RELEVANCE, RELEVANCE, RELEVANCE and your teeny, tiny window of opportunity!!...By Darren Saul

Lately, more so than ever before, something has struck me. I receive hundreds of phone calls a week mainly from candidates applying to my roles (if they were from clients I would be writing this article from my yacht on Lake Como) and there seems to be a very common pattern which I feel is in URGENT need of addressing.

Let’s take a step back for just a second.

I am writing this article from the perspective of the Job Seeker/Recruiter phone interaction however one could definitely adapt it to just about any situation that requires 2 or more people to communicate for a particular reason ie. everyday work or life.

Nowadays we are all (recruiters as well) extremely message-rich and time-poor. We have more than our share of information (both requested and unsolicited) and thus if there is anything that we must think about during an interaction of any sort it would have to be RELEVANCE ie. please get straight to the point and stop rambling or you’ll lose me forever!

And that might be a terrible waste for both of us because you probably are a person of value - you just haven’t ENGAGED me enough initially for me to realise it and the window of opportunity has shut…probably for good because I have now perceived you inaccurately and have thus neatly placed you in the same box as all the others labeled “put off to a later date and maybe even after that!”

Now of course I am probably being a little harsh here but I do so to make a point.

SO WHAT IS THE POINT?

When candidates have a recruiter’s ear on the other end of the phone they MUST keep it simple and relevant to the role at hand (“KISS”).

I speak to dozens of candidates every day and I ask most of them to please give me a quick and relevant snapshot of their background – I usually receive the exact opposite!

MAJOR REASON: Lack of preparation ie. lack of forethought about what they actually want to achieve as a result of the call.

CONSEQUENCE: Rambling and a poor chance of progressing to the next stage!

RESULT: Frustrated candidate and frustrated recruiter.

Here’s what you can do to avoid this:

1. Think about the desired outcome of the call before you make it
2. Ask for permission to have a brief chat – VERY POWERFUL!!
3. Prepare a 30 sec. personal commercial that gives the recruiter a snapshot of who you are, what your specialty is and thus demonstrate how well you fit the role
4. Practice executing it! – keep in mind your voice tone and body language (which can be detected on the phone eg. a smile)
5. Use intelligent questioning to engage the recruiter and qualify the opportunity rather than rambling…(prepare the q’s)
6. When the opportunity arises (and it will) then elaborate and SELL!
7. Remember to “KISS” and you will achieve much more

NOTE: Always do the above BEFORE sending in your resume!!

And you wonder why recruiters never answer or call back...

JOB INTERVIEWS – The holy grail of CONDUCTING them and ACING them!…By Darren Saul

Whether you are the interviewer or the interviewee the job interview is by far the most important spoke in the wheel we know as the recruitment process. YET, even though it has been around for decades, there are STILL so many interviewers not conducting them to yield the maximum benefit and so manyinterviewees not having the slightest idea how to perform during them.

REASON: It takes lots of work!

For both parties the objective of any interview is simple and the same: to facilitate the identification of the right candidate for the role. Realising that objective, however, is not as straight forward. Now interviews can be formal or casual. They can beprofessional or they can be friendly. They can be conducted in an office environment or at the cafe’ down the road (I do a mixture of both depending on my mood and need for caffeine). All these styles are absolutely fine and there are no rules, however there are a few fundamentals that must not be overlooked:

• PREPARE
• ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE
• CREATE RAPPORT
• QUESTION
• SELL!

AND these apply equally to both the interviewer and interviewee.

“So how do we do this Darren?” you ask.

Easy, just apply these simple strategies and your interviews will be fun, exciting and effective. Who knows, they might even earn you a standing ovation!

PREPARE

• Interviewers: Read through the candidate’s resume properly before you enter the room.
• Interviewers: Identify which qualities (technical or non-technical) you are looking for prior to commencing.
• Candidates: RESEARCH as much as possible. Studying the job add, job description and company website. Do a Google (and now Bing) search for any relevant information. Speak to people who might know of the organisation or even work there.
• Candidates: Chelate and practice articulating behavioral based scenarios (ROLE PLAY) so that you can perform more confidently and give the interviewer as much useful insight as possible into your ethics, style, philosophy, attitude, skills and experience.

WARNING: The ease at which information can be accessed nowadays (especially on the web) makes it even more important to maintain a favourable personal, company AND web reputation – Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, Bing…

ENGAGE YOUR AUDIENCE

We all know what it’s like to be in a conversation with someone (or should I say be listening to someone) while being 100 miles away in our thoughts. Maybe we’re thinking about lunch, about the weekend or even how we are going to strategically escape from the conversation.

The same goes for an interview. If either party is not engaging their audience it’s a monologue NOT an effective interview!

SOLUTION:

• Be funny and friendly (but still professional).
• Be interesting.
• Speak with your hands.
• Articulate with passion.
• Be creative.
• Use the volume and tone of your voice to engage the audience.
• Use your eyes (very powerful tool).
• Sit or stand in different ways to keep the audience entertained.
• Mirror the body language tone of your audience but you don’t have to mirror their exact posture.
• Be enthusiastic.
• Be natural.
• Enjoy yourself.

CREATE RAPPORT

Spend a couple of minutes at the beginning of the interview creating rapport. It relaxes both parties and allows them to find their groove – allowing for a more insightful interview.

There are many ways to this and a little can go a long way:

• Question to discover common ground – sports, family, food, coffee, culture, language, film, travel. Try and stay away from the weather and “Did you find the place OK?” Waste of a question! Always leave politics and religion to the professionals!
• A little humour.
• A friendly smile.
• A gentle tone of voice.
• Body language that RELAXES the other party, NOT INTIMIDATES them.

No need to be 100% professional – it’s not a court case!

QUESTION

Questioning is EVERYTHING. If your questions aren’t effective at drawing out what you need, how can you (interviewer or interviewee) gather insight and make an informed decision?

The key is preparing and practicing your questions in advance!

Fundamental topics to cover for the interviewer are:

• Skills.
• Past experiences/situations relevant to the role (the theory behind “behavioural interviewing” is that the best predictor of future performance is past performance).
• What where the reasons for leaving previous job/s?
• What motivates the candidate?
• How do they like to be managed?
• What expectations do they have around remuneration?
• Candidate’s general life philosophy.

Fundamental topics to cover for the interviewee are:

• Is it a newly created role or a replacement and why?
• Career progression path.
• Training.
• Company stability.
• Management style.
• Company culture.
• How long has the manager been with the company and in the role?

SELL!

REMEMBER: The interview is just as much about the hiring manager selling themselves and their company as it is about the candidate selling themselves and their skills.

After gathering the information needed both parties must sell their agendas to the max! Think in terms of what THEY want! Good roles are hard to find AND quality candidates are scarce. It’s not good enough to go through the motions without ENERGY, PREPARATION, ENTHUSIASM, PASSION AND CONFIDENCE. The hiring manager and the candidates must paint the absolute best picture possible to ensure that they DIFFERENTIATE themselves from the rest!

Are you really ENGAGING your team or JUST MANAGING them? TAKE THIS TEST AND FIND OUT!…By Darren Saul

They turn up to work, they do what they are asked/told, they might even do a little work after hours. BUT ARE THEY INSPIRED? Better still: DO YOU INSPIRE THEM?

Inspiration needs no introduction nor excuse. An inspired person will hit you like a freight train with equal intensity at 8am or 6pm, work day or weekend, in the office or at the counter waiting impatiently for an espresso before racing back to his/her desk.

BIGGEST CLUE: The eyes!

The passion and energy just jumps right out at you through that committed gaze and it’s as contagious as hell. There is no stronger force to push someone through their comfort zone and get results.

SIGNS OF AN INSPIRED EMPLOYEE:

• Confidence
• Passion
• Energy
• Enthusiasm
• Willingness to learn
• Honesty
• Team spirit
• Pride
• Uncompromising work ethic
• Self-motivation

“How do you inspire your people?” You ask.

ANSWER: Good question! Read on.

One of the greatest gifts known to man is the ability to inspire and engage. It’s the difference between being GOOD or GREAT. The rewards are infinite. You will earn respect, trust and loyalty. You will benefit from increased productivity, profits and stronger team morale. You will evoke leadership and creativity!

TRY THESE:

1. Treat your people better than you treat your customers
2. Delegate wherever possible and thus empower your employees to take ownership, build confidence and develop pride
3. Consult your staff on issues
4. Acknowledge them as much as possible without being fake (too much of anything can ruin your appetite)
5. Implement a staff mentoring/buddy system to train new staff with experienced members
6. Conduct frequent two-way reviews to build the lines of communication and confirm expectations (including career path management)
7. Create a friendly/approachable/fun atmosphere where people are happy (even better: proud) to work
8. Invest in training and development
9. Seek help with employee recruitment – recruiters are specialists in the recognition of inspired individuals
10. Pay them well!!

Yes, easier said than done, however if you’re not doing it and your competition is you risk losing your greatest asset!

“TO INSPIRE OR NOT TO INSPIRE” THAT IS THE QUESTION…

What has been the REAL impact of the economic downturn on IT Managers and their teams? How can we (recruiters) help? Sydney IT Managers explain...

Yes, we have seen it all over the past months – redundancies, recruitment freezes and frustration. HOWEVER it is not all doom and gloom! We can learn a great deal from times like these. In fact I would dare say that they are fundamental to our growth, both from a personal and a professional level. Before we can begin to seriously make positive changes in the name of development, though, we do need to understand the subtleties of the situation. How has the behaviour of IT Managers changed? What changes have their team members undergone? What would they like to see from Sydney’s finest (us recruiters of course)?

We asked and this is what we discovered...

There has been a definite swing towards contract hires when our managers have needed extra hands on deck. There has also been a strong tendency to recruit in-house (either directly or by outsourcing to their internal HR teams). Open communication with their teams has proven a fundamental ingredient to limiting any potential collateral damage brought about by uncertainty. In some cases redundancies have caused a period of decreased moral and disruption of daily activities, however frequent and open communication has paved the way to a rapid recovery. One very positive impact of the downturn has been the ability for managers to “catch-up” and “clean-up” and thus move into the realm of proactive management rather than purely reactive management.

Recruitment practices have definitely changed with an increase in “cowboy” tactics driven by desperation. But it doesn’t have to be so. Managers are looking to partner with their recruiters and thus we should be constantly striving to become those sought after TRUSTED ADVISORS to our clients providing them with invaluable insights into realistic salary/contract rate expectations, quality and availability of candidates, and realistic time-frames. I would say that niche specialisation is even more important than before! Managers are interested in flexible payment models that are better tailored to their needs. They want information on hiring trends in other sectors and they thirst for the provision of education and training for their teams.

Now is the time for re-innovation and renaissance! The beautiful thing about a downturn is the fact that it is always followed by an upturn. Let’s get ready!

SAUL RECRUITMENT - SUPPORT & INFRASTRUCTURE SPECIALISTS!!

The TRUTH about IT Professionals! What do they REALLY want from their colleagues and managers?...By Darren Saul

They say “you’ll never know until you ask” so that’s exactly what we did! We surveyed over 50 IT professionals of different technical flavours to find out once and for all what actually makes them tick – what are the key factors that contribute to their work satisfaction. What do they REALLY want from their managers and colleagues? No speculation, no second hand information!

Our IT professionals were asked to grade (1-5, 5 being very important) a number of different parameters and of course add any that we may have overlooked. As it turned out the most important ones were -Location, Management Style, Remuneration, Training, Career Progression, Work/Life Balance, Team Fit, Sense of Accomplishment, Acknowledgment from Managers/Colleagues and Other Benefits (eg. mobile phones, laptops, air conditioning, gym membership, access to corporate loans and financial planning advice).

Pretty extensive list – wouldn’t you agree?

Well as one could imagine there was some degree of variation (after all we are dealing with human beings who are also IT people) however there were a select few factors most important to our technical knights in shining armor that came through LOUD and CLEAR!Remuneration, Management Style, Acknowledgment and Career Progression all rated 4-5 by every individual surveyed. Funny enough and contradictory to what I had always believed, Training averaged 2-3!

There you have it! If you want to keep your most valuable assets happy make sure that they are being remunerated at least according to market rates, make sure that you develop the best way to manage and engage each individual daily (and they will be different), acknowledge their strengths, value and accomplishments, and wherever possible co-develop a defined career progression path for them.

The one very INTERESTING thing that came out of this exercise is that not one of our IT Professionals sounded even the slightest murmur about the need to work with up to date/latest and greatest technology! I’ll leave that one to you…

Good old-fashioned conversation! A fundamental ingredient too often overlooked when searching for opportunity. Antennas up!...By Darren Saul

Facebook, Skype, SMS, Twitter, Blogging, email - look how far we’ve come and isn’t technology fantastic! Absolutely, I am the first to embrace it, HOWEVER, look how much we have left behind!

Particularly in this economic climate most of us are finding ourselves in the position of needing to identify opportunities. Whether we are looking for a job, more business or simply more contacts, we are all hunting for something. With so many mediums out there with which to interact nowadays it’s so easy to be swept up in the technology tide and forget that fundamentally we are still human beings - and what were human beings actually built to do? Interact with other humans, not technology.

Now, coming from an IT Recruiter this may sound a little strange, however I assure you that I do speak from personal experience. Over the past few months the need to develop new business relationships has forced me to sharpen my prospecting skills and I have been constantly astounded by the opportunities that have presented themselves while immersed in good old-fashion conversation (preferably face to face). This has not necessarily occurred during a planned business meeting but also through GENUINE conversations with neighbours, patrons at the regular watering hole (caffe’ across the road), car park attendants, and even the caretaker of my building.

With regard to Job Seeking, I have heard a range of statistics however it is well-known that approximately 70% of job opportunities are never even advertised. They are obtained through 1st, 2nd or even 3rd generation referrals and why do you think that is? Exactly. Every conversation is a potential job interview and thus it is crucial to leave a favourable impression. Master the art of “active” conversation and you’ll never be short of opportunities.

Now of course there is a place for Facebook, Skype, SMS, Twitter, Blogging and email, but remember that only real genuine conversation has the power to unleash unlimited potential.

Antennas up!

SAUL RECRUITMENT - SUPPORT & INFRASTRUCTURE SPECIALISTS!!

Enjoy the journey more than the destination!!...By Darren Saul

As I continue to observe the world around me, I can’t help but notice the increasing sense of urgency and pace evident in everything we do. The world is at war, traffic is getting worse, drivers are displaying less patience for pedestrians, everyone’s life is so “hectic” and the simple act of waiting in a queue for an extra few seconds seems an arduous task. We seem to be caught in a strong current dragging us NOWHERE fast!

It’s time to take a step back and blend the old with the new. By the “old” I of course mean “ancient wisdom”. Pause, take a breath, and LIVE the moment. The journey is far more rewarding than the destination – let’s not miss it!

Now you might be wondering what this ever has to do with recruitment or career development. The answer – EVERYTHING. In fact, this simple philosophy can be applied to just about everything we do on a daily basis. Not only can it render your daily living experience more meaningful, it can also assist you dramatically in the achievement of any goal you might be working towards. Training yourself to be constantly aware of the moment will limit your tendency to focus too much on the small stuff. One moment is always followed by another, and brings with it a totally new set of circumstances. Dwelling on them too much will only distract you from focusing on the big picture. Now this might seem to be a contradictory statement – how can we focus on our long term goals if we are constantly thinking in terms of the present? Well living in the moment doesn’t necessarily have to always mean thinking in terms of the present. There will be plenty of moments of pure reflection and analysis. We can buy into negative and unproductive thought or we can think in a positive, useful and enjoyable way, while keeping our sights firmly on the ultimate finished line. Awareness is the key!

I was watching the latest Chris Rock comedy special the other night and Chris did a “bit” about the difference in mindset when thinking of what we do as a “career” or “just a job”. This relationship really stuck in my mind and is a perfect example of how enjoying the journey can be applied to the workplace. When we think of what we do as a career, we tend not to focus on the small disappointments and we strive forward with ease to achieve our long term goals. I’m sure you can fill in the rest…

I leave you with a couple of relevant quotations:

“Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success” Napoleon Hill

“The happiest people are not necessarily those who have the best of everything, but those who make the best of what they have. Life is not a question of how to survive in a storm, but how to dance in the rain!” Unknown.