Started in August 2023 by Joseph Willis, owner and Director of Lastminute Care & Nursing, the Guild aims to enhance standards in the industry and spotlight Recruitment and Employment agencies committed to advancing quality practices and raising industry standards.
As an agency that has always prided itself on straight-talking honesty and professionalism at all costs, True Recruitment Solutions is proud to be the latest member of this growing community.
Joseph launched the Guild of Quality Employment Agencies with a cost-free model, complete with a universally applicable code of conduct. This inclusive approach caters to small, medium, and large organisations, ensuring that financial barriers do not hinder recruitment start-ups and individual recruiters from accessing quality standards and association memberships.
“We eagerly anticipate enhancing the benefits for Guild Members, enriching their experiences through networking and training events, introducing annual awards, and disseminating rejuvenating content such as success stories, expert advice, and information-sharing to facilitate continuous improvement,” Joseph elaborated.
Those interested in joining the guild at no cost can visit https://gqea.org. For further details or to reach out to the guild, email membership@gqea.org.
The concept of Workplace Wellbeing is not a myth created to excuse poor performance or mask laziness. Neither is it some woke phenomenon created during the pandemic. It has been a vital ingredient in any good employer’s arsenal for many years now, and the fact that it is now on everyone’s agenda shouldn’t dilute its importance.
The fantastic news is that many employers really do get this today. All of the employers I work with get this. And they live it too.
But what if your employer has only 1 employee, and what if that employee is you?!
One (Wo)Man Bands Are Not Excluded
If you run your own business and don’t employ anyone else to work in that business with you, there is a natural tendency to view yourself as different to other employees:
“I don’t really count as an employee, do I?”
“I don’t have time to take breaks because it’s just me.”
“I don’t mind working until midnight or on weekends because it’s my business.”
These are the familiar assertions we will have all told ourselves from time to time since starting our own business.
And the chances are you don’t know what your “take home” pay is going to be each month, let alone have workplace policies in place that protect and support you.
I would like to suggest that, whilst a formal policy isn’t perhaps relevant or necessary, some kind of pact with yourself, to follow some simple and healthy practices that enhance your wellbeing at work, is essential – both for your general mental health, but also to support business growth. After all, you are the only person responsible for the growth of your business, so if you’re not on top form neither will your business be!
My Story
I have had a pretty hectic couple of years on a personal level, full of big life decisions that have resulted in big change, both practically and emotionally. And, whilst I have maintained my business throughout, I have to be honest and acknowledge that I have not grown it during that time. And whilst some of that is down to some very real practical and logistical considerations, a lot of it has been down to me allowing my workplace wellbeing to fall so far down “the list” that it no longer even occurred to me.
Two weeks ago I moved to Brighton, after deciding some months ago that I needed to make one more big change in order to continue my personal growth and also to refocus on my business’ growth – and that change was to live by the sea.
And so, after a week of sorting and settling, including getting my new workspace just right, this week I have been taking time to make lunch every day, leave the house with my go cup and cute little lunch bag, and take 30 minutes to go and sit on the beach to eat and just be. The practice of making and taking lunch in itself has already given me new structure and a newfound sense of purpose. Add in the fresh air, physical movement and peace that comes from spending some time outdoors, and I already feel reinvigorated and refocused, and more motivated than I have in a long time.
So motivated that I am now writing and sharing my first blog post in nearly 2 years (almost to the day).
Your Story
If my story resonates at all with you as a fellow lone business owner AND employee, then please consider the benefit of allowing yourself to also incorporate some kind of manageable wellbeing practice(s) into the running of your business. I’m not suggesting that you need to uproot your entire life in order to do so! But a small shift in the way you think about yourself will result in a huge shift in the way you think about your business.
In
my last blog post at the end of September I looked at the importance of Innovation
from a candidate’s perspective, encouraging them to use creativity in their job
search at a time when it might feel like they’re banging their head against a
brick wall.
Well,
shortly after writing that piece I hit my own metaphorical brick wall, and realised
that I needed to take a dose of my own medicine and think more innovatively
about my business.
This
is going to be a very short piece this month as I focus my attention on action
and moving forward rather than indulging in too much introspection and
reflection. But I will remind myself of the words I wrote at the end of my
August blog, which both celebrated some lucky and much needed post-furlough
success, but also warned me of the fact that “this” isn’t over yet:
“I’m under
no illusion that it’s still extremely tough out there and have come to terms
with the fact that after this short run of fortune may come a period of
knocking on doors and finding nobody there. But having seen a bit of light I
now feel that things will come good the end, and by staying focused on
what you can offer (to your clients if you’re a recruiter, or to an employer if
you’re a candidate), and by remaining positive and true to yourself, I believe
we can all play a part in making that happen.”
Like many business owners facing the shock of the global pandemic, I have had to come to terms with the fact that if I don’t flex my business to match the needs and challenges of the current marketplace I will be putting it at risk, and more importantly will be doing both myself and my clients a disservice. So I put my Innovation hat on and realised that my 20+ years’ experience has more to offer than just straight recruitment consultancy.
And so, while recruitment takes a backseat for many of the Employers I work with, I have been working on putting together a set of additional business services targeted at some of the key people-focused areas that Covid-19 has impacted, which I am excited to be launching next week!
By focusing on ALL that I can offer my clients the brick wall is now behind me, I’m feeling positive again, and I’m putting myself in a position to play a small part in making things come good in the end.
In my last blog post I mentioned I’d participated in a survey recently which asked several questions about our experience as recruiters in the post-pandemic world, one of which asked what are the 3 most important attributes in candidates at this time. Alongside “Resilience” and “Adaptability” I ticked “Innovation”, because, as I said then, I believe we must all be more creative in the way we operate these days, be less afraid of suggesting new ideas, ways of working, etc – as recruiters, candidates, employers, and employees.
Focusing
on candidates for now – for obvious reasons – what does it really mean to be
more creative, more “innovative” as a jobseeker, and why is it so important,
now especially?
You will likely have your own thoughts on this, and I think it would make a good subject for someone far more technically proficient and more adept at public speaking than myself to perhaps podcast about. But for now, let’s start with the OED definition of what it means to “innovate” so that we have something to benchmark our thoughts against:
“To make changes in something established, especially by introducing new methods, ideas, or products.” (In business terms it’s often viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements, unarticulated needs, or existing market needs.)
Let’s look at a short case study that in my opinion neatly addresses both the What and the Why of Innovation from a candidate’s perspective, based on the above definitions:
Showcasing
Innovation
A
young man in his late 20s, Joe, has worked in the Events team at a renowned theme
park for the last 5 years and has a strong set of both specific and generic
skills. He now finds himself made redundant, along with many of his colleagues,
due to the devastating effects of Covid19 on the hospitality industry. Not only
that, but he is now looking for a job that doesn’t exist because what he really
wants to do is carry on what he was doing. So, he needs to be Resilient, Adaptable,
and accept that he has to look at other options.
One
option is to do what we all know many candidates are doing – throwing out their
CV into the unknown and hoping that if they do it enough something, anything, might
stick. “I’ll do anything, take anything,” is something recruiters hear a lot
these days, and it’s both heartbreaking and frightening in equal measure
because we know that, in spite of everything that’s going on, desperation is
never a good job search strategy.
But Joe has different ideas, and he doesn’t just want to be resilient, he also wants to be relevant. He knows that to secure a job he needs to show that he has the skills/attributes to do THAT job. He wants to demonstrate his strongest, most favoured skills (Creativity and Innovation) in the way that he approaches his job search, and then use that as a means to introduce his other, transferable skills.
Joe starts by using the basic html skills he’s learnt in his career to date to build himself a simple website showcasing his “CV”. Then he makes a list of companies he’d be interested in working for and the reasons why, and then a list of what he could offer those companies, and he uses these lists to create a credible and relevant Profile section on his website. Then he generates a QR code using some free software, customises it to link to his website, orders some printable cake-toppers, and prints the QR code on them. Then he buys some plain cupcakes – come on, give him a break, he can’t be expected to bake too!! – and sticks the toppers to each. He places each one in a postable, self-assembly box, addressed to the MD, CEO, Owner, Director, Head of HR, etc for each company he’s targeting (thank you LinkedIn!), along with a short, individually tailored letter by way of introduction.
Not only will the recipient be more likely to take time to read this “CV”, they will also be more likely to believe what it says, because when Joe states that his transferable skills – those that he can use in ANY industry, not just the one he’s worked in for the last few years – include Creativity, Adaptability, Determination, Ingenuity, Basic Web Design/Development, etc, they’ve already seen them in action. And whilst not every – if any – company that Joe’s targeted will have a suitable vacancy at that time, the chances of them contacting him when they do are high, and could mean that the vacancy never even makes it to a job board, or to someone like me!
Be
Like Joe
The use of an “Edible CV” is a brilliant way of showcasing both WHAT it means to innovate – you take something we all use every day, a CV, and you switch it up a bit so that it better addresses/stands out in the current, saturated and messy, job search climate; and WHY it’s so important to innovate – because if you keep doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result, well, we all know where that leads.
So,
Be Like Joe and make Innovation YOUR number one transferable skill. It will ALWAYS
be relevant.
Today marks the end of my 2nd month back in business post-pandemic
and so I thought I’d review things so far, both to keep myself in check but
also as a way of reaching out to others who have experienced either a big break
in business and the subsequent recovery journey, or simply big changes in their
business, or both.
I am happy to say that – in spite of a few (inevitable?) bumps in
the road and the odd day of feeling a bit despondent (perhaps also inevitable)
– the story so far is a positive one. I hope my fellow recruiters (and everyone
else) are starting to see and feel the same.
It started with the “white paper” I wrote upon my
return, which not only gave me a critical insight into the effects of the
pandemic on our industry but also put me back in the driving seat – knowledge
is power, as someone far more erudite than I once said. It also gave me
something useful to share with my clients. I knew that recruitment would – most
likely anyway – be the last thing on their minds at this point, but the
insights that I’d gathered together in my research were, for the most part,
relevant to all employers not just recruiting employers. And it started the
conversation between us again – a chance to reconnect, empathise, console, and,
above all, look forward. It also put me back in touch with some clients I
hadn’t worked with for quite some time, as they responded gratefully and
positively to the work I had shared with them. And one of those old connections
is now talking to me about a potential piece of recruitment for the final
quarter of this year!
Back in the Game
Once you remove the financial motivation in your business
activity, in favour of simply focusing on getting back in the game – and just
doing something proactive and useful – you can in fact uncover untapped
potential you would have perhaps missed whilst in the midst of all that success
you used to enjoy (and perhaps take for granted?) before Covid19. I have certainly
taken that as an important – and long-lasting – lesson from all this.
I am relieved to say that following this initial period of
research and reflection I managed to get in a couple of jobs from existing
clients, and another from one I hadn’t worked with for a few years, all of
which I have now thankfully filled, and, perhaps most importantly, with
candidates who had either already lost their jobs due to the pandemic or were
at great risk of doing so.
And so what about the next few months?
I’m under no illusion that it’s still extremely tough out there
and have come to terms with the fact that after this short run of fortune may
come a period of knocking on doors and finding nobody there. But having seen a
bit of light I now feel that things will come good the end, and by
staying focused on what you can offer (to your clients if you’re a recruiter,
or to an employer if you’re a candidate), and by remaining positive and true to
yourself, I believe we can all play a part in making that happen.
I took part in a supplier survey this week and one of the
questions was, “What do you consider to be the 3 most important attributes
in candidates at this time?” I ticked the following: Resilience, Adaptability
and Innovation. The first two are pretty self-explanatory, but I
chose “Innovation” because I believe we must all be more creative in the
way we operate these days, be less afraid of suggesting new ideas, ways of
working, etc – as recruiters, candidates, employers, and employees.
I’ll be looking at this in detail in my next Blog post, but, for
now, it’s back to the drawing board.
Over the last nearly 4 weeks since I started my recruitment business back up following furlough, I’ve been spending a lot of time reflecting on personal changes but also learning about the commercial changes that this global experience has resulted in. Some lessons and effects will be short lived in nature, but others will underpin and fundamentally alter the way we live and work for the long-term, even permanently.
So I started working on a 1 page document to highlight some of the key issues the pandemic has raised from a Candidate/Employee perspective, with accompanying ideas around managing the effects on Employers, with a view to providing my clients with an overview of some of things they will need to consider from now on.
I don’t know about you, but I’m the kind of person that likes to be busy – and not just busy, but also productive. I enjoy doing something that produces a result, I suppose. Hence working in recruitment – it matters to me, it has purpose. I also enjoy doing something that at the same time uses my grey matter sufficiently to keep me sharp enough to engage in the rigours of everyday life. Which is why, on 26th March, when I made the decision to furlough myself from my one-woman show, I knew I would quickly tire of the fact that those rigours from then on would mostly entail deciding what flavour soup I’d have for lunch.
And on top of this I had the niggling thought in the back of my mind (as I started to debate the merits of reliable old Heinz Tomato versus Yorkshire Provender’s rather more fancy offerings) that in order to be good at your job – whatever it is – requires you to be busy doing it in order to maintain the skills it takes. What’s the saying, Use it or lose it? Well, indeed, if you stop doing something for long enough you will naturally become less familiar with it, and the same goes for any period of unemployment – however it has come about.
And so I found myself in the same position as many others during the Covid19 crisis, and just as vulnerable to the “use it or lose it” trap. But, thanks to a contact in one of the incredible voluntary organisations in my local area, I found myself a fabulous opportunity to use my skillset for good at this time. At the beginning of April I set up (and have been managing since then) a Telephone Befriending Service to give comfort and support to those who were either shielding completely or who simply found that the crisis had exacerbated feelings of isolation and loneliness that were already present. Using my recruitment experience I matched Residents to Volunteers in the most thoughtful way possible, using the information I gathered in my initial calls with both parties. And, over the last three months since getting started, we have discovered that such feelings and needs are of course, in some shape or form, ever-present in our community, and so our intent is that we will continue this service beyond the lifetime of Covid-19, which I will continue to be involved in post-furlough for as long as time allows.
I can’t express how grateful I have been to have had this opportunity. It gave me a reason to flick that switch every morning, a chance to continue to be productive, a way of protecting my mental health, and, ultimately, from a professional perspective, a way of ensuring that I would be as ready as ever to pick up with my clients whenever they were.
So I had intended to write this “diary entry” last Friday, as another end-of-the-week progress report. (And please understand this is a report primarily for myself. I don’t for one moment think that I am suddenly the business equivalent of Kim Kardashian. I recognise that, for now at least, my social media journey is at the humble beginnings stage where I need to grow my online reputation and build my target audience to where they might at some point be interested in what I report.). The reason I didn’t was because, after fully immersing myself in week 2 of my “2020 Let’s Get Social” project, my brain was a little fried after stretching it with such a lot of new information and new learning, and I just needed a moment to take a breath to review it all.
So, week 2 was amazing! And thanks entirely to someone I mentioned in my last entry, Luan Wise. Because of the work I’d already done I was starting to receive email updates from her, and one of them had included a link to the book she had written a couple of years ago – “Relax! It’s only Social Media.”. So I bought it. And last week, alongside my “actual job”, I put decent chunks of time aside to read and absorb it fully, writing copious notes with highlights and action points, which I will now use to shape my social media plan and guide my social media journey.
One of the most important – and comforting – takeaways from my study last week was that social media in itself is not the answer. No matter how many Likes, Follows and Shares you achieve in the Social Mediaverse, unless you manage to convert those into real, HUMAN-based relationships, they’re actually pretty meaningless.
And so I will end this post with a link to an article that Luan wrote back in 2014, whose content is truly “evergreen” and is as relevant today as it was then – perhaps even more so as we all dive deeper into the online world and thereby risk circumnavigating the real one entirely:
Every January I do a simple analysis of the previous year, to make sure I am maintaining the level of service to my clients I promised them (and myself) when I started out. And when it comes to a metric review there are only 2 things I look at, because to me they are the only benchmarks that are meaningful when asking yourself the question, “Am I really earning my fees?”.
First, I look at the interviews achieved from CVs submitted for a vacancy, as this shows whether I have really understood what my client is looking for, and whether I can live up to the expectation that by using an agency you will cut down on your time to hire. In 2019 84% of the candidates I submitted for a role were interviewed – so just over 4 out of every 5 CVs were deemed to be a good match.
Second, I look at the placements achieved from interviews. Last year 82% of my candidates interviewed were successfully hired – again, about 4 in every 5. The average ratio for “interview-to-hire” is 4.8 to 1 – i.e. 20% of candidates interviewed will be recruited.
“At True Recruitment Solutions we truly understand how to identify the needs and wants of both our customer types, and our expertise is in matching those two together.”
Well, it’s time. I am buzzed, I am psyched, I am hyped, and
I am SO going to nail this thing.
I am finally putting some energy into getting to grips with
the digital marketing phenomenon that is Social Media. I want to be part of this
modern miracle and bathe in its connective power.
And I don’t mean just having a Twitter account and a LinkedIn
profile. Even I’ve had those since December 2011 when I started my company.
I mean I want to understand how these platforms (as they’re affectionately known in “the community”) – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn – can actually create meaningful connections between parties who either need, want, or are somewhat interested in, each other’s products and services.
And at this stage I want to learn how it all works, and
enjoy its bounty, without paying a single penny (or tenge, as I am actually
writing this blog post from my home office in Atyrau, Kazakhstan. Thankyou
technology for making that possible!)
So, during this first full working week of the new year I’ve made what feels like a great start. All the activity I’ve completed so far feels like it’s moving me closer to my target audience, and, importantly, like it’s repeatable AND scalable. Winner winner chicken dinner as my hubby would say 😊
2020 Let’s Get Social – Week One Done List
Redesigned my website (ensuring that it is user
friendly on mobile devices as well as desktops/laptops), and updated my client service
offering (www.true-recruit.co.uk )
Updated my LinkedIn profile to be “All Star”
status
Joined a handful of relevant Groups on LinkedIn
and started a (social media related!) conversation on one of them
Uploaded some original content to my LinkedIn
page and shared across other platforms
Created Lists on Twitter to make sure I’m seeing
relevant content first
Updated my Facebook Business Page with a new
cover picture and made sure my Profile was 100% complete, and sent out
Invitations to Like to all of my personal contacts (after all, every friend has
a friend who’s a potential candidate, or is a potential candidate, right?!)
Created a business Instagram page and started to
follow both friends and also relevant business pages
Followed all of my existing and prospective/wishlist
clients on all platforms where they have a presence
Diarised to review my social media daily and
update where I have something useful and interesting to share or say
