We launched and run a networking event - OME Hospital Club. It was the brainchild of Kork (OME Client Services Director) and Gill Davies a former client. Its a LinkedIn group that meets once a quarter in the Hospital Club - hence the name.
I was initially worried that it would not take off - that people would get wrong idea that we were trying to be a kind of smaller version of The Firm but it has really flown.(with very little input from me!)
The rules are very simple
- attendees are in house recruiters but its not that tightly "policed" - we are a friendly bunch
- networking not selling (even from us)
- a small amount of content - but no presentations
- you can come and say Hi for 10 mins or be kicked out of the bar last (i will name no names)
- we get a sponsor (Monster and Creativepool so far) to network and inform the group of their offer. Both sponsors have been really well received by attendees.
Feedback has been tremendous and the 3rd event in september will we hope be the best yet and i guess what i am saying is the best things for your business can sometimes start with a 30 second conversation that is followed through and executed brilliantly. Dont wait for a genius inspirational idea to come calling.
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
Sunday, 26 June 2011
BeKnown - 1st Thoughts
So Monster have stepped into the fray into the much discussed social network solution for jobs by launching BeKnown loads of info in link and Matt has given his initial thoughts here.
Essentially - its introducing a LinkedIn type product to the Facebook audience (gross oversimplification i know)
So what do i think?
- the perfect solution does not (nor should it ever) exist to corral the platforms of social media into a neat job ad/app box. And i am sure Monster doesn't think its a panacea either.
- it's a pretty cool solution. Very easy to distribute, network, "follow" relevant companies, jobs, people.
- unsurprisingy but pleasingly they have put as much thought into how organisations may use it as opposed to just candidates. This obviously will help its commercial take up.
- There are many companies who want to "do" social and this may be a very easy way to dip toe in water.
- I hope Monster put a lot of money behind marketing it - as if they do and they get some momentum - this could be a massive game changer - could being the operative word as ever who really knows.
As for the business model - i will have to come back to you on that one!
Essentially - its introducing a LinkedIn type product to the Facebook audience (gross oversimplification i know)
So what do i think?
- the perfect solution does not (nor should it ever) exist to corral the platforms of social media into a neat job ad/app box. And i am sure Monster doesn't think its a panacea either.
- it's a pretty cool solution. Very easy to distribute, network, "follow" relevant companies, jobs, people.
- unsurprisingy but pleasingly they have put as much thought into how organisations may use it as opposed to just candidates. This obviously will help its commercial take up.
- There are many companies who want to "do" social and this may be a very easy way to dip toe in water.
- I hope Monster put a lot of money behind marketing it - as if they do and they get some momentum - this could be a massive game changer - could being the operative word as ever who really knows.
As for the business model - i will have to come back to you on that one!
Thursday, 23 June 2011
Digital First - possibly Digital Only - papers and agencies
Guardian made an announcement yesterday on "Digital First Strategy" which is kind of just a way of saying we are going lay off a lot of journalists (and sales, production etc) but we do have a plan. This is a bit of slap in the face of the counter intuitives who are proclaiming print to make a comeback any time soon.
Choices facing the large newspaper groups are
- either to radically reduce their cost base (and i mean RADICALLY reduce)- Guardian employ 630 journalists - the Huffington Post employs about 80
- or become playthings of very rich vanity publishers.
The similar choices for the traditional rec ad agency businesses are
- Radically reduce their cost base (many seem to have been pursuing this via multi stages for last 2 years)
- Reposition your business - WMW are largely employee comms/brand, Work and TMP are very much brand strategists to some degree
- Or go out of business as your lunch is eaten by the new models that have sprung up while they have been paralysed staring at the gaping holes in their revenue line
That is unless Roman Abramovich fancies buying up a couple of businesses in recruitment advertising to put on his mantelpiece.
Choices facing the large newspaper groups are
- either to radically reduce their cost base (and i mean RADICALLY reduce)- Guardian employ 630 journalists - the Huffington Post employs about 80
- or become playthings of very rich vanity publishers.
The similar choices for the traditional rec ad agency businesses are
- Radically reduce their cost base (many seem to have been pursuing this via multi stages for last 2 years)
- Reposition your business - WMW are largely employee comms/brand, Work and TMP are very much brand strategists to some degree
- Or go out of business as your lunch is eaten by the new models that have sprung up while they have been paralysed staring at the gaping holes in their revenue line
That is unless Roman Abramovich fancies buying up a couple of businesses in recruitment advertising to put on his mantelpiece.
Tuesday, 21 June 2011
Reasons to be Cheerful
Surely - it's time to call the private sector recruitment downturn over and has been over for quite some time. Everywhere i look there is activity or worst case talk of activity. Even our clients that are having their share prices whacked are still active in sourcing the best people to work in their businesses. And then we have organisations (including some of above)who want to really kick on and do very cool stuff indeed or worst case very necessary remedial work on their recruitment processes/attraction strategy.
From a personal perspective - OME's Reasons to be Cheerful include
- new staff Jamie Bailey and Sarah Casey - come on down!
- new clients - welcome aboard! LIDL, TGI Friday's, London Business School, NPL (part of Serco), Northgate Arinso and Go Ahead.
- new products - launching under JV a business called R4O - which is a natural product extension to what we do - more detail to follow.
So i officially hereby declare (with apologies to my friends in public sector)- this period of caution and nervousness over.
NB Expect the normal pessimistic, bordering on miserable author of this blog to return next week.
From a personal perspective - OME's Reasons to be Cheerful include
- new staff Jamie Bailey and Sarah Casey - come on down!
- new clients - welcome aboard! LIDL, TGI Friday's, London Business School, NPL (part of Serco), Northgate Arinso and Go Ahead.
- new products - launching under JV a business called R4O - which is a natural product extension to what we do - more detail to follow.
So i officially hereby declare (with apologies to my friends in public sector)- this period of caution and nervousness over.
NB Expect the normal pessimistic, bordering on miserable author of this blog to return next week.
Thursday, 2 June 2011
I agree with Nick.....
What is going on out there! Up until recently - i could go onto various blogs and forums on any day and find something i could completely disagree with - i could think the author was clearly a fool and a charlatan and consequently tell them just that in a funny (well to me anyway) and incisive way. There was so much abject nonsense out there, that it was like shooting fish in barrel. I am also well aware that there would have been some (clearly "fools and charlatans") that thought OME were 100% wrong on many issues too.
Now i keep finding well thought out balanced views supported by evidence or logic, and predictions with suitable ifs and buts rather than this is DEFINITELY going to happen.
So
- Is this a sign that this industry is growing up? established digital channels, adoption of the new in a controlled and measured way, progressive clients and suppliers on the same page. No established habits but a light and healthy cynicism of the new entrants to market, that means financial investment will come later.
- Have we become too consensual and staid, maybe a new establishment is forming ( i could get all Animal Farm on you here)
The one thing i know is that disagreeing and arguing was much, much more fun. Debating the value of spending £50K on Second Life, winning awards for YouTube Videos that no user ever saw, Big campaigns that had no decent response mechanism and not a thought for the user experience, and for my own part i remember saying that Twitter would never catch on.
Aaaaah, those were the days......
Now i keep finding well thought out balanced views supported by evidence or logic, and predictions with suitable ifs and buts rather than this is DEFINITELY going to happen.
So
- Is this a sign that this industry is growing up? established digital channels, adoption of the new in a controlled and measured way, progressive clients and suppliers on the same page. No established habits but a light and healthy cynicism of the new entrants to market, that means financial investment will come later.
- Have we become too consensual and staid, maybe a new establishment is forming ( i could get all Animal Farm on you here)
The one thing i know is that disagreeing and arguing was much, much more fun. Debating the value of spending £50K on Second Life, winning awards for YouTube Videos that no user ever saw, Big campaigns that had no decent response mechanism and not a thought for the user experience, and for my own part i remember saying that Twitter would never catch on.
Aaaaah, those were the days......
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
Love me not so tender
Got an invitation to tender on Friday that the organisation were very keen for us to pitch for, well that's quite nice i thought. Until i read it.
I won't go into pros and cons of long woolly tender docs that don't appear to be constructed in any way to find the best supplier or even the best priced supplier as many of them request costs for services that are at best low priority and worst pretty damn irrelevant. To be fair - i quite enjoy a well written tender process that goes out to a finite,identified group of relevant companies run by people who know broadly what they want to get out of the process.
The thing that got this one put into the eternal pending file was that it was a 3 year contract that was going to be pay by results. That is a fine principle and one we benefit from normally. However Year 1 of contract would be about setting the benchmarks/targets and therefore the supplier should not expect to make any margin from Year 1 (translation - supplier would take a considerable hit in Year 1). The client would then set the targets for Year 2 based on Year 1, and targets for Year 3 based on Year 2.
In brief - what is wrong with the above
1. The logic is that it would serve supplier well to perform poorly in Year 1 and get soft targets. Kafkaesque in its silliness.
2. The client sets the targets (not client and supplier) - again logically why not keep ramping up targets - supplier cannot do anything about it. Maybe i should try that on the biz dev team at OME.
3. I have an inbuilt principle not to do loads of work for someone and not get paid until about 18 months later (in fact fund their activity out of our pockets) - what if company/organisation gets bought or goes bust, the economy tanks, government cutbacks, stuff gets outsourced etc etc. I feel that my frantically waving a performance led contract is not going to get noticed by anyone at this point.
So thanks for the invitation but i am washing my hair that night.
I won't go into pros and cons of long woolly tender docs that don't appear to be constructed in any way to find the best supplier or even the best priced supplier as many of them request costs for services that are at best low priority and worst pretty damn irrelevant. To be fair - i quite enjoy a well written tender process that goes out to a finite,identified group of relevant companies run by people who know broadly what they want to get out of the process.
The thing that got this one put into the eternal pending file was that it was a 3 year contract that was going to be pay by results. That is a fine principle and one we benefit from normally. However Year 1 of contract would be about setting the benchmarks/targets and therefore the supplier should not expect to make any margin from Year 1 (translation - supplier would take a considerable hit in Year 1). The client would then set the targets for Year 2 based on Year 1, and targets for Year 3 based on Year 2.
In brief - what is wrong with the above
1. The logic is that it would serve supplier well to perform poorly in Year 1 and get soft targets. Kafkaesque in its silliness.
2. The client sets the targets (not client and supplier) - again logically why not keep ramping up targets - supplier cannot do anything about it. Maybe i should try that on the biz dev team at OME.
3. I have an inbuilt principle not to do loads of work for someone and not get paid until about 18 months later (in fact fund their activity out of our pockets) - what if company/organisation gets bought or goes bust, the economy tanks, government cutbacks, stuff gets outsourced etc etc. I feel that my frantically waving a performance led contract is not going to get noticed by anyone at this point.
So thanks for the invitation but i am washing my hair that night.
Thursday, 12 May 2011
The Return of OME's Top Tips
when we were a tiddly business about 3 or 4 years ago, we did 2 documents as a bit of marketing one called "10 biggest mistakes organisations make in digital recruitment" and the next one "10 things organisations should do today in.....". It was bite size tactics and tips written in a classic "no bull" OME way. This had 2 effects.
1. It was really popular - led to us winning business, starting conversations, forming partnerships that endure today.
2. It was massively ripped off. The most notable being a media (Centaur owned) who sent out a customer email "10 biggest mistakes organisations make in digital recruitment" with zero changes in text. and another ad agency - who had the temerity to change about 4 words and claim it as their own.
Anyway - over lunch Kork and I thought we should re-visit it and refresh it for 2011. so here goes OME top tips.
Its not a strategy, its not comprehensive, its not bespoke. But you know what - most heads of recruitment would benefit from doing quite a few of these.
1. It was really popular - led to us winning business, starting conversations, forming partnerships that endure today.
2. It was massively ripped off. The most notable being a media (Centaur owned) who sent out a customer email "10 biggest mistakes organisations make in digital recruitment" with zero changes in text. and another ad agency - who had the temerity to change about 4 words and claim it as their own.
Anyway - over lunch Kork and I thought we should re-visit it and refresh it for 2011. so here goes OME top tips.
Its not a strategy, its not comprehensive, its not bespoke. But you know what - most heads of recruitment would benefit from doing quite a few of these.
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