Pushing Social Media

The necessity for business presence in social media is now commonly accepted and well-documented although a crucial starting point for any business building an online network is still their own website: the shop window to their services. We as a business work hard to demonstrate our grasp of new recruitment technology and practices and having just revamped the website, one of the key additions that has generated comment is the introduction of a Twitter feed.

The Twitter feed serves three purposes - 1) to demonstrate that we are a leading edge recruiter, using cutting edge practices to generate the best available candidates for our partner vacancies and 2) to provide a live news feed for us to advertise vacancies, links, jobs, news etc. 3) To maximise exposure of the brand across multiple channels and increase SEO.

We find this technology hugely successful and Twitter in particular has the potential to become the worlds largest job board. As a business, you either adapt to the new technologies and practices or you fall behind and use the various forms of social media allow you to push the brand and message to an audience at very low cost. Once you have set up the accounts, the feeds and branded them, the ongoing cost should be modest if not free! The key investment is time.

As a regular reader may know, we have been working closely with Sticky Media for some time and they are offering an extremely competitive deal for companies wishing to bring their website up to date and push the brand yet further.

The offer is as follows -

The offer is a Live Twitter or Blog Feed on your web site! (£75 +VAT)*

Leading Edge Recruiter grasping the power of Social Media? Want to prove to your customers that you know what you are doing with Social Media?
Keeping a website fresh and up to date can be a costly process in both time and money; particularly when also juggling Twitter contacts, Blog articles and any other online interaction. We have been busy working with our customers developing a cost effective social media strategy, maximising brand and product exposure across the various media channels.

We have developed a very cost effective product that can be added to an existing website from only £75 +vat, thereby avoiding expensive redevelopment, but still keeping your site bang up to date.

Sticky Media can integrate a live Twitter feed or a Live Blog feed to existing websites for £75. This will update automatically, keeping your website fresh, and using your company web site as the hub of your online network - exactly as it should be. Post all of your vacancies to Twitter - increase traffic – maximise brand awareness.

For an example of a recently completed client project please visit http://www.recruitment-hub.com – each page has a Twitter feed with real time vacancies and update; the 'News' page is automatically populated from the director's blog - keeping news up to date automatically, at minimal effort to the director.

We are only offering this product at this price for a limited number of clients and as a member of the UK Recruitment Directors Group, you qualify for the discount. We will even help you set up a Twitter Account if you haven’t started using one yet!

For further information and to discuss viability, please contact me via mike@stickymediagroup.co.uk or 0845 872 1942.

(£75 +VAT – subject to availability and viability.)


The Sticky Media site is http://www.stickymediagroup.co.uk where you will find further info. I dont often push another companies products, but really feel that this is an excellent offer from a reliable source and they won't be offering the £75 deal for ever!

Jonny Hiles
The Hub - www.recruitment-hub.com

The Hub - The Hub is a network of recruitment specialists utilising a centralised delivery, back office and support function – or hub – hence the name.

Through partnership, The Hub provides the delivery capability, infrastructure & support of a recruitment plc to independent recruiters utilising our significant resources.

The Hub is part of a recruitment plc – one of the largest independent recruitment organisations in the UK with a multi-discipline delivery capability. Browse these pages to learn more about The Hub how we can help you to open up new channels and maximise revenue from your existing business.

t'was the week before Christmas............

.........and the recruitment industry was winding down, except we aren't! It's mid December and we are having a good month taking new vacancies and enquiries from prospective Recruitment Partners.


Infact we have a couple of interesting initiatives running over the Christmas and New year period, which we are looking forward to as a direct result of http://www.recruitment-wave.com, Twitter and the UK Recruitment Directors Group - proof again that professional / social media works. More about these in future posts if all works out in the way that we anticipate.

So what will you and your business be doing over Christmas? We will still have plenty of staff in to help with any vacancies between now and January 4th, therefore if you need extra resources over this period, contact me in the usual way and we have plenty of resources available, especially with contract vacancies which tend to be the urgent requests. We have seen a big rise in perm vacncies and have received fewer contract roles recently and I would love to re-address the balance!

I will be taking a few days out over Christmas, but as I live near the office, can and will be around if needed. I will access email etc regularly and so either I or a colleague will respond to all requests.

I hope that the baby doesn't arrive over Christmas! We wouldn't want him or her to arrive to early, although we can barely contain our excitement as January approaches. The due date is mid / late January so not far now and if he or she arrives over Christmas, they may always feel unrewarded in the way that people with birthdays over the Christmas period often do.
My present is of course a healthy son / daughter and Jojo and I have cut back on present buying this year. We have also entered into a secret Santa deal with family this year as we know that everyone will want to buy lots of gifts for the baby when we find out whether beanie is a little boy or girl. At the moment, everything is neutral in colour and we are looking forward to adding some colour to the nursery and outfits.
I have to say that the recent pinkstinks campaign to disuade parents from dressing little girls in pink seems ridiculous and there is no way that Jojo or our mothers / aunts, sisters etc will not be buying pink outfits if beanie is a little girl! Surely, aaspirations are inspired and encouraged by parents, family and surroundings and we intend to provide the very best we can.

We had a great day in Topsham again at the weekend and will be spending the odd day down there over Christmas as we have some jobs to do on Domino while she is on the hard. I will have finished the nursery over the coming weekend so will have a bit of time to relax and have my last drink somewhere between Christmas and New Years so I intend to make the most of the time I have left!

For further information, please visit www.recruitment-hub.com or http://jonnyhub.blogspot.com/

If you would like to discuss further, please give me a call on 0845 117 0 115 or send your details to info@recruitment-hub.com

1) The Hub is a split fee recruitment business.
2) Send vacancies that you are unable or struggling to fill to us.
3) We will source candidates and present a short list to you.
4) You brand the candidates and send the shortlist to the client.
5) When the placement is made, we split the fee.

The Hub is part of a £100m + recruitment group and uses their combined delivery capability and infrastructure to deliver applications for our recruitment partners. Our recruitment partners generate the vacancy, we find the candidates, the partner maintains contact with the client, we speak to the candidate and split the fee when the placement is madeIf that could be of use, for any vacancies that you struggle with, then please let me know.


I am also the owner of a Linkedin Group, specifically for Directors of UK Recruitment businesses. To join, you must be a Director of a UK based recruitment company - Simple!

It provides a great opportunity to network and share views.

Link can be found here - http://www.linkedin.com/groups?homeNewMember=&gid=1962486&trk=

Info about me can be found at http://www.recruitment-hub.com or http://jonnyhub.blogspot.com

UK Recruitment Directors

Hello! I hope that you enjoyed the guest blog from Mike Wedge of Sticky Media last week. If anyone else would be interested in guest blogging, please let me know!

The Hub continues and despite the blip a couple of weeks a go, November has been a busy month. A number of new partners have joined the network and we are very active with live roles which we hope will resolve before Christmas. We have this morning, taken another 7+ IT vacancies from a new recruitment partner and December is looking good. Just as well that we are expanding our team! One of our partners has even informed us that from January, he will begin to use The Hub for all candidate delivery to his agency, allowing his employees to concentrate purely on business development!

Recruitment Partners typically find out about The Hub via referral or via our now establised social media channels and I am a big believer in the value to be gained from social / professional media, once you get your head around using them. The vast majority of our business has come from a free source - i.e. we havent paid to advertise! I am by no means an expert in social / professional networking tools and because we didn't want to spend loads on advertising at the outset, we had to find alternatives. There are a host of mediums that a business can use nowadays to advertise their wares and some are industry specific whilst others work for general cross market services.

My preferred network tool is Linkedin which is widely used by the recruitment industry. Linkedin allows you to build a network of colleagues, clients and associates and once established with a decent sized web of 1st degree contacts, search for other users that are linked to your contact (within a couple of degrees).
Once connected you are notified of status updates and able to search for contacts by job title or by company or organisation. - Its easy to see how why this is of use to recruiters!

One of the things that I set up a few months back was the UK Recruitment Directors Group. The UKRDG is a space for Directors of UK based recruitment businesses to network and discuss news, experiences and issues. We have a diverse membership and some interesting debates. Members include IT, Finance, HR etc agencies but also plenty of niche companies including a lift (Elevator) specialist recruitment business and, a helicopter pilot recruiter. We now have over 300 member companies and new membership applications every day. The group has been a success and we are currently considering replicating the group out of linkedin, onto a dedicated forum.
If you are not a member yet and would be interested in joining, please let me know.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?homeNewMember=&gid=1962486&trk=

Christmas will soon be upon us and things will be slowing down over the festive period. It is always difficult to predict what Christmas will be like for a recruitment business and some years i have sat around twiddling my thumbs whilst I also remember placing 7 SAP contractors between Christmas and New Year! I hope that we will be busy but also get the time to relax with family.

It's going to be a bit of a funny christmas this year for the Hiles household. Jo will be 8 months pregnant and have finished work, whilst I will be reactive to Hub requests and slightly unsure of whether I will be at home or in the office. Jo is of course not drinking and our focus is really January and the arrival of the baby rather than Christmas day. Christmas day, we are going to Browns for lunch so no washing up!

My weekends have gone from sailing Domino in Topsham and a few drinks to buying baby stuff and decorating. The past few weekends have been spent decorating the nursery and hall, whilst the next couple of weekends will be spent decorating our bedroom. We have even replaced the double glazing and spent goodness knows how much on goodness knows what! Thankfully, we have some very generous parents, greatly looking forward to the arrival of the 1st grandchild on both sides.

Yesterday, after fitting the new light in the nursery and attempting to hang a blind, Jo and I unwrapped the new Bugaboo Chameleon. I cannot believe how complex and expensive buggies are! - especially when you spend just under £1000 in John Lewis on the buggy and car seat and then have to assemble the buggy as its flat packed.

Bugaboo do very nicely out of John Lewis. It seems that you cant have something cheap, practical and lightweight when it comes to buggies. The staff at JL in Bristol appear to take every set of new parents through the same circuit when showing the buggies, starting at the cheaper but heavier / less practical ones and eventually arriving at the bugaboo. As a father, you of course do not want your wife / partner to struggle with a heavy buggy and so you end up by buying the expensive bugaboos or icandys.

The really strange thing though is that you dont mind and want your baby to have the best buggy they can and nicely decorated nursery. It must be that something is built into us all about wanting the best for our children, even before we meet them.
Beanie is due January 23rd and I can't wait!

More about me on this blog - http://jonnyhub.blogspot.com or about The Hub at http://www.recruitment-hub.com

1) The Hub is a split fee recruitment business.
2) Send vacancies that you are unable or struggling to fill to us.
3) We will source candidates and present a short list to you.
4) You brand the candidates and send the shortlist to the client.
5) When the placement is made, we split the fee.

The Hub is part of a £100m + recruitment group and uses their combined delivery capability and infrastructure to deliver applications for our recruitment partners. Our recruitment partners generate the vacancy, we find the candidates, the partner maintains contact with the client, we speak to the candidate and split the fee when the placement is madeIf that could be of use, for any vacancies that you struggle with, then please let me know.

Knowing You Knowing Me(dia)

I have been approached by Jonny to write a guest article for his much revered blog. By way of introduction I am part of Sticky Media Group – the recruitment advertising and media arm of Resource Solutions Group.

Continuing the theme of the UK market from Jonny’s articles, from a media perspective we have been experiencing a flurry of activity, with start-ups wanting to make a name for themselves in a down market, and existing companies wanting to refresh their image through a new website or more modern brand in time for the recovery, making the most of the rise in consumer and business optimism.

We have also seen a rise in the number of business blogs, business twitter accounts and other social media tools requested with all associated branding attached (Jonny himself has made quite an impact using social networking, a model that others emulate albeit with varying degrees of success!).

As we move further into the 21^st Century it is clear to all that those who ignore online media business potential do so at their peril, happily we are in a position to advise, design and implement online solutions to meet the needs of many, so far ranging from residential homes to Government agencies!

On a personal note we have been working on various projects with Jonny and The Hub for some time now, it has been a pleasure throughout, and we wish Jo and he all the best over the next couple of exciting months!

If you would like to find out anymore about Sticky Media Group you can view our website at www.stickymediagroup.co.uk, or contact me directly on mike@stickymediagroup.co.uk.

Recovery

Further to last week's post about a stunted recovery and maximising business, we received a number of mails from readers of the blog and our mailing list about their experience of the recovery.
One of the mails from the MD of a successful recruitment business based in Scotland stated 'Perms sector decimated in the last 10 months and no real sign of volume increases till March 2010 onwards. Our core temp outsourcing business is increasing as a seasonal trend but at a lower rate than the previous 2 years. I genuinely believe we are in a W shaped recession.'

I have used the W shaped recession term a number of times this week in talks with our recruitment partners and network and it is a term to which most subscribe. Many businesses are experiencing a slump again and pre-christmas there is less new business forecasted.
There are of course exceptions and associates that work in the public sector have suffered less than businesses that work solely in the private sector. A business based in Southern England that we work with, have maintained their position solely because of the value of their public sector contracts. March 2010 feels about right to me, but as an associate pointed out this morning, we have to wait for a potential affect from a change in government that could change everything!

Doom and Gloom I know and I count my blessings as we are still picking up requirements. Every vacancy is valuable and so work with us to maximise the opportunity from the available business.

1) The Hub is a split fee recruitment business.
2) Send vacancies that you are unable or struggling to fill to us.
3) We will source candidates and present a short list to you.
4) You brand the candidates and send the shortlist to the client.
5) When the placement is made, we split the fee.

We use the delivery engine of a £120m recruitment plc to source the candidates through access to massive online and offline resources.
You, the recruitment partner can concentrate on winning new business and maximise existing relationships by asking your clients for a greater range of roles.

More about us at http://www.recruitment-hub.com but the best way to find out more is to call Jonny Hiles on 0845 117 0 115 or email jonny@recruitment-hub.com

I look forward to your comments!
http://jonnyhub.blogspot.com

Vacancies

Is it me or has the market dipped a little? All the talk of recovery is great and generally, the recruitment industry has kept going despite of the hyped doom and gloom. The way that the British media comment about the economy of course affects the performance of the economy and therefore I hope that we are coming out of the worst of the recession.
In the past week we have been catching up with a couple of regular partners who tell us that November looks like a quiet month at the moment and then of course we are into Christmas so potentially fewer vacancies until 2010. Of course we realise that things are still tough at the moment and that few businesses will be kicking off projects in 2009, which makes it more important that we maximise opportunity from existing vacancies and clients.

(Step by Step) How we can help -

1) The Hub is a split fee recruitment business.
2) Send vacancies that you are unable or struggling to fill to us.
3) We will source candidates and present a short list to you.
4) You brand the candidates and send the shortlist to the client.
5) When the placement is made, we split the fee.

We use the delivery engine of a £120m recruitment plc to source the candidates through access to massive online and offline resources.
You, the recruitment partner can concentrate on winning new business and maximise existing relationships by asking your clients for a greater range of roles.

More about us at http://www.recruitment-hub.com but the best way to find out more is to call Jonny Hiles on 0845 117 0 115 or email jonny@recruitment-hub .com - (I put a space in the address to avoid too much spam)

Collaboration - www.Recruitment-Wave.com

We have been playing with Google Wave this week, inbetween sourcing candidates for our partners! As you know, we have been thinking about Google Wave based recruitment applications since Wave was announced. Mashable.com suugested a number of potential applications for Google Wave in their article - http://mashable.com/2009/09/05/google-wave-ideas/ and we really do agree that Google Wave could be game changing - http://mashable.com/2009/05/31/google-wave-features/

We are investigating Joint Venture opportunities and are very interested to hear from anyone that would like to collaborate with us on a recruitment based Wave extension. As you know, we own the domain - http://www.recruitment-wave.com and various other wave.com URL's centered around recruitment and we know recruitment!

If you would like to discuss www.recruitment-wave.com or www.recruitment-hub.com in greater detail, please give me a call on 0845 117 0 115

Jonny

Focus

Okay, Okay, I know that I have not posted in the last couple of weeks. In my experience, blogging is something that you need to get into the habit of doing and once you do it regularly, you will enjoy it. If you don't do it regularly, then you find it hard to start again!

I have experienced a couple of similar scenario's recently.
1) Walking
Last winter, when I started working at a regular office again, within 2 miles from home, I was determined to walk to work whenever possible to get some exercise. As soon as I started walking, I began to enjoy the fresh air, the birds in the park, the clouds and watching people sat in long queues as I walked past them etc etc. Walking is a much nicer way to start the day and far less stressful. Over the summer, I was having to bring the car in to travel to meetings and I soon forgot how much I enjoyed walking, like an idiot driving throughout the summer and autumn months and am now walking in the cold winter. As soon as I started I was hooked once again.
2) Pushing The Hub
The Hub inspires new relationships. New relationships generate new ventures. New ventures are exciting but a distraction away from core activities.
The Hub has created a number of spin offs, some of which, we hope will become successful ventures and we are always looking for more! The Group is a really great size for parterning with, we are big enough to have lots of support, capability and infrastructure, but remaining entrepreuneurial in approach. A victim of The Hub's success, I have probably been distracted from pushing and selling the virtues of The Hub and attracting new partners and vacancies.
This of course ties in with writing the Blog as a medium for promoting us to you, and therefore I am very much now re-focussed on keeping the blog uptodate with my renewed energy gained from walking in!

Incase this is the first post that you have read, The Hub is a fee-splitting recruitment business. We are part of a £120m recruitment plc and use their combined delivery capability and infrastructure to deliver applications for our recruitment partners. Our recruitment partners generate the vacancy, we find the candidates, the partner maintains contact with the client, we speak to the candidate and split the fee when the placement is made.

One of the initatives that I will continue to be involved in however is group expansion.
We have ambitious plans and I am actively looking to open a West Midlands based IT Recruitment Brand in early 2010. We are therefore looking for acquisition or investment opportunities in the West Midlands and I will paste a copy of an advert that I am running to the bottom of this post. If you know of anyone that is selling their existing recruitment business or looking for investment and support, then please get in touch. We will pay a bounty for an introduction.

Another task is to re-write the website - www.recruitment-hub.com
As I said in an earlier post, we hadn't initially realised that the majority of partners would be businesses rather than individuals and therefore the website needs some tweaks. We do still work with individuals though and we signed a new partner last week - welcome aboard Tom!

Speaking of aboard, we have been making the most of the season onboard Domino before she comes out of the water for the winter. Jojo is growing daily and has climbed the ladder from the tender for the last time before beanie arrives. Next time we sail, there will be a new member of the family! She is now 26 weeks pregnant and i will now use weekends to crack on with the nursery and get everything ready.

The Advert -
IT Recruitment - Director

The Hub has been retained by a large recruitment plc, that will be launching a new IT Recruitment Business in Birmingham early in 2010.

The Group is a £100m+ recruitment plc with ambitious plans to launch a new brand in the Midlands.

The Opportunity
The Group are seeking a Managing Director to shape, launch and build a new IT Recruitment Business. You will be involved right at the outset with naming, branding and designing the business strategy with the assistance of the very successful management team of the plc. The new business will be yours to run and build, using the support and infrastructure of the £100m +recruitment group. Furthermore, you will recruit a team and offices will be provided in central Birmingham. The business will not ne restricted by location.
We are keen to attract the best and this is a salaried role, with equity in the new business.

The Person
You will be a proven IT Recruiter, with an established network in the Midlands IT market.
You will be ambitious.
You will be entrepreneurial, and have your own ideas about building a successful IT Recruitment Business.
You will lead by example. You will be passionate about IT Recruitment.

You may have already run your own or someone elses business, or be an employee looking for the next step. We are open to ideas!

To apply, send a profile to Jonny Hiles at The Hub to arrange an informal conversation. All communication is treated in strict confidence.

This is a genuine and unique opportunity and we look forward to discussing ideas with you.

Phew! - Enjoyed that and I wont leave it so long next time!

J

Jonny Hiles
0845 117 0 115
jonny@recruitment-hub.com
http://www.recruitment-hub.com
http://jonnyhub.blogspot.com

www.recruitment-wave.com is live!

The new page for Recruitment Wave is now up and running! Sorry for the brief delay. Let me know your thoughts.

Jonny Hiles

The URL is http://www.recruitment-wave.com


Jonny Hiles is a Director at The Hub. For More information, please visit http://www.recruitment-hub.com or http://jonnyhub.blogspot.com for the latest news.

Making Waves

What happens at this time of year? People are away, decisions are not being made and the whole recruitment process is on a go slow for much of the summer. It seems especially the week either side of the bank holiday. Hits on my websites - http://www.recruitment-hub.com and http://jonnyhub.blogspot.com were down and just look at the volumes of traffic around on the road to tell you that people are on holiday and not in in the office. This morning I was the only car sat at traffic lights where there are normally 10+ cars waiting in the line with me.

Again we still have vacancies and infact a few more arrived over the weekend, so we are keeping our guys and girls busy. We have picked up some more interesting roles over the past week or two including a Pastry Product Developer for a well known company. They want someone to design cakes!

I have been determined to find some time to look at new Hub projects and products. We have opened up our offering further and we are now providing a broader range of Hub services to compliment the delivery. This effectively means that we are now offering everything from incubation services to recruitment business process outsource type services although I am slightly reluctant to really term the additional services under that banner. In my opinion, the term business process outsource is a minefield because of all the offshore companies that use this term. We are a UK based recruitment company first and anything else second!

One of the new projects that we are excited about is the potential of Google Wave. incase you haven't heard or read much about it yet, A "wave" is equal parts conversation and document, where people can communicate and work together with richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more. There is loads about it on the web and search for Wave on the Google tool bar or have a look at wikipedia.
I first heard of Google Wave one evening whilst checking Twitter and noticed that Wave was a huge trending topic. A quick look on the rest of the web about Wave convinced me that there was a huge buzz about the potential and I realised that this was potentially a game changing product if Google gets it right.

If it really does what it says it will, then Google Wave really could revolutionise the way that people communicate over the web. Of course to succeed it will need to be 1) Relevent 2) User Friendly, both of which really remain to be seen, however Google has invited developers across the globe to develop applications to sit upon it.
I believe that it will have both business and social applications and of course the business applications are what interest me. I have plans for www.recruitment-wave.com and www.recruitment-wave.co.uk and www.cv-wave.com and www.jobwave.co.uk etc and will be launching the holding page for these this afternoon. What is interesting is that a couple of these sites get hits even though I am not promoting them in any way, which potentially is a good sign for the future!

I am of course keen to continue promoting and speaking to new Recruitment Partners and am sure that demand for The Hub will increase as the market picks up. If you are interested, drop me a line on 0845 117 0 115 or to jonny@recruitment-hub.com

Outside of work, Jojo is doing really well and looks great. We started clearing the spare room over the weekend and chose the buggy so all is becoming more and more real. We managed to get to Topsham early on Saturday and took Domino down the Exe to Exmouth. We managed to get down and back in time to enjoy the festivities of the Topsham Carnival on Saturday afternoon and evening which we enjoyed greatly. It had been years since we were out on the Exe near Exmouth and Starcross and brought back happy memories of my childhood, family sailing in a small dinghy.

As ever, if you would like to discuss any aspect of the blog or The Hub, please drop me a line on 0845 117 0 115 or to jonny@recruitment-hub.com

More info is available via the other pages on the blog or The Hub website - http://www.recruitment-hub.com

Jonny Hiles
Director
The Hub
www.recruitment-hub.com

We are looking for Recruitment Partners!

The Hub is a UK based network of recruitment specialists utilising a centralised delivery, back office and support function – or hub – hence the name.
We are part of a £120m recruitment plc. The Hub provides independent recruiters with the benefits of group infrastructure and support.

We are looking for Recruitment Partners to join the network.

How it works
As a recruitment plc, we can call upon significant resources which we deploy across our brands. Our brands include recruiters across a range of industries but also media companies, job boards, incubators and VC’s. We have a significant delivery capability using our own mature resources but also access to international, national, regional and niche job boards.
The Hub offers this infrastructure to our recruitment partners.

Typically, The Recruitment Partner passes us details of a vacancy that they would like support with and The Hub uses the groups delivery capability to find the best available candidates. The Recruitment Partner maintains contact with the client and we maintain contact with the candidate. When the placement is made, we split the fee.
Our Recruitment Partners benefit from the support of a large recruitment group, providing additional services and taking away some of the pain of life as an independent. Our Recruitment Partners are able to concentrate on winning and delivering business using our range of services and crucially open additional delivery channels by working with The Hub.

We also able to offer additional services including advertising , websites, invoicing, technology, investment etc and work with established recruiters and start ups. For further information, please visit www.recruitment-hub.com or http://jonnyhub.blogspot.com
If you would like to discuss further, please give me a call on 0845 117 0 115 or send your details to info@recruitment-hub.com

I am also the owner of a Linkedin Group, specifically for Directors of UK Recruitment businesses. To join, you must be a Director of a UK based recruitment company - Simple!
It provides a great opportunity to network and share views. Link can be found here - http://www.linkedin.com/groups?homeNewMember=&gid=1962486&trk=

Info about me can be found at http://www.recruitment-hub.com or http://jonnyhub.blogspot.com

Winning & Maintaining Business

The Hub
It is clear that the current recruitment market is a tough place to be at the moment. Over the last 10 years, the £26bn UK industry has been saturated by small entrepreneurial businesses looking for a slice of the action. The vast majority of the smaller agencies owners, by which I mean a business with less than 15 employees, would have started life with a larger agency where they learnt their trade and made their contacts before finally realising why am I doing this for someone else?

Most of these business owners would have always had the ambition to start a new business, although a few would have been forced into a situation where employment options were taken away and had to start a business.

The Recruitment Industry has always attracted ambitious, energetic sales people with no particular career direction as the employees of choice (I myself was in that category and have hired in that category). There can be no suprise that this group of people by nature have entrepreneurial spirit and one day look for an opportunity to start their own business.

When I used to be a corporate recruiter, I used to tell my suppliers that I wanted two things from them. 1) Consistently Deliver 2) Make my life easier - be easy to deal with.

In my experience, smaller recruiters place more emphasis on relationships and their success comes from the strength of their relationships. A single vacancy matters far more to a small agency when they are keen to win repeat business from you. How often does a large corporate pass a vacancy to a multi-national agency on a PSL and the vacancy just disappears into a black hole? The big multi national may know how to write a tender, but they do not always value your business when procurement has agreed a 7% margin.

I believe that a smaller agency, is far more likely to offer flexibility and genuinely try and make life easier for the hiring manager, simply because they have fewer vacancies and want to prove themselves to win repeat business.

Of course, smaller agencies however, are less likely to be able consistently deliver across a broad range of roles and different disclipines and that is where The Hub can offer support.

Example - We are working with a business owner, who is keen to maximise opportunity from her clients. As a finance specialist recruiter, she had been asked from time to time by some of her clients whether she could also deliver other vacancies such as HR, IT or Sales & Marketing. She had always declined because she did not have the infrastructure to deliver outside of her core market and therefore didn't want to commit and then lose her customers confidence. She has been well aware that she was turning down business, but when times were good, it wasn't as noticeable. We are now working with her business to maximise revenue from her clients. She now has confidence that she can deliver across the wider disciplines and the client is only too happy with her business as they can deliver and have an excellent relationship.

The Hub becomes your delivery engine, using our £120m recruitment plc infrastructure. You maintain the relationship with the client, we work with you in partnership to deliver.

The Hub has a range of services and we are always interested to hear from potential Recruitment Partners. Call Jonny Hiles on 0845 117 0 115 or info@recruitment-hub.com for more information.

The Hub website - http://www.recruitment-hub.com
Latest news - http://jonnyhub.blogspot.com

Hiles family

Quick Personal Blog! - The Hub Business Blog to follow!

Thank you all for your messages. Jo has actually had a couple of days now with no morning sickness so is loving life!

The Pic this week is of me in my mad hat at Jo's birthday 'Mad Hatters Tea Party' at the weekend.
Why the Roman helmet? - I was after a Bicorn(e),- imagine an Admirals hat, but was unable to find one that wasn't either cheap floppy felt or an expensive antique. As they are Naval hats, I went on to a militaria website to try and find one and thats when I happend upon the Steel Roman Legionaires replica helmet. I guess that it would have been made for someone that is into re-enactments, but I couldn't resist it when I learnt that it was only £14.40!
Granted, I hadnt really thought through wearing it on a hot day and running around playing rounders!

We will be flaking the main on Domino this weekend and heading off down river so keep fingers crossed. Update next week!

The Hit List!

The Hub - Quick Vacancy Update - The Hit List!
These are active roles that we are sourcing today using a variety of online and offline resources, national and local job boards and networking!

If you are one of the following, please get in touch via the contact details on http://www.recruitment-hub.com

1) Associate Director - Sustainability to £70k basic London.
(International Construction and Property Consultancy)
2) Partner - Corporate Commercial Legal Practice - c£100k, South West
3) Key Account Manager - Corporate Accounts, c £60,000 London
4) Senior Mechanical Engineer - £40k Leeds
5) Insurance Account handler - £25k Bristol

As you can see, we work across a broad range on industries!

Jonny Hiles

The Hub - http://www.recruitment-hub.com
Blog - http://jonnyhub.blogspot.com
0845 117 0 115


PS. WE ARE LOOKING FOR RECRUITMENT PARTNERS! - CLICK HERE!

PPS. The Pic is of a yacht called Chernikeeff 2, a Farr 52 that I sailed onboard for the Round The Island Race a few years ago. (I think we were 3rd home of 1700 or so boats!)

We are looking!!!

Short and slightly repetitive I know, but another busy Monday and I need to get on..................!

Briefly, had a great weekend, with the focus of sailing, rugby and family - so near perfect. I am greatly looking forward to next weekend and playing with the 2 new family yachts!! One of them is even a real one - details about the class here!

After stressing last week about having too many vacancies, we now have applications out and interview requests so now my focus is generating more vacancies and generally spreading the word about The Hub to find new Recruitment Partners.

Any suggestions about other ways to communicate are gratefully received!

We have successfully been recruiting in new markets and really are expert recruiters. Because we have the resources, we can source in most industries, so give me a call!

This is the advert we are running. It is probably about time we re-wrote something. I may try this week! -

The Hub is a UK based network of recruitment specialists utilising a centralised delivery, back office and support function – or hub – hence the name.

We are looking for Recruitment Partners to join the network.

We set up The Hub as part of a UK based £120m Recruitment plc to specifically cater for the UK market.

The Hub is a simple mechanism for a recruitment business to open up additional revenue streams and develop business, utilising the delivery engine of a recruitment plc.

The Recruitment Partners generate the vacancies that they are unable to deliver competitively against and The Hub uses the delivery capability of a major recruitment plc to find the best available candidates. When the placement is made, we split the fee.

The Recruitment Partner maintains contact and the relationship with the client, but crucially opens additional delivery channels by working with The Hub, especially on roles where you are unable to deliver.

For further information, please visit http://www.recruitment-hub.com or http://jonnyhub.blogspot.com/

If you would like to discuss further, please give me a call on 0845 117 0 115 or send your details to info@recruitment-hub.com

Trust The Hub with your recruitment vacancies!

Successful relationships are built on trust and we have to trust our partners as well as build their trust in us.

The Hub is part of a £120m recruitment plc. The Hub re-sells the groups delivery capability to our recruitment partners. We are sharing our resources with the recruitment partners and they are sharing their vacancies with us.

I regularly get asked about my background and where the concept of The Hub was developed. This I believe is an important question, and one of the first steps in building a relationship and testing credibility.

Like many others, I fell into Recruitment. When I returned from Uni in Southampton I had no idea what i wanted to do apart from be successful. Throughout school and university I would always answer 'entrepreneur' to the question of what i wanted to be. A friend who was working for a sales recruiter suggested that I should try recruitment, and pay off my debts before going travelling and deciding what I wanted to do.
So I fell into IT recruitment with the intention of staying in the industry for 6 months, paying off debts and doing something different. It was pre-Y2K and the IT market was booming. The company that I was working for tripled in size in a couple of years and I got stuck in the money trap.
6 months turned into 5 years and I needed to pursue an adventure or change of direction. I was offered a place on a Round the World Yacht Race at the same time as being offered a place at the University of Bristol to study Law. I requested a delay in the law course so that I could do the race. The Round the World Yacht Race was a fantastic experience and I met some amazing friends along the way. Whilst you are at sea for long periods of time, you have a huge amount of time to think about life and your direction. Lots of my fellow crew members changed direction, started businesses and careers after the race. Whilst I was somewhere in the Atlantic, I decided that I liked recruitment and I did not want to be a lawyer!
I arrived back in the UK and received a call from my old boss to catch up and see what my plans were.
The company had continued to grow and set up and acquire other recruitment businesses.
One of the successful businesses withing group was an Recruitment Process Outsource (RPO) offering which had some large bluechip customers but did not offer an interim solution. I was offered the task of setting up the interim and contract RPO business.

RPO's have been very successful and continue to grow. We were able to save our customers tens, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds in some circumstances and built a very successful £multi million model and business.

*RPO's are not suitable in every industry or organisation and I have views which I may or may not share at some point in the future or will share now for a fee!* - http://www.sumptus.com

As we grew, we were approached by a number of organisations about providing someone like me on a day rate, which we were happy to oblige. I got to a point where although happy and enjoying the business, I wanted more autonomy. Throughout 2007 / 2008, I set out as a day rate consultant, advising businesses on recruitment, & resourcing.

Throughout my time as a self employed consultant, I was able to pick up vacancies and typically a client would approach me and ask whether I could source a .........? or a did I know anyone? etc.
It always occured to me that this was wasted opportunity and revenue as I did not have the time or resources to deliver a solution. - The Hub concept was born!

The Hub was set up by me as part of the recruitment plc that I had worked as part of for so many years. I trust them to deliver!

Nowadays the recruitment industry is happier to partner, as long we are able to work effectively and trust each other not to steal each others resources. Businesses are having to diversify and compete with specialists in markets that they are not experienced in to generate revenue. This is where The Hub works.

We cannot promise to deliver everything, but we will use all of the resources available to us to give us both the best possible delivery capability. Our recruitment partners build trust with their customers because they can deliver.


The Hub - About Us
The Hub is a UK based network of recruitment specialists utilising a centralised delivery, back office and support function – or hub – hence the name.

We are looking for Recruitment Partners to join the network.

We set up The Hub as part of a UK based £120m Recruitment plc to specifically cater for the UK market.
The Hub is a simple mechanism for the independent recruiter to open up additional revenue streams and develop business, utilising the delivery engine of a recruitment plc.
The Recruitment Partners generate the vacancies that they are unable to deliver competitively against and The Hub uses the delivery capability of a major recruitment plc to find the best available candidates. When the placement is made, we split the fee.
The Recruitment Partner maintains contact and the relationship with the client, but crucially opens additional delivery channels by working with The Hub, especially on roles where you are unable to deliver.
For further information, please visit www.recruitment-hub.com or http://jonnyhub.blogspot.com/
If you would like to have a conversation with us, please give me a call on 0845 117 0 115 or send your details to info@recruitment-hub.com

Final pieces - I was of course sorry to hear about Michael Jackson and dissapointed that I didnt get to see him in concert!

The Hub - Top 5 Live Vacancies

The Hub update.

Keen to provide a quick update, although will keep the post brief as I am busy!

We have some live 'Hot' vacancies that we are urgently looking for. I will list the top 5 at the end of the post.

I have a number of meetings this week with new and prospective Recruitment Partners. This week includes both individuals looking to set up a new recruitment business as well as established recruitment businesses looking to work with The Hub. I will be out of the office for some of the week so if you needed to reach me, please call The Hub main office number 0845 117 0 115 where one of my colleagues will answer your call and ensure that new roles are actioned immediately.

As The Hub continues to grow, we are growing the recruitment team and prioritising The Hub with group staff. If you haven't already, give me a call to visit our delivery center and see the way that we operate as a recruitment business.

I am looking into new ways of communicating The Hub and any suggestions welcome!

The Hub About Us -

The Hub is a network of indpendent recruitment specialists, utilising a centralised delivery, back office and support function or hub - hence the name! We are part of a UK Recruitment plc, one of the UK's largest independent recruitment companies.

We are looking for Recruitment Partners to join the network!

Our recruitment partners include established recruitment businesses and professional recruiters, keen to set up and grow a new recruitment business.

For further information, please visit - http://www.recruitment-hub.com/ or this blog for the latest news and updates.

If you would like to mail us, use - info@recruitment-hub.com or you can call on 0845 117 0 115.

The Hub is run by Jonny Hiles, Founder and Managing Director. More on Jonny Hiles can be found in the profile page.

Top 5 Current Vacancies

1) Corporate Finance Executives - Birmingham & London

2) C# Developer - West Midlands

3) Marketing Executive - Salisbury

4) Solicitor (insolvency / Corporate Recovery)- Bristol

5) Insurance Account Handlers - South West

Call Jonny Hiles if you would like to discuss!

http://www.recuitment-hub.com/

PS - I really dislike the new version of Internet Explorer. I will start using something else!!!

PPS - I went to the Banksy exhibition at Bristol Musuem and Art Galleries. I can highly recommend and it is worth the travel and the queues! You have until the end of August 2009. More info here!

New Vacancy!

I have just been asked by a contact whether I can recommend anyone in my network for a new RPO Account Director role. More at the bottom of the post -

So what have I been up to? Its actually not an easy question at the moment. We are really busy with candidates sourcing, meeting new Recruitment Partners and looking at other ways to communicate what we do as a business. (Via low cost or free resources!)

Despite me having a bad back and having to work from home on Monday, the week is shaping up well and a couple of long standing client contacts called to catch up and tell me that they are begining to look at new requirements within their businesses. Watch this space!

We are all still a lot quieter than we would like to be but at least there is plenty of activity. The recruitment process is slow however and there is concern whether some of the vacancies actually exist or whether the candidates that we are talking to actually have any intention of making a move. Time will tell but at least The Hub is demonstrating that the model works and can add value in a tough market. We keep our recruiters busy with candidate sourcing, an activity that they are experts in.

Our model of course relies on our ability to deliver. Our consultants concentrate on candidate sourcing rather than new business and do not tend to be end to end consultants. They are experts in multi-discipline sourcing and we provide them with the channels they need. My main activity is to communicate The Hub to the market and generate the business for the team to deliver.

Of course there are fewer vacancies around at the moment and I met with an old friend for lunch on Friday who had just made some redundancies.

There are some good recruiters that are struggling at the moment because their traditional client base is not hiring and there is no new business around. Every agency is cold calling like mad at the moment with little return so a lot of agencies are losing staff. Its a sad situation for all concerned but I hope that some will turn their current situation into a positive outcome.

There was an item on BBC Breakfast about redundancies 'under the radar' where businesses with less than 20 staff were losing 10-20% of their workforce. Whilst these numbers were small and not newsworthy, the national affect was huge. I am sure that this will be the case in lots of independent recruitment businesses.

On the subject of cold calls, I still get cold called now and again from when I was an onsite corporate recruiter. There is one multi national agency in particular that seems completely unable to update their records and call me every month or so. I presume that its all about call stats!

When we set up The Hub, we felt that we would attract both, established recruitment businesses and individuals that were looking at self employment for a variety of reasons. This model still stands and if you are a recruitment professional that is facing a change, talk to us. We dont offer salaries, but do offer a reveune stream if you are able to generate business.

The Hub is a UK based network of independent recruitment specialists utilising a centralised delivery, back office and support function – or hub – hence the name.

We are looking for Recruitment Partners to join the network.

We set up The Hub as part of a UK based £120m Recruitment plc to specifically cater for the UK market.
The Hub provides the independent recruiter with the delivery capability of a large recruitment plc. The Hub is a simple mechanism for the independent recruiter to open up additional revenue streams and develop business, utilising the delivery engine of a £120m recruitment plc.

You are likely to be a Recruitment professional, perhaps with your own established business or an ambitious entrepreneur keen to capitalise on your experience. If you do not have your own existing business, we can help you with branding, technology etc at no cost by joining The Hub.

For further information, please visit http://www.recruitment-hub.com/ or http://jonnyhub.blogspot.com/

If you would like to have a conversation with us, please give me a call on 0845 117 0 115 or send your details to info@recruitment-hub.com

This post turned out longer than I thought it would!

The role that I have been asked about is an RPO Account Director based in Essex. You will need to have specific local government expertise. If you want to discuss, give me a call!

Quick Update

The Hub has just been passed another 24 vacancies this morning by a new Recruitment Partner.

A positive message in the struggling UK Recruitment Market, The Hub's unique offering and innovative concept is generating interest and business. Our Partners benefit from an improved delivery capability and placing where they otherwise would not have been able too, therefore concentrating on winning new business and maximising existing business relationships.

We are part of a £120m Recruitment plc and still have capacity. We are always looking to build relationships with professional recruitment businesses and individuals.

For further information call The Hub on 0845 117 0 115 or visit our website - http://www.recruitment-hub.com/

78% of recruiters would consider fee splitting partnerships

In the 27th May Copy of Recruiter Magazine, 78% of the polled recruitment agencies, stated that they would consider a fee-splitting partnership or are currently involved in a fee splitting agreement.

The Hub is a specialist recruitment company that is leading the way in the fee-splitting UK market and was launched to provide the independent recruiter with access to a recruitment plc delivery engine. We set up The Hub as part of a UK based £120m Recruitment plc to specifically cater for the UK market.

This latest poll highlights the growth in this market and 45 % of the polled recruiters were not currently in a fee splitting agreement but would consider The Hub service.

The Results are as follows -

Q. Is your company involved in any fee splitting partnerships?

Yes - 33%

Would Consider it - 45%

Absolutely not - 22%

Source http://www.recruiter.co.uk/

We are looking for Recruitment Partners to join the network.

For further information, please visit http://www.recruitment-hub.com/ or http://jonnyhub.blogspot.com/

If you would like to have a conversation with us, please give me a call on 0845 117 0 115 or send your details to info@recruitment-hub.com