Tuesday 25 September 2012

Is LinkedIn becoming JUST a job board? (albeit a really good one)

Barely a call goes by at the moment without someone telling us that they don’t need to use Recruitment Consultants anymore because they now have access to Linked In and it is a key part of their direct sourcing method.

We agree that Linked In is good and it wont be difficult to find us using it. (you may have found this blog because of it).

BUT increasingly people are just using Linked In as a recruitment tool. It is surely becoming just a really good job board and is not the recruitment “magic bullet” that people want it to be.

Consider this
  • Not everyone is on LinkedIn 
  • Not everyone uses it regularly
  • Not everyone tells the truth on it (although please note. I do! All the time! Honest!) 
  • The vast majority of people do not have enough detail on Linked In for it to be considered a viable alternative to a CV. 

And actually whilst Linked In was supposed to be a referral, networking and recommendation site allowing you to (re)connect with fellow professionals it no longer is


  • “I’d like to Link In because I am a friend” – Er?... Really?
  • People are not (re)connecting they are collecting recommendations and contacts to make themselves look good 
  • Linked In themselves are now selling access to the site so you can by-pass the recommendation/referral part and cut straight to the searching of a database.

So surely this is no different from totaljobs, monster, personneltoday or any other job board that might take your fancy?

Now don’t get us wrong there is nothing wrong with a job board and we do think that “Linked In is a really good job board”.

But if  you can find your ideal candidate profile (and there is no guarantee that you will) you still need to:



  • Find out if they are any good
  • Persuade them that your job is a good match for them 
  • Interview them
  • Find other candidates to compare them against
  • Arrange interviews
  • Negotiate an offer
  • Keep in control during the notice period (possibly selling against a counteroffer and maybe even needing to start again once the candidate changes their mind)

No job board, even a really good one, will do this for you!

BUT
We are sure a good in-house recruiter can do this for you.
And we know that a good Recruitment Consultant will do this for you.

By all means have Linked In as part of your recruitment methods but know its limitations and don’t forget that there are other job boards you can use.

Remember also the value that can be added by a recruiter who has a real network and is talking to the ideal candidate who is not on Linked In, not using Linked In or has not wanted to announce to the world that they are looking for a new job.
 
                                                           

Wright Solutions is a specialist HR Consultancy. We attract, place and develop the highest calibre candidates in Executive, HR and Learning & Development roles. Our service is more than recruitment with our training solutions that give Leadership and Management teams the competitive advantage for today and tomorrow.


 
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Friday 21 September 2012

"We've been hacked... We don't have time to waste"



Having recently launched what we feel is an exciting and innovative package of Compliance Training Apps. We are getting a lot of interest from a wide range of clients and perhaps that interest is because of recent news headlines about the repercussions of getting Information & Data Security Compliance wrong especially with the rise of BYOD ('Bring your own Device')

We all know that rarely do incidents just occur out of the blue, there are always signs, indications, suspicions, that are not noticed, are overlooked or just ignored. It is rare for organisations to take pro-active actions to encourage employees to red flag problematic behaviours, information and truly value this important process that could provide great insight into pending situations and potential lead to early resolution before the nightmare scenario become reality.

A critical factor to get right is the Compliance training, currently it is a large market dominated by bad products and outdated delivery methods. For employees, the experience is a universally despised requirement and results can easily be manipulated. But for employers, outdated workflow systems and text-based materials yield hazy results with no measurable data and consume vast amounts of time and money. 

Try this alternative



You're immersed in a computer game, designed to train employees about information and data security, picture the scene a fictitious company called Silverman Brothers. The game opens like a movie, with a view of a skyscraper, and then zooms inside to the office of CEO Thomas Crossman. He receives an email informing him that his wealth management company has been hacked by an outfit called Disrupt. Crossman tells his global security chief to investigate, and the security chief in turn gives the task to Margot Miller, who is in charge of U.S. security. She suspects an inside job.

Players interact with Miller and her suspects, two employees, to find the hacker. They tap on the characters to pull up conversations, touch objects in the room for clues and identify red flags. For instance, in Miller’s office, her password is written on a piece of paper next to her computer. Clicking her tablet reveals that she regularly emails work documents to her personal account. Both violate company policies.

Players also get to review corporate policies on a separate tab, with the most relevant portions highlighted. After the game, they take a quiz to find out how much they have learned. These results are tabulated so the company knows what areas it needs to strengthen, such as employee responsibility. After the quiz, the story unfolds to reveal the surprise culprit. In sum, it is corporate training transformed into a whodunit.

Contrast that with two hours of training that might be dreary and boring!

By interacting with the game, the company knows that the employee is active and engaged. In traditional training sessions, employees might not be paying attention. You have no idea if they’re daydreaming!

Can your organisation benefit from a better-informed employee? 

By letting employees play out actual scenarios in a game, they become better informed about a topic. This minimizes legal and other risks to the company. The twin trends of people flocking to mobile devices and the popularity of the IPad made this approach even more feasible. With the pricing at about half the cost of what organisation spend for training because the mobile game takes only 50% as long to complete, thereby tapping into another trend: corporate cost-cutting. 

To see these apps in action call Paul Wright on 0121 222 5599.
 
                                                           

Wright Solutions is a specialist HR Consultancy. We attract, place and develop the highest calibre candidates in Executive, HR and Learning & Development roles. Our service is more than recruitment with our training solutions that give Leadership and Management teams the competitive advantage for today and tomorrow.


 
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Tuesday 11 September 2012

App Turns 'Dull' Employee Training Into a Game


Compliance training will never be the same again! We have leveraged mobile apps to turn compliance testing into a game-like experience in an effort to make mandatory training less tedious to employees. The app has the look and feel of a computer game but provides employees with training on topics things like Information and data security, sexual harassment and compliance. 







Instead of reading boring documents or watching corporate videos, “training” can now be completed in 15 minutes of gameplay. Employers can measure the progress of players, and the app is compatible with both iOS and Android apps and can be played on any computer hooked up to the web. Training games can also be customised based on a company’s needs.

While training may never be fun, we think a gaming aspect is more memorable than flicking through a flash-based lesson or conventional presentation.

Two things underpin the approach. The first is that playing games engages people in solving problems and motivates them to do it. Alongside that is the story-telling aspect, which improves people’s recall of what they learn. So we can take something dry about insider trading or Sarbanes-Oxley [American accounting regulations] and slip that into a game, a story, and we know that people are much more likely to remember it than with other forms of training.

To see the apps in action call Paul Wright on 0121 222 5599.
 
                                                           

Wright Solutions is a specialist HR Consultancy. We attract, place and develop the highest calibre candidates in Executive, HR and Learning & Development roles. Our service is more than recruitment with our training solutions that give Leadership and Management teams the competitive advantage for today and tomorrow.


 
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