics and Recruitment Process Alan Hiddleston, Firefish: Recruitment CRM: Listen to Recruitment Marketing Nick Ellis, Hirabl: Listen to Back door placements and how to catch them Alex Moyle, Elevated Recruiting: Listen to How to Build High Value Recruitment Business Wendy McDougall, Firefish Software: Listen to Getting Real ROI From Your Recruitment Technology Simon Lewis, Only Marketing Jobs: Listen to Smart Recruiters Know Great Marketing is Critical Olly Wright, BMS: Listen to Short Sharp Marketing Tactics and the Guide to Recruiter Happiness Graeme Read, 3RInside and APSCo: Listen to Improving the Value of your Recruitment Business Greg Savage, The Savage Truth: Listen to Improving the Value of your Recruitment Business Matt Wright, Stitched: Listen to Are Recruiters Drowning in Information and Data?

I’m delighted to be speaking with the extremely knowledgeable and respected Fiona Lander from Lander Consultancy. She’s celebrating her 20th business anniversary in 2017 (congrats!) As providers of world class, international recruitment training and development, Lander Consultancy works recruitment teams to make them competitive. Fiona and her team works with forward thinking, growing recruitment companies, providing a holistic approach to upskilling the entire workforce from trainee recruiter to Managing Director. Who is this Recruitment Leaders Podcast for? You’ll get value from this podcast if you run a recruitment business, manage a recruitment team, are part of a recruitment training team. What did we discuss? • When is training important? • How do you prioritise training? • How do you train “high-churn” staff – ie: how do you get ROI from training people who won’t be with you for long? • Are you training your staff to leave your recruitment business or training them to stay and be profitable? • Where do the middle managers fit into the training cycle? • What is the 10-20-70 rule ad why is it critical that recruitment leaders understand this rule? • What do we do with big billers who are making money but not performing to your culture? • What does Fiona her team think that you need to stop doing in 2017? • When should performance management kick in? • Which core skills do recruiters need to develop in 2017? I could have spoken all day with Fiona – she is so experienced in recruitment training – we share the same values, passion and ideas for recruiter success – thanks Fiona.

Recruitment Security, Futurism, Growth and Product: with Volcanic's Matt Comber and Barclay Jones We’re big fans of technology and digital marketing – so of course we’re interested in the digital tech recruitment leaders can use to grow their business! That’s why we invited Volcanic on our Recruitment Leaders Podcast Series. We spoke to Matt Comber, Marketing Director at Volcanic to get his views on the future of tech, digital marketing and the recruitment industry. Matt wanted to talk about 4 areas: 1. Security – How do we use data to do better things? Why security is such a big deal (may be an obvious question). Why should security be right at the top of your agenda this year? 2. Futurism – What does he have to say about futurism and how do recruiters need to be thinking? 3. Growth – What does he have to say about recruitment growth? Any tips around tech and web? 4. Product – What is a ‘recruitment website’ and how do recruiters market this? And what is a recruitment product? Plus we discussed: Where should you invest your money in web? How else can you monetise recruitment? I loved talking with Matt. Volcanic really has a handle on recruitment marketing, and they have a clear passion for the recruitment industry.

Are Recruiters Drowning in Data and Information? with Matt Wright at Stitched and Barclay Jones As part of Barclay Jones’ Recruitment Leaders Podcast series, we're delighted to be talking to Matt Wright, co-founder of Stitched. Stitched is a recruitment networking plugin that extracts the useful intelligence inside your organisational data and helps you find the shortest path to the right candidate. Bottom line: they help recruiters cut through the noise and get to the useful stuff! We discussed: - Are recruiters drowning in information? - Keeping interaction personal in a tech-driven world - Recruiters are being trained to sell, but are they being trained to recruit? - How conversation is a fundamental part of recruitment - Why consultants will never be replaced by tech - Why using systems incorrectly reduces recruiters' placements

What Recruitment Leaders Need To Do To Improve The Value Of Their Recruitment Business: Greg Savage and Barclay Jones I talk a lot online and at events about recruitment growth through technology and digital marketing and I love catching up with thought leaders in recruitment to share ideas and debate what can make or break a recruitment business. As part of Barclay Jones’ Recruitment Leaders Podcast series, I’m delighted to be talking to Greg Savage. "straight talking - no messing - advice for recruitment leaders who want to be more successful" This is seriously one of my favourite interviews and I think every recruitment leader (current or budding) will benefit from spending 30 minutes listening to this and planning their 2017 strategy.

Improving the Value of your Recruitment Business: with Graeme Read, APSCo and Barclay Jones In recent years we have seen an increase in recruitment business companies in the UK market, and a growth internationally – Europe, Asia, The Americas. Now we are post / pre / during (or wherever the hell we are) with Brexit, there’s lots of talk from recruitment leaders about “exit” or “Recxit?” They want to sell up and reap the rewards of growing a profitable recruitment business. As part of Barclay Jones’ Recruitment Leaders Podcast series, I’m delighted to be talking to Graeme Read from 3RInside and APSCo. Improving the Value of your Recruitment Business I grilled Graeme about: What kinds of things would Graeme say that recruitment leaders should do to improve the value of their recruitment business? Which niche recruitment sectors are on the ascendance? What is happening in recruitment M&A (mergers and acquisitions) at the moment in recruitment? What’s the most important asset in your recruitment business? What power does recruitment software really have in the recruitment process? Where does data and recruitment technology sit when you are selling your recruitment business? New Enterprise Graeme is also Head of New Enterprise Members & International Markets and is working with APSCo on to help emerging businesses – whether they are new start-ups or SMEs looking to achieve their next level of growth. You can get in touch with him via LinkedIn and APSCo. His goal is to “professionalise” the SME space. Great goal!

Recruitment Awards: It's True! You Can Get ROI from Awards Events: with Teri Etherington, Recruitment International and Barclay Jones As part of my Recruitment Leaders podcast series on SoundCloud I spoke with Teri Etherington, UK Country Manager for Recruitment International. Teri has over 14 years experience in and around the recruitment industry, working with well established and start-up recruiters and suppliers to provide valuable insight into the world of UK recruitment. We had a great session around awards events - why you should enter, how you should enter, and of course the ROI. We talked about: What is the key to winning an award? Which awards should you enter? What are the key, stupid mistakes that many recruitment teams make when they enter awards? Why is it that so many “go getter” recruitment leaders fail to win award – what an irony How to plan for an award entry – and ultimately win.

Attracting Recruiters: Do You Really Need More Recruiters To Grow This Year? with Mike Walmsley and Barclay Jones I had a chat with Mike Walmsley about internal attraction and what recruiters need to think about in this year: - How to be a talent magnet - Are you really “different”? Or are your “differences” simply what should be a given? - Do you really need to recruit this year, in order to grow your business? - Using predictive hiring analytics and big data to grow your recruitment team - 3 things that every recruitment leader needs to do in 2016 to improve their talent attraction and retention - How to get your marketing department engaged in recruitment - What to do with your “rookie” in their first week - If a new recruiter “can’t bill” for the first 3 months - what are you going to measure them on? - Do you want your competition looking at you - The average Recruiter is incontinent - How to stop falling in love during an interview … and why niggles are good!

Recruitment Marketing: Smart Recruiters Know Great Marketing Is Critical: with Simon Lewis from Edge Global Media and Barclay Jones Simon Lewis, co-founder of Edge Global Media Group, speaks to Lisa Jones as part of her Recruitment Leaders Series. They discuss the Marketing and Digital Recruitment Awards, the future of recruitment and why smart recruitment agencies know that their marketing function is critical to taking their business to the next level.

Recruitment Technology: Getting ROI: Wendy McDougall, Firefish and Barclay Jones Wendy is CEO and Founder of Firefish Software - A CRM and ATS Recruitment Software for recruitment agencies. She has some fantastic ideas about how recruitment leaders can actually make money from their Recruitment CRM. Every leader wants to do this. We chatted about: - How Wendy is keen to help recruiters to predict what their revenues are going to be. - If you know what you have, then you can put a price on it so how can you put a value on your recruiting data? - Recruiters are working too many jobs, and this affects their ability to place, and overall allow recruiting leaders to predict their pipeline / profitability - Are people the most precious asset in your recruiting business, or is it data? - How can you use your Recruitment CRM to predict your revenue? - How can marketers and finance teams in recruitment using predictive recruiting? - The biggest barrier to predictive recruiting is that too many recruiters see data as admin - We should start to measure the time we spend resourcing a vacancy – how can we do this? - Which metrics are crucial to a recruitment leader and how can recruitment CRM support?

Recruitment Businesses Improving their Value: Alex Moyle and Barclay Jones As part of my Recruitment Leaders series on SoundCloud I spoke with Alex Moyle from Elevated Recruiting. He works with recruitment leaders and their teams to make them more productive and their businesses more profitable. We had a really interesting chat about: • How to build a high value recruitment business • • Recruiters are now not the only game in town – recruitment tech and the flat fee model has disrupted the client/recruiter conversation • Recruiters need to behave more like accountants and lawyers and add value by consulting and not simply recruiting. • Lidl and burgers • Why most recruitment firms never get above 10 people • Why do recruitment leaders ask their staff to do something that they would not do themselves or are not equipped to deliver? • How to run a recruitment firm with a dispersed management team • And he also gave his view into what he thinks that every recruitment leader should do before Christmas.

Sensible Recruiters Turn Candidates Into Clients: James Nathan and Barclay Jones As part of our Recruitment Leaders SoundCloud series, James Nathan from the James Nathan Experience talked to me about building relationships with talent so well that they become a friend / advocate / referee, and ultimately a client. James is a business development and coaching professional who works with businesses to make them more profitable. I was interested to hear about his approach to and thoughts on smart sales within recruitment. I wanted to pick his brains about the lack of case studies that the average recruiter has about converting candidates into clients. So we had a quick call to chat about: • How recruiters often treat their candidates like one night stands (I feel a blog coming on!) • You need to seduce your talent (interpret as you wish... although some recruiters I know may need some practical pointers! Wink!) • How great sales people often make poor marketers of their own product (and this is something I really want to fix!) • Is the placement process often abdicated to the finance team, and hence the relationship that the recruiter may have begins to wane once the candidate accepts the role? • Keeping your team secret is not the route to approachability, and approachability is the route to advocacy • Are any recruiters out there KPId on the quality of relationships, or simply the volume of their jobs, send outs, placements? The candidate experience should be good enough to sustain the entire recruitment lifecycle, not simply the initial, first placement. This is smart recruiting and is totally achievable and self-sustaining – but all too often not achieved. James talks a lot of about "sensible activity" of recruiters to help them understand that the bar does not need to be set massively high (or unachievable) to be appropriate and to achieve return ROI – it’s all about process! (You’ve heard me say that before!) So far we have interviewed the following recruiting / marketing / tech leaders: Brandon Metcalf, Talent Rover: Talent Communities and Recruiter Contol Tracey Barrett, BlueSky PR: Recruitment Marketing and PR in 2015 Stephen Barnhurst, Broadbean: Jobs and Marketing for Recruiters Stephen O’Donnell, PC Evaluate: Psychometrics and Recruitment Process Alan Hiddleston, Firefish: Recruitment CRM, Recruitment Marketing Nick Ellis, Hirabl: Back door placements and how to catch them Listen to or SoundCloud account (while running, driving, cooking, working. multi-tasking) “Have the leaders in the recruitment tech and marketing space in your ears” Coming soon: Wendy McDougall, Firefish: talks predictive analytics Alex Moyle, Selzig Consulting Talks Recruiter Sales and Process Anthony Sutton, Cream HR: talks recruitment and HR for recruiters

Talent Communities, Recruitment CRM And Recruiter Control: Brandon Metcalf, Talent Rover and Barclay Jones As part of our Recruitment Leaders series, Founder and COO of Talent Rover, Brandon Metcalf spent a little time with me having a chat about his passion for smart recruitment process in an industry dominated by tech and data. He recently penned a great blog: The Dawn of Communities: Why Social Hubs are the New Competitive Edge So we had a quick call to chat about: • Creating talent communities could mean recruiters giving up control • Do recruitment websites actually have a function, or are they just all recruiter features? • Recruiters are control freaks • Why recruiters should setup AND foster clients/candidate collaboration • Does the recruitment process actually allow for talent communities? Nor it is too transactional? • How can we engaged with engaged talent? It’s really refreshing to talk to tech leaders in the recruiting space. They don’t just sell Recruitment CRM. They live and breathe great process and innovation (in an industry that is crying out for it!) Listen to Brandon’s interview here. So far we have interviewed the following recruiting / marketing / tech leaders: Tracey Barrett, BlueSky PR: Recruitment Marketing and PR in 2015 Stephen Barnhurst, Broadbean: Jobs and Marketing for Recruiters Stephen O’Donnell, PC Evaluate: Psychometrics and Recruitment Process Alan Hiddleston, Firefish: Recruitment CRM, Recruitment Marketing Nick Ellis, Hirabl: Back door placements and how to catch them Listen to or SoundCloud account (while running, driving, cooking, working. multi-tasking) “Have the leaders in the recruitment tech and marketing space in your ears” Coming soon: James Nathan, The James Nathan Experience: Recruiter Sales Strategies Wendy McDougall, Firefish: talks predictive analytics Alex Moyle, Selzig Consulting Talks Recruiter Sales and Process Anthony Sutton, Cream HR: talks recruitment and HR for recruiters

Recruitment CRM, Recruitment Marketing: Alan Hiddleston, Firefish: and Barclay Jones Thanks Alan Hiddleston from Firefish Recruitment CRM for joining me on my SoundCloud. I’m going through the recruiting industry speaking with recruitment and tech leaders asking them about recruitment, recruiting process, software, growing a recruitment businesses, recruitment marketing – basically, key issues and challenges for every recruiter and recruitment leader. You need to listen to this interview if you are a recruitment leader / techie / recruitment marketer. CRM is a big deal for recruiters this year and we are writing about it and speaking at events about how recruitment leaders need to make their CRM a USP. We talk about: • Is recruitment process complex or sophisticated? And has tech made it more complicated? • What is the ultimate cool tool? • Are smaller brands run any better than bigger brands? • Is tech used any differently by smaller or bigger brands? • When is the best time to get best practice into a recruitment agency? • Investors, and often clients and talent, look for something unique about your recruitment business - how do you prove that you are a unique recruitment business? • How do you create an asset out of your Recruitment CRM? • What are the pros and cons of “bespoking” a recruitment CRM? • What is the future of recruitment software? • Will recruiters ever be like Tom Cruise? Subscribe to our SoundCloud channel to listen to great interviews from recruitment industry leaders about recruitment marketing, pr, software, process and business growth.

Recruitment Marketing and Jobs Chat: Steve Barnhurst, Broadbean and Barclay Jones I grabbed some time with Stephen Barnhurst from Broadbean to talk to him about the current trends in job board advertising and mobile job seekers. Many recruiters wants to reduce their job board spend whilst increasing their relevant application rate and he has interesting things to say about this. You need to listen to this interview if: • You are interested in online advertising for recruitment (including jobs), mobile candidates, recruitment CRM • You are a user of Broadbean or not… It’s not a sales pitch – Steve is known for being extremely passionate about recruitment marketing and improving the recruiter and candidate experience. Some headlines: • 93% of job applications happen via a desktop, even though the number of people who search for jobs using a mobile is higher - the applications process is broken – recruiters expect mobile surfers to turn in to people who are so desperate to apply for their “my client is a” job that they’ll put down their phone and login to their PC/laptop which has their CV on… • Will there ever be a time when a CV is not necessary for the majority of job applications? • Mobile has improved the speed of the application process, but not the relevance of the applicants • Perhaps you are a Broadbean user? Are you abusing it / using it well? I’ve used Broadbean since its creation (many moons ago) and I am still finding recruiters who feel that it’s there to help squirt jobs on to job boards and only that • Steve talks about what he feels are the most useful, but often underused features and benefits of the system. • The volume of online job postings is going up – but so many recruiters have a strategy to reduce their job board – what’s happening? Big thanks to Steve for sparing a few minutes to chat. This interview is a great listen whether or not you are a Broadbean user (and if you are, you will hear what is on the Broadbean roadmap – some pretty exciting stuff. Some of it is top secret for now, and he shared a few snippets outside of the call, and I giggled like a girl when he told me (that sounds a little rude… and geeky!)

PR and Marketing for Recruiters: Tracey Barrett, BlueSky PR and Barclay Jones I am delighted that the lovely Tracey Barrett from BlueSky PR took a little time to speak to me about PR in recruiting. Tracey’s team specialise in, and have a huge amount of experience, working with recruitment firms to help them improve their profile, attract talent, and generate more business. They support, among others, APSCo, Capita Resourcing, MSI Group and Venn Group. You can listen to my interview with her on our SoundCloud account, where we discuss: • How do recruiters measure ROI (return on investment) on marketing and PR • Are recruiters really credible thought leaders? (Really??) • Why do recruiters need PR – surely social media has marketing covered now? • How can recruiters get PR and marketing wrong? And lucky you! Tracey gives away 3 takeaways that every recruiter can do once they have listened to this interview that they can use in their own small and large recruitment businesses. Listen to the interview here, and see that we have also recently spoken with Stephen O’Donnell about psychometric p rofiling and Nick Ellis about those horrid back door placements.

I recently published a blog entitled with the informative RecruitingDaily website and barclayjones.com. It was a dig at the culture of recruiting which is potentially ignoring clever analysis tools in favour of gut feelings. (…But if you want to grope your candidates and use it as a basis for your recruitment decisions, read this…) Now I get that this is a sweeping statement to make (I have lots more if you’re interested – recruiters are like squirrels, barista, hairdressers), but I am seeing a trend for some recruiting agencies and staffing companies to want to try and maintain control of their theoretical USP by having sole responsibility for the view and feeling of the suitability of the candidate. Both video conferencing and psychometrics are, on the whole, being ignored in favour of face to face (and often only phone) interviews. But current technologies have the potential of massively improving the candidate and recruiter experience and speeding up process – which I know for a fact are leading goals for many of my clients. I attend meetings with recruiters stressed out about their in-house contacts competing with them, recruiters having too many tools and not enough process and trying and failing to engage with passive talent. Surely something has to “give”? We’ve launched a soundcloud channel to help people access our content (and because we love talking to recruitment technologists and recruitment leaders). I recently spoke with Stephen O’Donnell about psychometric profiling and he shared some fantastic insight into this process and how it is being used by recruiters, and how it actually could be used to speed up hires, increase length of service and offer true value-add and consultative services (and not simply be used to prove that the candidate is not mad!) Listen here…

Back door placements and how to catch them: Nick Ellis Fee Catcher/HIRABL and Barclay Jones We’ve launched a soundcloud channel to help people access our content (and because we love the sound of our own voices). We’ve been working with recruiters, speaking with recruitment leaders, and writing / talking a lot about back door placements (or bad weasels, BoBs, missed placements and “shafts”). I’m delighted that Nick Ellis from HIRABL offered some of his time to talk to us about back door placements, gave some great (scary and exciting) stats, and how his software can help bridge the gap that recruiters are creating (often inadvertently) by a lack of process. Too Many Systems, Not Enough Process... I’ve written before that I feel that one of the issues that all recruiters face is too many systems and not enough process. The evolution of social media and digital recruitment has swamped the typical 360 recruiter. Their KPIs have not adapted to the digital age. They are spending less time at work (recruitment leaders sigh…) Recruiters Fight or Flight... Often recruiters are either delighted to find backdoor placements and are on fire to get the fee back, whereas other recruiters are embarrassed and don’t feel they have the relationship, skills or will to recover the fee. Many recruiters don’t even know that they have had a back door placement. 1 in 10 is not good enough... • Some recruiters see back door placements are an inevitable fact of the recruitment process • 10 % of candidate submissions are tracked (which equates to 90% of CVs / Interviews attended are not followed up at a later stage) • Emerging markets and high growth industries (eg. gaming) suffer from back doors more • 1 in 300 submissions result in a back door hire and the average US/UK free is $15k/£7.5k Compelling stats... Newsflash – you don’t have to be stupid to be “back doored” It’s worth noting that HIRABL can confirm that it’s not just stupid, crap recruiters who get “back doored”. Nick feels that often the back door simply exposes weaknesses in your process which creates gaps in data / information and opportunities to follow up. The recruitment industry and related processes are run by humans, managed by humans, working with humans – and they often (in my opinion) stuff things right up. It’s not every day that I meet a recruitment leader who targets their staff with excellent admin and pays them for being awesome data and process managers. (If you are one of them, and reading this, please get in touch for your Blue Peter Badge.) Listen to Nick talk about why and how often back doors happen, how they can be tracked, and what this could mean to the average recruiter (whether they are stupid, crap, or simply overwhelmed with tech paralysis, poor process and misguided KPIs…)