Recruiters only learn by being coached in ‘real time’

As anyone who has been in recruitment for a while knows, the subtle and varied skills of our industry are best learned ‘on the job’, and they are always best communicated with the help of a mentor or coach, usually your manager, who can show how things work in real life. There are stats on […]
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A lesson in marketing from the Red Light District of Amsterdam

Not so long ago, I was in Amsterdam. Venturing out from my hotel, which was in the very centre, I was overwhelmed by the swarm of tourists and locals that plied the streets wandering, seemingly, without purpose. I sat at a café and pondered the mass of humanity. And clearly it was a hungry mass, […]
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Meetings are not sacred. Cancel a few, right now!

Last week I wrote about the scourge of lateness that plagues business these days, and I gave meeting start-times as an example of the disrespect many people show their colleagues. That blog post created a storm of comment, and some of the discussion centered on meetings themselves, and what a waste of time they can […]
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How did it get to be ‘OK’ for people to be late for everything?

This post may offend some readers, recruiters or not. But only because it’s going to cut close to the bone for many. And I don’t care if I sound old-fashioned, because actually it’s nothing to do with ‘fashion’ or ‘generation’. It’s got everything to do with basic good manners and respect for other people. So […]
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Three brilliant recruitment lessons…learned in Japan!

People often ask me about staffing in Japan, and how “different “ it must be to the rest of the recruiting world. Well of course Japan can be a perplexing place to an outsider, but 10 years of running a recruitment business there has taught me that, at the very core, success in staffing in […]
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Recruiters, don’t be sucked into competing on speed and price

Last week I blogged on why so many recruiters have a shallow understanding of what ‘competitive’ in our business actually means. And so how do we thrive in a competitive world? What is the way to differentiate in 2013 and beyond? Well it’s not cool to say it out loud, but as far as I […]
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Recruiters! It takes more than raw aggression and low prices!

There is one word you will always find in any analysis or even casual discussion about the recruitment industry. Competition Get two recruiters or more together, in any setting, and I bet that 90 % of the conversation will be about how competitive its all become and how to beat the competition. A few years […]
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Two new Recruitment Conferences worth attending

Over the past week I have committed to presenting at two RCSA conferences in Australia, which by the sound of the program and the quality of the other speakers, will be well worth attending. Below are details of the two presentations I will be giving, in Sydney and in Hobart, as well as links to […]
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Talent management will be the key as the market recovers

As the market recovers, one of the first impacts on our industry will be a revival of the temp and contract market. Temp-to-perm will be huge. Employers will see increased work volumes as the economy recovers, but will “dip their toes” into the labour market at first, hiring flexible solutions initially. But then, as momentum […]
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