Relationship Recruiting

What is relationship recruiting? It’s a term often bandied about in the recruiting industry but I’m not so sure that it’s fully understood or implemented. Relationship recruiting is about networking, connecting and conversing with candidates with the purpose of bringing them into your organisation. Recruiters, however ugly we are, are the face/voice of a company for candidates. We have to build a rapport with candidates, understand where they are coming from and not “process” them. This business is about people and so we should treat everyone as an individual; we need to give them our time, honesty and answer all of the questions that they have about our company.

Sure, we need tools such as recruitment databases in order to keep track of our progress with recruiting staff BUT such tools should not be used to replace talking, humour and warmth. Despite the downturn, there are still many companies recruiting, Lab49 being one of them; we are still in competition for those great candidates so have to work hard to differentiate ourselves from the moment candidates apply. If a candidate looks really good, call him/her and have a chat rather than just sending them an email. I appreciate that it can’t be done for every candidate when recruiters have an influx of applications but remember that we should treat the candidate with respect and let them know that we value them and their interest in our company.

When we build a good rapport with a candidate, we make a good impression and differentiate ourselves from the “processing recruiters”. By doing that, they are more likely to recommend us to a friend or remember us when they are next looking; “Hey, I think I’ll contact that recruiter I spoke with last year. She gave me a really good impression of the company and kept in touch. I’m looking again so I’ll see if she is still recruiting”. Job done.

 

Keep on running

A big shout out to my colleagues for the JP Morgan Corporate Challenge this evening. 6 of us (including me), are participating in this charity event. It starts at 6:30pm this evening at Battersea Park. I was initially worrying that it might be a really warm evening but given that this is the UK and it’s summer, it’s absolutely bucketing it down Wish us all luck!

 

London Calling

We’ve a new telephone number for the London office: +44 (0)20 7096 4274. Our fax number remains the same +44 (0)20 7248 8555.

 

Week-end (I know that you don’t write it like that!)

Okay – I appreciate your eagerness, I really do and I really want to speak with you too. There’s a “but” coming….; my weekend is for spending time with my family and yours should be too! My colleagues and I are generally available between 8am and 5pm each week day to speak with candidates which is pretty good. We don’t, however, schedule anything in for the weekend. My colleagues and I deserve a break at the weekend as do you.

Just imagine if we did schedule interviews in over the weekend; what kind of slave-driving company would you be interviewing to work for as you too, would be expected to work over the weekend!

If you absolutely insist upon speaking with me at the weekend, you should consider what level of attention I could give to our conversation when either a) changing my daughters nappy (yum), b) making “farty” noises whilst tickling her tummy or c) trying to restrain her from making a Jackson Pollack of my conservatory whilst I’m trying to feed her awful looking green stuff

 

Silly Bankers

Have a great Bank Holiday weekend… I will.

The following should be read in the style of the court scene in ‘A Few Good Men’.

Sales: ‘You want answers ?’

Finance: ‘I think we are entitled to them !’.

Sales: ‘You want answers ?!’.

Finance: ‘I just want the truth!’.

Sales: ‘You can’t handle the truth!…..Son, we live in a world that requires revenue. And that revenue must be brought in by people with elite skills. Who’s going to find it ? You Mr. Finance ? You, Mr. Operations ? We have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You scoff at the sales teams, and you curse our lucrative incentives.

You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what we know: …….That while the cost of business results are excessive, it drives revenue. And my very existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, drives REVENUE! You don’t want to know the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at staff meetings …. you want me on that call. You NEED me on that call!’.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to people who rise and sleep under the blanket of revenue I provide, and then dare to question the very manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said ‘thank you’, and went on your way. Otherwise I suggest you pick up a phone and make some sales calls. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you think you’re entitled to!’.

Finance: ‘Did you expense the lap dancers ?’

Sales: ‘I did the job I was hired to do’.

Finance: ‘Did you expense the lap dancers ?’.

Sales: ‘I am judged on the revenues I bring in!’.

Finance: ‘Did you expense the lap dancers ?’.

Sales: ‘You’re goddamn right I did!’.

 

Join the team

The candidate pool has increased considerably over the past few months due to the credit crunch. As many of you may be looking for a new job, I wanted to remind you of a piece of advice I wrote about a while back. Whether you are looking to work at Lab49 or anywhere else, please keep in mind that most interviewers want you to get the job! They want you to do well in the interview and so, should, do their utmost to make you feel comfortable.

In some companies, interviews can seem somewhat nerve wracking because the interviewer does little to ease the candidates nerves. This can be due things such as looming project deadlines that leaves them little time to speak with you, the interviewer may be inexperienced and so over-compensates by coming across as overly assertive rather than confident. My point being, it’s not generally going to be an issue with your candidacy. Sure, it’s certainly NOT a good thing that some interviewers are this way as they, to the candidate, are the “face” of the company and so should do all that they can to attract you to the organisation.

Let me make this offer to you. If you are preparing for an interview (whether it’s with Lab49 or not), feel free to drop me a email with any questions about how to handle interviews/interviewers and I will do all that I can to help you in your preparations.

 

Market Mayhem

As you are no doubt aware, the so-called “credit crunch” has had a significant impact on the world’s economies. Gordon Brown says that the UK situation is “containable” but the US economy is teetering on recession due to the fall-out from the sub-prime problems.

A good deal of staff from the big banks are getting laid off in both London and New York and are no doubt finding that there are slim pickings within the financial world. It goes to show that working in a large company does not necessarily protect you from the economic turmoil that is currently being faced. Lab49 has always been conservative in its growth and expansion into other countries and quite rightly so. Sure, we’re not a huge company BUT we are run very very cleverly and with some smart thinking and careful recruitment, we will continue to grow and expand in the current climate.

Our company was actually started in New York in 2002. As a financially-focussed technical company, I’m sure alot of people wondered what on earth our founders were doing given the economic fall out from the events of the 11th of September 2001. However, Lab49 was not only established in that tricky time, we actually grew too.

My message to those technologists who are looking for a new role; don’t discount smaller companies or consulting; we’re strong, we’re smart and we’re committed – why not contact our recruitment teams to find out more?

 

.NET Meetup – 3rd April 2008

So the .NET Meetup is tonight from 6:30pm at the Lab offices. We are very pleased to welcome Mike Culver from Amazon as tonights guest speaker. Please try to find the time to come along – it’s going to be a really cool event.

 

Talk to us!

The best way to get a real flavour for what a company is like to work for is by speaking with its employees but ONLY if those employees feel able to say how things truly are and what they truly think. You can get a really good idea of our culture by looking at the Lab49 blogs but being able to ask open questions of an employee would, I would hope, enthuse you about our company and give you an accurate idea as to what life is like here as a technologist.

You can actually do this whether you know a Lab49′er personally or not. Most of our staff, as you can see, have blogs and you are able to contact most staff via those blogs. If you’re interested in what one of my colleagues has to say and you like the cut of their jib, why not ask them about what they do here and what it’s like to work here? The people we employee are decent, open and honest people – they’ll tell you were we excel and where we don’t (the key to the second part of that is that we carry out frequent one-to-one meet ups to find out where we are going wrong and then make the necessary changes).

So, if you are interested in working with us but want more information before making any form of commitment to us, contact a Lab49′er. They’ll tell it like it is!

 

Teamwork

I am finding that some candidates are really focussed on contracting at present. I understand that the variety of project and great pay are a real draw but imagine working for a company that provides not only that but also offers career development, training and most importantly, a sense of camaraderie and team spirit.

Working independently certainly has its benefits but the power of the team is surely far stronger IF that team works coherently and effectively; if they share a common goal and focus. The combination of the interpersonal skills and technical skills of our teams create some groundbreaking and amazing applications and truly meet the needs of our clients. We share the same goal and vision which enables us the meet and exceed those requirements. We often see such qualities more effectively illustrated in nature; take a look at this video which truly illustrates the awesome power of teamwork when up against a seemingly unachieveable goal.