So here goes - all these things relate to business rather than life (we had a baby this year which i think just about probably trumps the good stuff below but lets not let reality interfere with an obsession of all things digital, recruitment and media)
1. Best thing about the year - we have grown revenues by 30%, permie staff by 30% (thats 3 people), profitability by approx 25% (creeping costs...). So there will be turkey on the table on Xmas day rather than KFC Bargain Bucket.
2. 2nd best thing - a lot of new clients (LIDL, TGIFridays, Ocado, London Business School, ASOS, netaporter, Anglian Home Improvements, Jamie Oliver Group etc)
3. Most disappointing thing. Mid year we lost a long standing client who we loved working with. I took it well and in no way sulked for a month and pretended that i was so over them and was in fact better off now and much happier now to everyone i spoke to. part of the sentence above is untrue....
4. Biggest surprise - we have sort of become a full service agency. We create and plan a lot of print adverts, we do brochures and EVP projects. Bringing Northgate Arinso into the fold gave us a much bigger skill set and our clients trusted us to deliver our service in new areas. I am pretty sure we justified that trust in spades
5. Nicest surprise - a client was going to go all RPO on us and therefore we would be delivering a much reduced service - then last month they said no we are not.
6. My biggest conversion - i got and now fully evangelise "mobile" and mobile readiness to everyone and anyone. Its where your users will be accessing your site and content - so give the customers what they want.
7. Biggest growth area in our biz - no shock - its social (for projects/and time) and PPC (for revenue and clients)
And finally - its been fun, tiring but fun. Its been my favourite year since launch in 2006 - the work has been varied, the clients have been largely great, suppliers and partners remarkably co-operative.
Not sure i wholly recommend for the sake of your sanity being a father to 4 young children and running a business in a very hands on way (i need to state at this point that i probably do about 20% max of the important parenting stuff).
But in 2011 - i got away with it.
Merry etc and Happy blah blah
Wednesday, 21 December 2011
Thursday, 10 November 2011
Turning Point
I may be insanely optimistic given the macro economic news (FTSE, Eurozone,low growth) but i see a really good year ahead next year for the UK recruitment economy.
Speaking from our own client base (biased towards retail/catering/hospitality/IT) - we are booking increased ad volume in contracts for vast majority of businesses who are up for contract review
we have sign off for (long awaited) new initiatives for Q4 2011/Q1 2012
seem to have some movement of personnel of clients - which has created a healthy new business pipeline
But.....still the news out there is so grim, maybe we are just lucky...
Speaking from our own client base (biased towards retail/catering/hospitality/IT) - we are booking increased ad volume in contracts for vast majority of businesses who are up for contract review
we have sign off for (long awaited) new initiatives for Q4 2011/Q1 2012
seem to have some movement of personnel of clients - which has created a healthy new business pipeline
But.....still the news out there is so grim, maybe we are just lucky...
Thursday, 13 October 2011
The Road to Mobile Damascus
Its not a particular radical thing to say and Matt said it better than i could the other day but i have shifted firmly from the agnostic mobile recruitment camp (lets wait and see - there are so many bigger priorities than mobile - perfect products don't exist) to full on evangelist and convert.
What do i mean in terms of sorting your mobile rec strategy out though (and what don't i mean)
What do i mean?
1. How mobile friendly is your careers site? try it yourself - your users will be. If its crap - sort it as top priority (approx 20% of jobseeker traffic is mobile - various sources)
2. Can you apply easily online (almost certainly not) - you are not alone but put some pressure on your ATS supplier (or add it to spec of next ATS) - you can gain real tangible competitive advantage if you can get ahead here
3. How does your content/copy appear on the media you are using on a mobile device (it is likely if your content is flawed online - it is deeply flawed on a mobile device)
4. is an app right for you? this is a whole bigger topic but at least have the discussion
5. Have an eye on the future - it is clear which way this is going and how your users want to interact with you over next few years - have a plan and begin to explore/pilot/trial and learn.
What dont i mean?
1. Spend a fortune on a mobile ad campaign. It still does not quite work in terms of push marketing (in my view)
2. Don't be bleeding edge. You can be innovative without going too bold.
This is the end of the evangelist's sermon
Amen
What do i mean in terms of sorting your mobile rec strategy out though (and what don't i mean)
What do i mean?
1. How mobile friendly is your careers site? try it yourself - your users will be. If its crap - sort it as top priority (approx 20% of jobseeker traffic is mobile - various sources)
2. Can you apply easily online (almost certainly not) - you are not alone but put some pressure on your ATS supplier (or add it to spec of next ATS) - you can gain real tangible competitive advantage if you can get ahead here
3. How does your content/copy appear on the media you are using on a mobile device (it is likely if your content is flawed online - it is deeply flawed on a mobile device)
4. is an app right for you? this is a whole bigger topic but at least have the discussion
5. Have an eye on the future - it is clear which way this is going and how your users want to interact with you over next few years - have a plan and begin to explore/pilot/trial and learn.
What dont i mean?
1. Spend a fortune on a mobile ad campaign. It still does not quite work in terms of push marketing (in my view)
2. Don't be bleeding edge. You can be innovative without going too bold.
This is the end of the evangelist's sermon
Amen
Friday, 23 September 2011
Job Boards Real Threat - Aggregators
we are all a bit bored by the "social media will sweep away job board" debate aren't we? (FWIW - my view is there has never been such an efficient way for a person to access and apply for jobs than job boards - so there is plenty of life in that model)
What i think is really quite interesting is what the role of aggregators will be in UK over next couple of years. Aggregators are a slightly dirty secret in all that most (all??) major job boards use them to get qualified job seeker traffic but don't like to talk about it.
Data quality can be poor - we get clients complaing about Indeed, Simply Hired etc and how there jobs got up there and can we get them down.
But.....
Due to their very nature (aggregating job content) they appear high in Google search results for all common searches. The sites have helped them build this leading SEO position.
So what's stopping them selling direct and bypassing the job boards as they do in USA. Answer - nothing and now they are doing so. So have the job boards created a monster which is now going to turn on them and destroy their marketplace and yields. Who knows??
The big brands of the jobsites (Monster, Total,Jobsite) would legitimately say they have spent millions building trusted brands and that will maintain their market leading position. But are these brands really that strong??? i mean....really???
So forget Facebook - if i were a media owner i would be looking in another direction for my next big competitor.
And a brief aside - in early days of OME - i had a meet arranged out of the blue by someone with SimplyHired and they came to our office - now my excuse was it was a busy day and i had to pick my daughters up from school - but i could only end up having 15 minutes with them and i had done zero prep. and had to leave them half way through the cup of coffee (having been shouted at by the mother of my children to get my arse out of office and get to the school).
one of the people i met was Gautam Godhwani who i subsequently discovered was $$$$billions. I think he saw me driving off in my mum's old car she had lent me after taking pity on me, times were tough in Year 1 and 2.
I wonder what he thought of one of the self proclaimed UK thought leaders in digital recruitment...
What i think is really quite interesting is what the role of aggregators will be in UK over next couple of years. Aggregators are a slightly dirty secret in all that most (all??) major job boards use them to get qualified job seeker traffic but don't like to talk about it.
Data quality can be poor - we get clients complaing about Indeed, Simply Hired etc and how there jobs got up there and can we get them down.
But.....
Due to their very nature (aggregating job content) they appear high in Google search results for all common searches. The sites have helped them build this leading SEO position.
So what's stopping them selling direct and bypassing the job boards as they do in USA. Answer - nothing and now they are doing so. So have the job boards created a monster which is now going to turn on them and destroy their marketplace and yields. Who knows??
The big brands of the jobsites (Monster, Total,Jobsite) would legitimately say they have spent millions building trusted brands and that will maintain their market leading position. But are these brands really that strong??? i mean....really???
So forget Facebook - if i were a media owner i would be looking in another direction for my next big competitor.
And a brief aside - in early days of OME - i had a meet arranged out of the blue by someone with SimplyHired and they came to our office - now my excuse was it was a busy day and i had to pick my daughters up from school - but i could only end up having 15 minutes with them and i had done zero prep. and had to leave them half way through the cup of coffee (having been shouted at by the mother of my children to get my arse out of office and get to the school).
one of the people i met was Gautam Godhwani who i subsequently discovered was $$$$billions. I think he saw me driving off in my mum's old car she had lent me after taking pity on me, times were tough in Year 1 and 2.
I wonder what he thought of one of the self proclaimed UK thought leaders in digital recruitment...
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
OME's Offsite Day
Without trying to be too grand - the 5 board members of OME had a day out of the office and tried to right all the wrongs, deconstruct the company, show a path forward to glory and riches.
Now my view on these things is that if you end up with a bunch of overambitious commitments, it ends up being very demotivational as you set yourself up to fail. At same time, if you end up patting yourselves on the back and not striving to improve, you end up stagnating.
So we tried the middle ground.
Everyone ended up with 2 actions, everyone has a pet project they believe in. And best of all i made the notes of everyone's commitments.
So i can name and shame any one who falls short and subtly edit my own promises if they are looking unlikely to be delivered.
i think that's called win-win.
Now my view on these things is that if you end up with a bunch of overambitious commitments, it ends up being very demotivational as you set yourself up to fail. At same time, if you end up patting yourselves on the back and not striving to improve, you end up stagnating.
So we tried the middle ground.
Everyone ended up with 2 actions, everyone has a pet project they believe in. And best of all i made the notes of everyone's commitments.
So i can name and shame any one who falls short and subtly edit my own promises if they are looking unlikely to be delivered.
i think that's called win-win.
Tuesday, 9 August 2011
RiotBalls
The current riots are terrible and depressing and i am sure very scary if you are in the middle of it. But here are some other things that have depresed me about this topic.
1. my twitter stream being a little too full of some people almost getting excited and spreading rumours of troops marching down whitehall, bank of england being stormed, london landmarks ablaze etc. Some social media rubernecking definitely occurring.
2.Academics/socialists impossing their middle class motivations for the riots (its about the cuts, social inequality, Hacking, MPs expenses) onto a bunch of scumbags who want a new telly and to act like the big men they are not.
3. People criticising police for doing too much, doing too little, over physical, not physical enough. we get the police force we deserve and the downside in living in a society with human rights, innocent till guilty and habeas corpus is that they have an impossible job right now. Its a society problem (not police) and unless society backs them to use the force we see and are shocked about from foreign locations - then live with their apparent impotence.
Anyway back to digital recruitment....
1. my twitter stream being a little too full of some people almost getting excited and spreading rumours of troops marching down whitehall, bank of england being stormed, london landmarks ablaze etc. Some social media rubernecking definitely occurring.
2.Academics/socialists impossing their middle class motivations for the riots (its about the cuts, social inequality, Hacking, MPs expenses) onto a bunch of scumbags who want a new telly and to act like the big men they are not.
3. People criticising police for doing too much, doing too little, over physical, not physical enough. we get the police force we deserve and the downside in living in a society with human rights, innocent till guilty and habeas corpus is that they have an impossible job right now. Its a society problem (not police) and unless society backs them to use the force we see and are shocked about from foreign locations - then live with their apparent impotence.
Anyway back to digital recruitment....
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
Scammed by Charity - Let Down by Agency - Same Effect
I took my daughter to some play group thing last week and got a visit from 2 guys doing a charity collection (treeofhope)- now i don't normally give unprompted to charity collectors for two reasons
1. I carry a cynical attitude that it will all go in overheads or its a dodgy charity area that should be covered by state etc
2. I am basically quite tight! (charity begins at home...)
However - due to everyone else there chipping in £5 i did same. And felt good about myself.
and then i read the leaflet
- it was full of words like "children", "Sick", "care" "generosity". But i could not work out what the hell they actually did.
- and then the killer - "34% of money collected will go to charity". Jesus - so £3.33 of any fiver goes to collectors etc.
This experience has obviously stopped any future impulsive donations stone dead.
So - what has that got to do with the agency world - well, i come across clients all the time who bought an "SEO solution", "facebook campaign" "behavioral targetting campaign" a year or two ago and received nothing that we in the industry would recognise as such under those headings.
They spent £xxxx on a social media launch - and got a facebook page, a couple of articles posted on their site and posted on an unloved twitter feed. In essence - they felt ripped off like me above.
net effect - they dont want to invest again and run risk of being let down again and it prob delays by 1.5 - 2 years properly adopting really effective ways to recruit/engage/commuincate with their audience.
What i really like about the stuff i see out there from suppliers now (the one's i admire anyway!) is sensible objectives, realistic estimations of level of commitmemt needed internally and budgets that enable good work but not out of whack with other priorities in client.
result - happy client, quality results, more investment, open to new ideas.
I did meet a nice woman in the street at lunchtime though who seemed very nice and i think she must have worked for Oxfam as she had a branded bib on and a direct debit is so easy to set up....
1. I carry a cynical attitude that it will all go in overheads or its a dodgy charity area that should be covered by state etc
2. I am basically quite tight! (charity begins at home...)
However - due to everyone else there chipping in £5 i did same. And felt good about myself.
and then i read the leaflet
- it was full of words like "children", "Sick", "care" "generosity". But i could not work out what the hell they actually did.
- and then the killer - "34% of money collected will go to charity". Jesus - so £3.33 of any fiver goes to collectors etc.
This experience has obviously stopped any future impulsive donations stone dead.
So - what has that got to do with the agency world - well, i come across clients all the time who bought an "SEO solution", "facebook campaign" "behavioral targetting campaign" a year or two ago and received nothing that we in the industry would recognise as such under those headings.
They spent £xxxx on a social media launch - and got a facebook page, a couple of articles posted on their site and posted on an unloved twitter feed. In essence - they felt ripped off like me above.
net effect - they dont want to invest again and run risk of being let down again and it prob delays by 1.5 - 2 years properly adopting really effective ways to recruit/engage/commuincate with their audience.
What i really like about the stuff i see out there from suppliers now (the one's i admire anyway!) is sensible objectives, realistic estimations of level of commitmemt needed internally and budgets that enable good work but not out of whack with other priorities in client.
result - happy client, quality results, more investment, open to new ideas.
I did meet a nice woman in the street at lunchtime though who seemed very nice and i think she must have worked for Oxfam as she had a branded bib on and a direct debit is so easy to set up....
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