September

- kids going back to school
- leaves falling from trees
- thinking about putting the heating on

and for a recruitment business like OME entering probably the busiest time of the year. The advent of digital has not really affected the very seasonal nature of the recruitment cycle and with future/early talent campaigns becoming bigger each year and kicking off imminently - its going to be a busy time.

We are also taking on the following stuff in house
- ramping up our events and breakfast briefings
- Alexsia has taken on a condensed, cleaner, more beautiful OME website - the brief of which was to tell people what we do and who we do it for in as few words as possible
- launching new partnerships (I love finding a like minded business or person and working out how we can help each other)


all at the same time as servicing outr clients brilliantly and adding some new organisations to the (still) expanding client list


better crack on

Successful (and unsuccessful) recruiting for OME

This post is a very much a personal recollection and experience of hiring people for OME over the last 10 years (I have now been mainly ejected out of the recruitment process though I occasionally get to ceremonially say hello to prospective employees!)

1. Its all about attitude. If there is one universal fact about our successful recruits - its that quality of giving the impression (in interview, to clients, to colleagues, to suppliers) that they will get shit done. And they will bust a gut to do deliver results.

2. Therefore skills and experience (of course they can be critical in many roles) take a lesser priority for us - where we have brought the "perfect fit" in - it has not always been perfect and sometimes didn't fit.

3. We have recruited grads and non grads but vital that people have done some hard graft in their lives ( i would include telesales, digging ditches, cleaning loos, being a waiter/waitress etc in this definition). Maybe this is unfair but I find it makes people appreciate the lovely environment that most businesses I know create - and that yes the air con may be too high /too low on certain days but its not the end of the world.

4. Give me brains and ambition. I love working with smart people and though sometimes you want brilliant people to stay in their roles for maybe 6 months/ a year longer than they want to - give me someone banging on my door for development than someone sitting their bored out of their brains (whose work standards inevitably declines)

5. Be eclectic. There is no typical OME employee (in previous career I definitely erred by recruiting in my/our own image). For two reasons
a) because its the right thing to do - it means we have a really broad range of backgrounds
b) our clients/partners are equally diverse - so I think it makes us more ££

6. Be honest - since Day 1 I would always undersell OME as a place to work (I think its amazing) as we are not perfect - for instance some people want a hugely structured induction/development plan - this industry (and OME) don't really believe in that - it just does not fit this fast changing world and therefore we may not be the right place for you. And we all post the occasional job and do the boring admin - so again if 6 months in you want an account admin to do this for you - we again are not the right place.


I look around me and feel we have got more right than wrong in our recruitment and development of staff - but some of the lessons have been painful to learn (probably for the employees too!)

Google for Jobs

So I wanted to summarise the industry's latest thoughts on the launch of Google for jobs.

Its either

1. seismic - will sweep Indeed, all aggregators and of course all job boards away

2. inconsequential - never going to really happen - everything will stay the same as Google's heart isn't really in it


and the rather boring OME view is that the truth lies somewhere in the middle

- the aggregator model is incredibly easy to replicate, beat, destroy by Google
- but there are some mature brands amongst the candidate community that will ensure traffic, response etc
- will Google really push this aggressively or let it happen in a slower more organic (proper definition)way
- things will probably get even more complex and messy before they get simpler


less impact than you think short term - more impact than you think long term


good night!

Updates

So wanted to write a formal round up of OME news

1. New staff for 2017 - Sadie Beckwith and Arti Odedra joined to expand the team. Both are extremely good account executives who have joined us (so they told me in the interview) to kick on in their careers and build close client relationships and develop new opportunities for OME. They have both fitted in great and have done/are doing some great work.

2. Alexsia has taken on the exciting project of our website/social media presence/content marketing. So I can blame someone other than myself when news has not been updated as frequently as we would like.

3. Welcome to new clients include the lovely people at TUI, Café Nero, The Limewood Group, Pandora, Bink, Becton Dickinson and The Perfume Shop. Once Alexsia has finished the OME content update - you can find out what the work is we are doing for these people.

Lovely and busy - so definitely on the hunt for a new account manager if anyone if up for that challenge!

In 2 weeks time OME will be 11 years old - blimey where did that go??????

What's Occurring March 2017

Don't think I've known it quite as busy in OME HQ as Q1 2017 - which makes me think the following

- very pleased we staffed up last year and absolutely delighted many of the team have developed so fast and have welcomed the extra work and challenges
- that clients are asking such different (and correct) questions about resource plans and how to maximise impact of their brands in candidate attraction compared to 3 or 4 years ago
- that you cant really afford to navel gaze and contemplate impact of Brexit, Trump, Hurricane Doris, new series of Game of Thrones....you just have to affect the things you can affect and get on with it
- that I assume this activity is hitting OME bottom line.....Champagne!!..... or maybe Prosecco!!........if not then Diamond White!! as usual......


just writing a more formal update on clients and staff and market - will post next week

2017

so I returned today "late" for 2017 - and would heartily recommend skipping that first week if finances and holiday entitlement allow it. But wanted to note a real positive - I don't think we have EVER had as much activity (campaigns, proposals, new business enquiries) before so early in the year

1. we are brilliant and our clients love us......hmmmmmm.....I wish that were always true - lets call it a supporting factor

2. people did not get around to doing the stuff in dec 2016 they needed to and need to get things moving ASAP - definitely another supporting factor

3. Things are pretty healthy out there economically - maybe that's just recruitment(always a decent reflection of general economic wellbeing though...)but talking to other similar businesses - we are not alone in a fast start to the year.

lets hope it stays that way after Article 50/Trump/Italian banking crisis/interest rates....Eurovision Song Contest (ok - I ran out of stuff)

Full Service???

Back in the day - clients would expect and want their agency to be "full service" - so any and all things related to recruitment marketing/adverts/research etc - came through one place/one account manager - that just doesn't exist anymore (I think for the better!)

We are, I guess, nominally full service (print, outdoor, design and build, social, mobile etc) as well as our core digital offering but in the last two weeks I have done the following co-operative work (Lord knows what else the team have been up to)

- Partnered with a great employer brand agency on a large tender
- been engaged to run a creative pitch process for a client
- Have supported a client's huge Future Talent project with a very cool Youth Marketing Agency
- outsourced a research project investigating the world of the quantum
- spoken at an event about talking to Millenials
- Inputted into the build of a CMS with a very clever tech organisation
- Co-organised a media day in USA with a partner agency based in Chicago


Don't worry - we still did a bunch of media planning and buying too - but what an agency does is now so different and I think the model of working is far, far superior