My top free social recruitment tools

For a number of years I have focused my resourcing activity around social media.  I believe it is a truly fantastic medium that allows a level of engagement that very few other channels can rival.  However, one of the main benefits of social media is the cost.  If you are a large corporate you can spend a fortune on it, but equally if you are a smaller business you can achieve many of the same results for free.  As someone who is often referred to as having short arms and deep pockets it is the low cost or free routes that appeal to me most! 

If you’re reading this you will have come via some social media route, so the chances are you know something about the medium, therefore I am not going to preach to you about the power of LinkedIn or Twitter; instead I want to discuss the tools that make such mediums effective.  Below is a list of the tools I use most frequently to recruit via social media.  It is not intended to be a definitive list, but just my favourites.  If you have any to add please do so; we’re all still learning about social media, so let’s share the knowledge!

• Google – This sounds a rather strange one to start with, but Google (or other search engines) are massively underused.  In particular Google is a wonderful tool to aid your LinkedIn searches.  If you conduct a search in LinkedIn you are limited to the results you receive by the type of account you hold and the number of people you are connected to.  However, if you conduct a search via Google you can gain access to everyone!  If you not sure how to conduct Boolean searches, then an easier option is to use Google’s advanced search tool to avoid having to be too technical.
• TweetDeck & Hootsuite – I personally prefer TweetDeck, but only because I am more used to it.  Both sites provide you with the ability to manage your various social media accounts, so rather than having to log into all of them you can do so in one fail swoop by using these sites.  They also provide an easy method to search Twitter.
• Followerwonk – The names of these sites are truly great!  Followerwonk allows you the ability to search peoples’ biographies on Twitter.  As many people will provide information about their location and career in their bios, this is an invaluable tool to reach out and engage with potential new hires.  You can also pretty much guarantee not many other organisations are doing this.
• TweetLevel – another useful tool to search Twitter, particularly if you are searching for a niche skill. An alternative site is Tweepz (I did say the name’s were great!).
• Socialmention – I have found this site useful if I am searching for a niche skills or trying to research a particular topic.  The site will search all of “the Universe” for mention of the topic.  As a tip, make sure you don’t have too broad a search otherwise you’ll have to wade through lots of unwanted information!
• FindPeopleonPlus – I will admit I am still relatively new to this site, but it is the best tool I have found to date that allows you to search Google+.  It may not need to be your central focus when resourcing, but you shouldn’t ignore Google+ as it has real potential to be an excellent sourcing channel.   But don’t take my word for it, instead you should take the far more credible word of Andy Headworth in this post who explains how to use Google+ and with some insight on Pinterest thrown in for good measure!

You will notice that there is a lack of information about Facebook.  The reason for this is that I have yet to find an app or site that allows you to use it for recruitment purposes that doesn’t charge you.  If you wanted to invest you could use sites such as Bullhorn Reach of BranchOut. 

Finally, there is an app or Google Chrome extension that will be released soon that will be invaluable when using LinkedIn.  Shane McCusker will be releasing an app soon that will allow you to see all the information of a 3rd degree connection on LinkedIn.  So this is definitely one to look out for.

Before you spend a fortune gives these routes a try.  Good luck!

Ed Scrivener

Has this inspired you to discuss HR?  Or actually discuss recruitment! Let us know about your favourite ways of using social media to recruit.

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The Future of Recruitment?

Welcome to Discuss HR, the HR blog written by Human Resources UK. 

I won’t wax lyrical  about today’s writer as it is me! My last post was about how you could improve your chances of finding a role by networking.  This post is about how you can vastly improve you ability t hire into your organisation.  (Ed Scrivener)

The Future of Recruitment?

The technophiles amongst you will not have missed the recent announcement to much fanfare of the latest phone from Samsung which will be controlled by movement of your eye.  However, what is surprising is that another device utilising the same principal has gone completely under the radar, which has the potential to revolutionise the recruitment industry and vastly improve retention rates.

The FES2 is a unique device that could have come straight from Q’s laboratory in James Bond, which measures the accuracy of candidates’ answers when interviewing.  I first came across this several months ago at a recruitment exhibition and I am aware of a number of my contemporaries that use it, however, I have struggled to find any mention of it in anything other than the most obscure trade publications.

In the short period I have been using the FES2 my accuracy in interviews has vastly improved as it easily highlights to me the questions I need to delve deeper with.  However, the real benefits will be long term as the idea of the FES2 is to ensure you’re making the right decision first time.

I appreciate I have been slightly aloof with describing it so far and that is partially because I wanted to express the benefits of it before describing exactly what it does, as this could cause potential ethical concerns.  The FES2 works on the principal of measuring eye movement during questioning and therefore candidates need to be closely scrutinised during interview via video equipment with real time results fed back to what is in essence a tablet.  The basic premise is that the movement of the eye when answering questions will indicate whether the answer is truthful or made up, or somewhere in between.  The natural response of the eye is to look to the right when recalling the truth and to the left when creating an answer – or lying!  Of course where the FES2 comes into its own is that it picks up the microscopic movements of the eye that you wouldn’t see without the aid of technology. 

I made a quip about it being used by Q, but I understand the origin of the machine was used by the military, so in essence the FES2 is an advanced interrogation device.  This in turn creates the ethical concern I alluded to earlier.  You do need to have a candidate sign a waiver before undertaking the interview, but so far less than 5% of the people I have invited to interview have declined the opportunity.  Playing Devil’s advocate you could argue that 95% of people have agreed to be interviewed in this manner due to the economic climate and the lack of opportunities, however, I feel in general this will benefit businesses immensely by ensuring they get the right hire every time – which will hugely reduce the average cost per hire.

I am conscious that this could almost be construed as an advert for the FES2 and I am very much independent of the manufacturer, however, I feel it is just too good not to shout from the roof tops about.  The creator Cal Lightman has stated he intends to develop further versions that will monitor heart rates and body temperature to truly give a fool proof system.  While this may sound like an elaborate interrogation or akin to an episode of Jeremy Kyle, I firmly believe in the long run it will truly revolutionise the way we hire talent into a business despite the potential ethical drawbacks.

You can find further information about the FES2 here.

Read about Ed and our other authors here

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Discuss HR is the HR blog written by members of Human Resources UK, the 10,000 member strong LinkedIn group dedicated to the HR professionals in the UK.  Discuss HR is published twice weekly and looks to take an insightful, informative and sometimes irreverent view on the world of HR – all with the purpose of generating a discussion.

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If you would like to be a guest writer for Discuss HR, you can find more information here.  Our next guest writer week is the week commencing 29^th April.

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Career Development for the Over 60s

Welcome to Discuss HR, the HR blog written by Human Resources UK. 

The new format of Discuss HR is well and truly up and running and you should be getting the gist of things.  Following on from her previous post “Stress and the HR Professional” we welcome back Wendy Mason who looks at how the over 60s can still develop their careers. (Ed Scrivener)

Career Development for the Over 60s

First I have to admit to a personal interest here; I am well over sixty.  Second, I have to make a confession; I still don’t really know what I want to do when I grow up.

David Willetts, the higher education minister, has spoken recently about encouraging older people take up degree courses. Quite a lot of over 60s take up degree courses already of course – in 2011/12, nearly 2,000 started a first degree.  Most of them were with the Open University with “The Arts Past and Present” being the most popular course, apparently.

               

But a history of art course is not what Mr Willets (who was known as “Two Brains” to my generation of Civil Servants) has in mind. No, what dear old David wants us to do is to “train”, so that we can cope with the pressures we will face as we work “well into our sixties”.  His comments follow a government report which has found that the country’s future economic success will depend on the skills and contributions of older workers. One in four people will be older than 65 by 2033.

So we are asked to abandon our studies in art, history, classical studies, English, philosophy, music and religious studies etc and concentrate instead on the skills that will be required at work in 2020. 

Dare I say it, I think the very intelligent Mr Willetts is starting in the wrong place. Based on my own experience, it isn’t what happens after 60 that matters so much as what happens in the years up to 60. 

I’ve had an extremely lucky career. Many moons ago, I joined a sector that was by its very nature conservative; the Civil Service. But it was also, at that time, one of the most enlightened with regard to equality of opportunity.  Let us not be naïve here.  I am not claiming that the organization I joined, the massive Department of Health and Social Security, did not reflect the prejudices of the age.  But the Civil Service was, and remains, committed to open competition. Once in, there was very little I could not compete for, after a period of time. I was not always on completely equal terms. but not usually that far off either.

So, being the gritty, determined “Midlander” that I am, I tried to talk my way into the famous “fast stream” of the Civil Service.  Note, that I had a nursing qualification rather than the conventional degree.  I was in the Fast Stream at about the same time as David, although there was a significant age gap between us. I think I came as something of a challenge to some of my peers but it shows you what could be done, even then.

Towards the end of my Civil Service career, the climate of equality and opportunity definitely outshone anything I’ve encountered since I left.  And that includes how they treated people of a certain age. Even in my late fifties, I still felt encouraged to develop, train and aspire. I received my last promotion, changed roles and changed departments at the age of 57 and it wasn’t considered odd.

So when I chose to leave at 60 – note the words “chose to leave” – it was quite natural to think in terms of what next and a new career. No, I did not commit to three or four years in University but I did do some further training and set off with confidence in to work in the private sector.

I’m pretty sure I would not have done so, without the encouragement I had had from my employer in the years up to 60.  They had not excluded me, made me feel too old or shown they felt I was unworthy their investment. My knowledge, experience and willingness to learn were respected and my personal development was encouraged.  All that meant that at 60 plus, I continued to see work-related learning as still relevant to me.

Looking round now I believe I was very, very lucky. I wish more people in the years up to 60 had their confidence boosted in the same way that I did.  Perhaps then they would be much more willing to take up the challenge that David Willetts has set them.

Read about Wendy and our other authors here

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Discuss HR is the HR blog written by members of Human Resources UK, the 10,000 member strong LinkedIn group dedicated to the HR professionals in the UK.  Discuss HR is published twice weekly and looks to take an insightful, informative and sometimes irreverent view on the world of HR – all with the purpose of generating a discussion.

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If you would like to be a guest writer for Discuss HR, you can find more information here.  Our next guest writer week is the week commencing 29^th April.

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Good work leads to productivity & performance

Welcome to Discuss HR, the HR blog written by Human Resources UK. 

There truly is a wonderful community of HR people on Twitter and today proves that.  Due to unforeseen circumstances our regular writer wasn’t able to appear today; a Tweet for help was swiftly followed by Megan Peppin, aka @OD_optimistcoming to the rescue! (Ed Scrivener)

Good work leads to productivity &  performance

The Work Foundation findings published in May last year find in favour of “good work” for boosting business performance and identify a number of organisational processes and dynamics that shape “good work”.  One way of explaining the concept of good work is Eurofound:

• Secure and interesting jobs that employees find fulfilling, which contribute to the achievement of high performance and sustainable business success
• A style and ethos of management that is based on high levels of trust and recognises that managing people fairly and effectively is crucial to skilled work and high performance
• Choice, flexibility and control over working hours
• Autonomy and control over the pace of work and the working environment
• Voice for employees in the critical employer decisions that affect their futures

I guess no surprises here; more reinforcement that management and leadership behaviour is the most significant factor in shaping organisational performance.

Here’s something that grabbed my attention – their findings under inequalities talk about the importance of recruitment:

“Gender, and other, inequalities persist in the workplace – but the underlying causes are as likely to be in processes and culture that set expectations which perpetuate disadvantage, as in the pay structures:

Tackling inequality means exploring whether the design of recruitment, assessment and promotion processes and procedures, often unintentionally, mitigate against equal chances of progressing through the organisation.”

Umm, what’s going on with recruitment?

So here’s the thing I wanted to write about – recruitment.

“The REC’s Medium Term Forecast predicts the recruitment industry’s annual growth at 3.6 per cent next year (2011/12) followed by 4.7 per cent in 2012/13, rising to 7.1 per cent for 2013/14 and 7.3 per cent in 2014/15. This represents a return to single figure growth over the next four years to reach a new peak of £30.8 billion in 2014/15.” From the Recruitment and Employment Confederation website.  

You say what??

The skills of recruiting when undertaken by the recruiting manager is in my view one of the most important learning activities that managers can do that is directly transferrable into all managerial work.

Here are some facts and some observations – how many of them do you agree/disagree with?

• People leave their jobs primarily because they are dissatisfied with their relationship with their manager/opportunities to discover and fulfil their potential
• People are the most expensive resource in the majority of organisations
• A workforce who feels valued and included is likely to be more motivated.
• A motivated workforce has more potential than a disenfranchised workforce.
• Difficult conversations, uncomfortable relationships are the most time consuming and complex problems many people have to deal with at work.
• Women are still paid less than men and there are less of them in senior roles that there could be.
• We have an ageing workforce
• Having a disability should not be a disadvantage.
• Recruiting the wrong person is costly and has negative impact.
• Recruiting the right person is costly and brings about benefits.

If you agree with just some of these, it begs the question of why we outsource recruitment of this most precious and important, time consuming and costly resource.

There’s a lot being discussed and written about recruitment at the moment.  The candidate experience is really variable and often poor (I’m being nice) - you just need to talk to anyone looking for job.  Filtering systems are subjective (the list of things that annoy recruiters is long and wide, just Google it) and therefore open to discriminatory practices.  More than 90% of HR professionals think that inequality is still rife in the workplace, particularly between the sexes.  Changing this surely must start right at the beginning of the process, flushing out unconscious bias at conception.  Employers too seem to see recruiters as a necessary evil, and yet are spending £30bn – a costly complaint.

I wonder too how all this outsourcing transfers to underlying attitudes towards staff – are they seen as commodity with a monetary value or a person with whom their manager feels both emotional and financial investment? Outsourcing doesn’t create accountability, just provides someone to blame if it doesn’t work out, and most central to my argument, managers don’t learn anything from it.

Do it yourself

Here’s why I believe recruitment if it sits with managers brings about amazing benefits:

• At each stage, there are rich experiences that will be directly transferred into day to day work and skills for the recruiting manager.
• Understanding the commercial aspects of recruiting, the time, energy, costs by designing and implementing the end to end process.
• Having to know the law on equalities at the outset, helps understand their own filters and prejudices and this insight gets transferred into every day decisions, choices and programme design.
• Undertaking interviews, learning to ask exploratory, probing questions, directly applicable to performance management, providing skilled constructive feedback and making evidence based decisions.
• Observing at assessment centres/evaluating other data collected through the interview process increases capability to collect objective evidence and increase capability to be fact based when providing feedback
• And importantly ownership and investment in the person recruited.  One mistake and more care will be invested in this timely and costly process.
• Oh, and HR should get less trouble shooting as recruiting decisions will be more carefully thought out, owned, managed and learned from.

I’m not suggesting that there is never a place for outsourcing; for bulk seasonal roles, for specialist search, for interim/FTC roles, and when you just have to, but currently managers are not getting the opportunity to develop these core skills.

Recruiting skills are transferable into all aspects of their work and financially, I can’t see how the time it takes to put into the recruitment won’t give an ROI as the emotional and economic investment is so much greater into the person they have recruited.

I know there are recruiters out there who are totally committed to professional standards and who are equally frustrated with some of the poor practice.  These I am sure are delivering both a great candidate experience (don’t hear lots of these I have to say) and providing wisdom and guidance through ethical and businesslike processes. Managers will make better partnering choices when they decide to outsource, if they understand, care about, and feel responsible for recruitment which should mean that recruiters become not the problem but the solution.

Is this just me then?

About the author

I’m Meg Peppinand I work with individuals, groups and organisations who are interested in exploring and achieving their potential. I work as a coach, a group facilitator and organisation change agent.

I also carry out research, write, and work with organisations on specific projects including evaluating funding impact, designing developmental tools and programmes.  I’m a trained mediator, and facilitate the Human Synergistics Advanced Accreditation Workshop – Leadership and Culture.  I’m currently working one day a week for Drake Music as their OD Lead as they grow their amazing work and reach.

I really care about inclusion and transparency, I believe that there is always potential in every situation.   I approve of having fun whilst working hard.

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Discuss HR is the HR blog written by members of Human Resources UK, the 10,000 member strong LinkedIn group dedicated to the HR professionals in the UK.  Discuss HR is published twice weekly and looks to take an insightful, informative and sometimes irreverent view on the world of HR – all with the purpose of generating a discussion.

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If you would like to be a guest writer for Discuss HR, you can find more information here.  Our next guest writer week is the week commencing 29^th April.

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Ed Scrivener - 2012

Continuing our review of our writers’ posts during 2012, today we arrive at none other than myself.  To avoid any criticism of being narcisstic I won’t eulagise about how great the posts are! (Ed Scrivener)

2012

• Missing the social point January 19^th
• Beware of big brother March 29^th
• HR, get out and network! June 7^th
• Too many roles July 18^th
• Not another remake October 17^th

2011

• Full back catalogue

About the author

Ed spent the best part of 10 years being an evil HR recruitment consultant.  After finding redemption he now works on the other side helping organisations optimise their direct recruitment channels, a role which allows him to focus on his passion, namely social media.  He manages Human Resources UK and organises regular networking events for the group across the UK.  He is also Editor of Discuss HR and occasionally his humour will creep into articles!

Blog | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter 

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What Did You Do in the War, Grannie?

Welcome to this week’s Discuss HR, the HR blog written for and by members of Human Resources UK.

This week we welcome back our resident HRD, Sheena McLullich who once again has written a thought provoking post.  Her article also heralds the last of the year from our panel of writers.  We will then be welcoming two guest writers before the end of the year.  In the meantime enjoy Sheena’s post. (Ed Scrivener)

What Did You Do in the War, Grannie?

Luckily I haven’t been asked this question – yet!

However, I’m about to make a confession which will, I fear, immediately invoke a prejudice in many people’s minds.  This could seriously impact my chances of ever being head-hunted or of being recruited into another company and could in fact destroy my future employability. 

Anyway, here goes …. I am a Grandmother – of five.

Actually, I’m called ‘Grannie’ (after my own Grannie who also spelt it that way) and, in my defence, I was 21 when my eldest son was born and my son was 22 when his son was born.  Do the maths, as they say.  Even though my oldest grandson is now five, this doesn’t make me old or even vaguely approaching retirement age, but it does invoke strong responses in some people when I’ve told them.  ‘I don’t think we’ve ever had a grandmother before’ was the response of one director and someone else suggested, in all seriousness, that I might want to reduce my working hours… he never got to finish that particular sentence!

My present CEO said to me during my interview ‘we have a young, metropolitan workforce and you don’t fit that model’.  He went on to say that in his view, that was a good thing as I’d been there and learned from the experience, which made me better able to advise and empathise with others and less afraid to make a  tough decision where necessary.  I’m really glad he did that as it gave me an opportunity to bring the subject into the open and to discuss how my life experiences could enhance the organisation.  Unfortunately not many CEOs share Jon’s candour or his attitude to diversity.  

I’ve been present at too many job interviews (both as candidate and interviewer) where someone has been rejected purely on the grounds of age.  ‘They won’t learn.’  ‘They won’t adapt.’ ‘They’ll be too slow’  ‘They won’t like change’ are common misconceptions. 

Like many ‘baby boomers’, I started my working life in the early ‘eighties.  Back then, the personal computer was just coming into common use.  There was no email, no social media, no internet.  If you wanted to find something out, you had to look up a reference book or ask someone else.  (Networking is not a new concept by the way!)  Since then we’ve mastered numerous versions of increasingly sophisticated software packages and coped with radically different ways of working – ‘won’t learn, won’t change’ – I think we’ve proved that exactly the opposite is the case. 

During my career I’ve had to deal with almost every challenge that working with people can throw at you.   I’ve struggled through recessions, coped with redundancy (from both sides) and had to handle some very traumatic situations, including some real human tragedies.   As you get older, I think you become less emotional and more resilient.  You’re less likely to panic when faced with something unfamiliar and more inclined to step back, assess the situation and decide on a course of action that won’t make things worse.   These are not skills that are taught in business schools – I know, because I’ve been there too. 

So, on my desk at work you’ll see a photo of five smiling little faces whose Grannie has a wealth of experience to share with them (when they’re old enough) but who isn’t ready to retire to a rocking chair for some considerable time yet.  

But I wonder, what will you see the next time you interview an older candidate?

About the author

Sheena began her career in Training & Development before moving to a generalist HR position in 1998.  Since then she has held senior HR roles for several SMEs in a wide range of industries. A Fellow of the CIPD and Member of the US SHRM, she has a keen interest in Employee Development, specifically in coaching and supporting managers to enable them to get the best from their people.  She was appointed as Director of People for SPA Future Thinking in September 2011.

Email | LinkedIn | Website

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Not another remake!

Welcome to this week’s Discuss HR, the HR blog written for and by members of Human Resources UK.

In a change to the schedule I am writing this week’s post (the stampede is defeaning) and I am really taking my penchant for tenuous links to breaking point!  This week I look at how recruitment processes mirror the world of the Hollywood blockbuster. (Ed Scrivener)

Not another remake!

Peter Sellers he was not!

For every Ocean’s Eleven there are three Alfie’s, Clash of the Titans or Total Recall or more pertinently seven Police Academy’s!  The film world seems to be increasingly intent on remakes and sequels.  In the last year alone the list of remakes in production includes the likes of The Dambusters, The Great Gatsby, Excalibur, The Twilight Zone and Dune to name but a few.  Rather than pen a new story, Hollywoodfeels the easy choice in this economy is to copy and tinker with an original idea.  The common theme with the vast bulk is that the original was a success, hence the belief the remake will be a success too.

This is not my attempt to become the next Barry Norman, although being paid to watch films would be a rather good profession!  I am sure some of you will have already guessed the analogy I am using.  Films are remade due to the commercial success of the original.  Invariably due to the success of the original the remake will prove a financial success, but nowhere near the original.  It will be remembered as a poor relation and fans will all prefer the original.  Let’s now use this analogy for the recruitment world.  How often are roles recruited with the intention of replacing the current incumbent with a copy?  The incumbent has been a success, so the belief is that hiring someone from the same background will also prove to be a success, but how often is this the case?  The new hire may do a good job, but were they the best person?  Of course, there are times that hiring an exact replacement proves to be a real success – in film terms Scarface, The Departed or Father of the Bride – but these occasions are due to a clear understanding of what made the original successful and using that to make the remake equally so.  Again, putting this in recruitment terms, it is not someone’s background but their aptitude and emotional intelligence that makes them a good hire and this is what needs to be focused on.

Unfortunately in both recruitment and film terms we are seeing more and more remakes at present.   A remake offers the safe option and due to the economic strife we’re all in, organisations are risk averse at present.  They feel the easy option is the safe option, but is this the best option?  Invariably no.

And for a bit of fun...

Worst Film Remakes

Psycho
The Wicker Man
The Stepford Wives
Alfie
The Pink Panther
The Ladykillers
Clash of the Titans

Best Film Remakes

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the Donald Sutherland version and not the Nicole Kidman version which should be on the list above!)

Ocean’s Eleven

The Magnificent Seven

Scarface

Father of the Bride

The Departed

The Thing

About the author

Ed spent the best part of 10 years being an evil HR recruitment consultant.  After finding redemption he now works on the other side helping organisations optimise their direct recruitment channels, a role which allows him to focus on his passion, namely social media.  He manages Human Resources UK and organises regular networking events for the group across the UK.   He is also Editor of Discuss HR and occasionally his humour will creep into articles!

Blog | Email | LinkedIn | Twitter | Website

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Too many roles!

Welcome to this week’s Discuss HR, the HR blog written for and by members of Human Resources UK.

No long winded intro as I’m writing this week’s post, so we’ll go straight into it… (Ed Scrivener)

Too many roles!

This week I have truly been afflicted with writer’s block.  I thoroughly enjoy writing, but I have found my initial drafts on topics such as the G4S debacle and the poor weather to be rather turgid and stale – any comments of “so what’s new” will not be warmly received!  Instead I finally found a topic worth writing about that truly brought together my two passions, namely recruitment and rugby!

The reality TV star, Gavin Henson

Last week a person known to some of you as a bronzed dancer and to others as an unfulfilled talented rugby player was given a final shot at redemption.  I am of course referring to Gavin Henson the Welsh rugby player/reality TV star who was signed by the Oxfordbased team London Welsh (it’s a very long story to explain the quirk in location!).  Gavin Henson first hit the limelight in the 2005 Six Nations tournament where his last minute penalty defeated World Champions England and led to an historic Welsh Grand Slam victory.  He was subsequently afflicted by numerous injuries and a rather misplaced desire to be in the limelight, which rather than being about his talent tended to be more about his relationship with the singer Charlotte Church, or more often his misbehaviour as a result of an excess of alcohol.  After years of support, his club side the Ospreys allowed him to leave to join the English side Saracens in order for him to be closer to his children in London.  After a handful of appearances and several histrionics he quickly moved to the French side Toulon, immediately rendering the good natured departure from the Ospreys futile.  No sooner had he arrived he was involved in a fracas with his team mates, allegedly due to the praise bestowed on his team mate, the consummate professional and absurdly talented Johnny Wilkinson.  As such, he soon left Toulonand returned to Wales to play for Cardiff.  To his credit he managed to stay longer than the few weeks he gave his two previous clubs, but no sooner had he settled down he was back to his old antics.  After a late night game in Scotland, he ignored a curfew and proceeded to spend the night drinking, resulting in very inappropriate behaviour on the flight back to Wales early the next morning.  Cardiffimmediately cancelled his contract.  After several months without a club, he was signed by London Welsh at the eleventh hour before the start of the pre-season.  Some see him as a marquee signing, others as a circus signing; what isn’t in doubt is that this is his last chance at playing top flight rugby and he needs to deliver.

Hopefully at this stage you’re still with me!  I bore enough people on rugby forums, so I don’t want to transfer that to here.  The purpose of the some what long-winded description was to describe Henson’s situation and transfer that to the work place.  As a recruiter I regularly meet professionals who have held a number of roles in a short space of time – very few have had such a colourful career as Henson, although I have heard some stories in my time!  One of the first things I have to do when speaking with a professional with such a career is to warn them that there will be a real challenge to overcome the view that they have held too many roles.  They are perceived by hiring managers as being a risk and liability, with far safer options available.  However, is the safe option always the best? 

The venue of the interviews...

I know one HR professional who has held 5 permanent roles in 5 years and yet they are one of the most talented people I know.  She has been rejected on a number occasions due to how many roles she has held before the organisation has even spoke to her to see her ability.  Returning to rugby, Gavin Henson received very few offers after his departure from Cardiff and you do have to question whether this was due to a perceived belief that there were better and safer options available?

Both in this blog and in the group we have held discussions relating to reasons for being rejected for a role, sector experience being the most common topic.  In those instances we have found that very talented HR professionals are not being invited to interview purely due to their sector experience.  We mostly have come to the conclusion that in the vast majority of occasions this is an unfair and unfounded judgement.  Therefore, I would like to put to you the question does the number of roles a person has held really attest to their ability?

P.S. I apologise for bleating on about rugby, however, you should count your blessings that I didn’t discuss how to tender your resignation and relate that to Brian Redpath’s departure from my beloved Gloucester– now that really would have been a (very) long-winded rant!

About the author

Ed is an HR recruitment specialist and social media trainer.  He holds over 8 years industry specific experience recruiting mainly for middle and senior HR management positions. He stumbled upon social media a few years ago and has since become passionate about the subject.  He now trains job seekers and independent consultants in social media techniques. He is the Group Manager of Human Resources UK and Editor of Discuss HR and occasionally his humour will creep into articles!

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Discuss HR is the blog for Human Resources UK, the leading LinkedIn group for those involved with HR in the UK.  Next week’s Discuss HR will be published on Thursday 26^th July and will be written by Leadership Coach Dorothy Nesbit.

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