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