Welcome to our July newsletter. In this issue we look at the challenges of innovation in the recruitment sector and we have a free checklist for you to download.

Following on from last month’s checklist for becoming a fitter business, and taking advantage of the fact that we have the time to do that at the moment, our thoughts are turning to innovation.

The recruitment industry is an interesting example of new ways of working, largely from technology and psychology, being layered on top of an old model that has existed for many years; in some cases, similar to the model used when the executive search industry was born in the 1950’s.

Although our service is more geared to creativity and flexibility than most, how to innovate is still exercising my mind at the moment. I’d love to hear from anyone with a view about how recruiting should operate for the future…..service, methodology and pricing. In the meantime, here’s some of my thinking:

Recruitment

There are 3 key factors for recruiting successfully:

• Job – an in depth analysis of its purpose, scope and required experience and style; and consultation with all stakeholders to agree the brief. This is where it goes right or wrong.

• Market – research is essential to understand whether the job is fillable with a quality candidate at the salary you have in mind, and how to attract them

• Assessment – should be structured, matched to the job requirements and aimed at understanding who will be the best fit and why

And 3 areas for innovation:

• Method – technology has made the listing of jobs online and applying for them accessible to all. Could this be the death of the contingency-based agencies who add no value to their client base?

• Assessment techniques – online psychometric assessment can save time and money, and offers objective, well structured information to feed in to interview discussions.

• Supplier value – a very close working relationship between recruitment consultant and client can produce an excellent team to attract quality candidates. Choose a consultant who complements your in-house strengths and corporate style. Recruitment projects can be much less expensive, and more fun, when a trusted adviser is on your side!

For an explanation of these factors in more detail please click here for a free checklist.

Outplacement

And what about innovation in moving people out of the business?

Technology has dramatically improved the opportunities available for redundant employees to market themselves, but at the same time they need to handle all forms of electronic communication much more effectively. Also, the global recession has made networking a critical skill.

Employers are understandably asking themselves what shape their outplacement process should now take. It is possible to gain a better service that addresses the employee’s new needs, from a lower cost model that mixes face to face contact with electronic support. This is achieved by going back to basics and developing a flexible, modular framework (much like the one that I have been suggesting for recruitment).

For further information on a good example of this new outplacement model please click here for details of Fastrack - a practical response to redundancy.

Best wishes Janice

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