Well not the Dublin Airport! They really do need to fill the new Terminal 2 with staff shortly, and they need hundreds of people to run that think 24/7.

Irish Jobs Market site has hosted a recruitment site for Dublin Airport Jobs. An announcement on TV covered by all the media brought 10.000 people and more each day after the announcement. Within a week the jobs had to be taken down – such was the amount of applications.

I didn’t test it myself yet – and trust me I am really looking forward to! If you can’t wait for the review here: You can download it at: www.imobile.ie/txtajob.jar

If you blog about recruitment, and in any way and constantly get stuck for subjects to blog on, take a look at my list of 101 Things to write about on a recruitment blog – I hope it helps you in your writing quest:

1.    Tell people about you and your role in the company

2.    Tell them about your company

3.    Take videos for your premises – maybe a video tour?

4.    Interview some of your suppliers (including photographs and maybe video?)

5.    Interview some of your clients (including photographs and maybe video?)

6.    Interview really good candidates about their experiences with your company

7.    Customer case studies

8.    Stories of customers gone wrong

9.    Tell people about the best consultant you ever met and why they were good

10.    Talking about the worst insult ever employed (make this one more humorous)

11.    Share your business’s successes

12.    Take this further and break it down into more details specialised areas within your specific industry

13.    Write about your competition – who is the competition?

14.    Write about their products and how they differ from yours

15.    Tell people how to get the most from your customer service department

16.    The best way that people can suggest improvements to your service

17.    Tell people about projects are you currently working on

18.    How do you work with your clients

19.    How do you expect your clients to work with you

20.    Break down each of your products and explain in more detail (maybe video)

21.    How does your approach differ to that of your competitors?

22.    Give examples of clients that have used different parts of the services and get quotes from them on their success

23.    Identify innovative new methods or products in the marketplace

24.    Five tips for getting the most out of working with your company

25.    Tell people about you as a person -  what make you tick

26.    Tell people about your company and your staff – video is great for this

27.    Tell people of your growth plans

28.    Tell people what your business worries for your industry i.e. £ vs. $

29.    Share some funny stories of mistakes you have previously made

30.    Share some funny stories of your industry that you have read in the press

31.    Tell people about any anniversaries you have e.g. five years in business

32.    Tell people about new products or services

33.    Conduct a poll, related to your industry

34.    Take a look the tools you use online in your industry sector

35.    Create easy 5 or 10 point tips to using these tools effectively

36.    Describe an interesting conversation with a client and the outcome

37.    Describing interesting conversations with a candidates and their insights

38.    What are the industry clichés and how they relevant are they

39.    The latest new buzzwords in your sector

40.    Describing some of your professional habits at work (I don’t mean the bad ones)

41.    Ask people’s opinions about these habits and share the answers

42.    Write about the person that mentored you when you first started in recruitment

43.    Who’d you look up to in recruitment and admire

44.    Who do you see as the new up-and-coming stars in recruitment and why

45.    Explore recruitment in different countries relevant to your sector or industry

46.    Tell people interesting travel stories related to jobs and to work

47.    Share funny candidate experiences from interviews

48.    Review products from your industry

49.    Describe your utopian ideas for recruitment – what would you like to see

50.    Tell people your opinions about the industry are you working in

51.    Tell people about your opinions on recruitment

52.    Tell people about your opinions on other recruitment products or services

53.    Use your knowledge and history of your sector to explain how things have changed over the last few years

54.    Interview people from your industry at all levels (ideally on video)

55.    By reading magazines, find interesting quotes that people have come up with in relation to sectors within your industry

56.    Share industry stories that you have read and comment on them

57.    Use other people’s blog content to create a story that is interesting i.e. linking to another blog post you want to pass comment on

58.    Praise people and congratulate them, be a genuinely nice person!

59.    Look at the trends in your industry

60.    What is the latest news in your sector

61.    What are the good trade magazines that people should be reading in your industry

62.    What are the trade magazines that people should be reading in the recruitment sector

63.    Tell people about your first day in recruitment

64.    Tell people about the tools you used when you first started recruitment

65.    Share of bio of yourself with your readers

66.    Do you have some radical ideas about your sector/industry

67.    Describe a ‘day in the life’ of you at work

68.    Describe a day working as part of your team

69.    Share some of your skills and knowledge

70.    Some ‘how to’ guides, related to your role

71.    Tell people of your worst experiences as a recruitment consultant

72.    Tell people about the best experiences you’ve had as a recruitment consultant

73.    Track the news and find a newsworthy story in your industry or sector

74.    Create a list, the top 10 ATS Vendors, the Top 5 social networks

75.    Have a moan -  there is nothing like going off on a rant

76.    How do you use Facebook in your job

77.    What do you think of Facebook in the recruitment of Arena

78.    Should recruiters actually embraced Facebook

79.    What are the pitfalls of your company using Facebook to recruit

80.    How do you engage with my candidates

81.    How do you engage with my clients

82.    What technology do you use on a day-to-day basis from my job

83.    What latest technology would you like to use a day-to-day basis

84.    Tell people about the last industry conference you attended

85.    Tell people about bad conference experiences you’ve had

86.    What are the biggest big business issues you’re facing right now

87.    Why did you join your company and what attracted you to them

88.    How do you use twitter in recruitment

89.    How can you use social media in the recruiting environment to recruit

90.    Examine the differences in the generations in your particular industry i.e. gen Y gen X , baby boomers etc

91.    How could your industry use social media better

92.    What do you enjoy most about working in your industry

93.    Share some presentations you have previously delivered  (via slide share)

94.    How do you build a lifelong relationship with your candidates

95.    Talk about your brand as an employer brand

96.    How does your brand compare to other competitors in the market place you’re in

97.    How do you use social networking to find candidates in your sector

98.    Share with people some of the things you like doing when you’re networking

99.    Do some industry book reviews and share those with people

100.    Play futurologist, predict what will happen in the future in your industry

101.    10 tips for a newbie entering the recruitment industry

• During September 09, the volume of new professional job opportunities within Ireland increased 31% compared with August 09 to 4,764. This was the highest number recorded in any one month so far this year.
• However, this was still 58% fewer new roles than a year ago (September 08)
• The number of professionals who began their search for a new role during September 09 rose 55% versus the previous month (August 09).
• This was a drop of 28% compared to the same month the previous year (September 08).

September 09 records highest number of new professional job vacancies in Ireland this year

The Premier Group Irish Employment Monitor, which measures the pulse of the Irish professional jobs market, registered a 31% increase in the number of new professional roles coming onto the market during September 09 versus the previous month (August 09). This was the highest number of new professional job vacancies recorded in any one month so far this year. Anecdotal evidence suggests employer confidence grew over the period, albeit at low levels. However, the year-on-year comparison highlighted just how contracted the jobs market has become over the past 12 months as the number of new roles in September 09 recorded a drop of 58% versus September 08.

During September 09, candidate flow showed a typical pattern for this time of the year, with the number of new professionals entering the jobs market increasing from the previous month. There were 11,105 professionals who began their search for a new role in September 09; 55% more than in August 09. While seasonal factors and a slight improvement in market confidence contributed to the month-on-month rise, the extent of the increase is a reflection of the particularly suppressed volume of candidates that came onto the market in August 09 – the lowest recorded in any one month so far this year. The annual comparison still registered 28% fewer new jobseekers than in September 08.

Brian Murphy, Managing Director of Premier Group in Ireland comments: “The Premier Group Irish Employment Monitor registered a welcome uplift in new job volumes within Ireland’s professional jobs market during September 09; the highest volume of new jobs recorded in any one month this year. This rise is predominantly down to an improvement in employer sentiment, although confidence levels remain weak. The increase in demand for professionals in September arose particularly in the pharmaceutical, medical device, and ICT sectors. Within financial services, the general insurance and pensions sectors were also busier.

“With the peak summer holiday season ending at the beginning of September, a seasonal rise in the number of professionals who started looking for a new role was anticipated. However, the actual increase was exaggerated by the previous month (August 09) which recorded the lowest number of new professional jobseekers in any one month this year. The number of candidates still far outweighs the number of roles coming onto the market each month and so competition between professionals for available jobs remains high. While there are early signs that confidence is returning to the hiring market, it is still too early to tell whether this improvement will be sustained over the coming months, particularly with the Christmas holiday season on the horizon.”

Chart: New jobs v. new candidates

About the Premier Group Irish Employment Monitor

The Premier Group Irish Employment Monitor measures the pulse of the Irish professional jobs market by tracking the number of new job vacancies and new candidates within the Republic of Ireland each month. The first Premier Group Irish Employment Monitor was launched in May 2009 with data from April 2008 onwards.

Statistical methodology

Monthly new jobs and new candidates

Monthly new jobs and new candidate figures are based on Premier Group’s own monthly records of new permanent job vacancies and new candidates registering with the firm for permanent employment. Statistics for the full market are derived using Premier Group’s own market share.

Job classification

Job vacancies are professional level roles within the following sectors and functions; Banking & Financial Services, Commerce & Industry finance, Insurance, Public Practice & Tax, Legal, HR, IT, Life Sciences, Engineering, Process & Manufacturing, Professional Services, Sales & Marketing, Customer Service, Secretarial & Office Support.

Geography

The data is based on new job vacancies and new candidates registered with Premier Group’s network of Irish offices in Cork, Dublin, Kilkenny, Limerick and Waterford.

Résumé is French for "summary".  It's a collection of things that you’ve done in your work life that doesn't really give an indication of your aptitude, your natural talents, or how you'd fit onto a new team.  A lot of the time, candidates have them written by others so it's not an accurate reflection of how a candidate writes or organizes thoughts.

Why Do Employers Still Rely on Résumés?

The résumé still does get used because it's easy for pre-screening purposes.  In my opinion, this gets done by organizations who use administrative people working from job descriptions who scan resumes for keywords or job titles.  In a candidate-rich environment, it gives them a quick reason to eliminate people missing a particular bullet point on the job description and to narrow down the stack that they pass on to the hiring manager.

There are many problems with this starting with the first call made to set up the interview is by the HR person who has never worked in the role they are hiring for who often doesn't follow what's going on in the industry.  The résumé gets used to have a chronological discussion designed to look for gaps.  Here's an example: 

Phone Screener:  "I see that you only stayed at Company X for one year. What happened there?"

Candidate:  "The company ran out of money and closed down.  Didn't you read about that?"

Phone Screener:  "No, but that sounds terrible.  Now, I see that you were with Company Y for 12 years.  Why did you stay so long?"

Candidate:  "Well, it was a great company.  I got promoted three times while I was there and I needed to let my stock options vest."

Phone Screener:  "Oh, I can't really tell that from your résumé.  Now, before that Company Y, you were a camp counselor.  Is that right?"

Candidate:  "Am I going to get a chance to talk to the hiring manager?"

You get the idea.  An document that doesn't really sum up you very well leads to an unproductive Q&A session about you.  It never gets to a discussion about what the job is and how your skills would fit into it.  And, it keeps you from a discussion with the members of the team you might be joining.

And, the Internet Changes Everything!

A recruiter friend of mine was interviewing someone over the phone the other day using an electronic version his résumé sent through e-mail while looking at his LinkedIn profile.  They didn't match up!  The phone call ended shortly after that was discovered. 

These days, you have know that most of what you do can be found online.  So, use that to your advantage and keep things accurate and up to date across media.  Use a blog to show how you write and what you can do and know that people who share your interests will find you online.  If they like what they see, you'll hear from them directly. 

Your LinkedIn page should reflect what you have done in the past, who your network is comprised of, and include links to more information about you like your Twitter stream, your website, and anything else you want to share.  Don't forget to Google yourself from time to time to see what's out there about you, because that information will get found.

It's All About Your Network, Anyway

Even in the “old days” of résumés, most people would tell you that once you get to a certain level, the best way to land a new job is through your personal network. Executives, rock star engineers, top sales people, well-published academics don’t ever need to look for a job: they get asked to come work at places.  Let that be the way that you get to your next job.  May the résumé rest in peace.

October 7th 2009 The IrishJobs.ie index, for jobs advertised online, for September reveals a 7% decrease on the previous month.

However September figures are positive overall and are 3% up on the Index which was benchmarked in April.

Seasonal factors explain the monthly drop experienced in September; two of the top 3 sectors which experienced the biggest decreases were Tourism, Travel and Hotel & Catering and this attributed to the overall monthly drop on August.

Since IrishJobs.ie began the monthly Jobs Index in April there has been a 3% increase in jobs advertised online overall. While this growth is modest, it remains positive, indicating a more stable market than that experienced this time last year.

The counties which experienced the largest job increases since April 09 are Dublin, Cork and Galway. However, at the other end of the scale Longford remains bottom of the list, followed by Laois and Kilkenny.

Overall the sectors with the most number of jobs advertised online are Sales, IT, Hotel & Catering, and Retailing, Wholesaling & Purchasing. While the top counties for jobs are Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway.

Regarding month on month comparisons the top 3 sectors that flourished are Education, Childcare & Training 24%, Sales 16% and Retailing, Wholesaling & Purchasing 14%.

While the sectors that saw the biggest month on month decreases were Tourism, Travel & Airlines (-11%), Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (-10%) and Hotel and Catering (-4%).

The IrishJobs.ie index measures jobs advertised by companies across the main recruitment sites in Ireland. It provides a month by month analysis of the Irish Job market broken down by sector and county for both employers and job seekers.

Jane Lorigan, Managing Director of saongroup.com Ireland, which owns IrishJobs.ie comments “It is disappointing to see monthly figures down by 7% when compared to August. However looking at the bigger picture the September jobs index is up 3% against April?s benchmark. This indicates modest growth over a 6 month period but significant growth when compared to the same period last year when jobs online continued to drop sharply on a monthly basis.”

-ends-

About IrishJobs.ie

IrishJobs.ie is an award winning website with ISO and W-Mark web certification. IrishJobs.ie currently advertises over 20,000 job vacancies sourced from nearly 1,000 active clients. According to the latest ABCe audit figures (January 2008), IrishJobs.ie has 10,753,187 page impressions, from 963,397 visits to the site by over 526,000 different jobseekers per month.

About the IrishJobs.ie Online Jobs Index

The jobs index monitors live and current jobs advertised by companies across the five leading recruitments websites in Ireland on a weekly basis, thereby providing a broad and comprehensive overview of the Irish market. Data is gathered from IrishJobs.ie, Jobs.ie, Monster.ie, RecruitIreland.com and Loadzajobs.ie. Data from April 2009 provides the benchmark for the Index. Data for August is compared both to the Index and also to the previous month The Irishjobs.ie Jobs Index measures not only the number of jobs available but also how individual sectors and counties are performing. In effect, it can give a monthly snapshot of the economy.

About saongroup.com

saongroup.com is one of the fastest growing online recruitment companies in the world with operations in Ireland, the UK, Europe, the USA, China, India, Dubai, South Africa, Central America and the Caribbean. The group also includes Candidate Manager, a leading global provider of recruitment management software and Maybefriends.com a leading online dating website

Ireland’s economy can be simply divided into the external market (exports) and the internal market (spending). The external is the country’s wealth-creator and the internal is where it’s spent – thus keeping the country (and exchequer) buoyant.

Ireland has continued to outperform the entire EU export wise. From 2000 to July 2009 Ireland’s exports grew by 40.9% versus the EU average of minus 10.1%, but what’s even more impressive is from July 2008 to July 2009 (recession) Ireland’s exports dropped just 1% versus the EU average drop of 25%. Our Manufacturing and Service sectors have massively outperformed our competition. This is seriously great news and should be highlighted!

Ireland’s problems are internal, where the stats are not good. The nub of the problem is property… which has led to banking problems and beyond.

In Ireland, home ownership is about 85% where in most European countries it is nowhere near this e.g. France, Italy and Germany where home ownership is about 40%. Then over the last decade Ireland’s population aged 20-40 has gone up by about 60% (due to higher birth rate, returning Irish and immigration), where the EU average is minus 20%. The above points led to massive house building and supply & demand price inflation. Then the recession came… fear stopped people buying houses, the credit crunch made buying difficult and the global recession slowed everything. The effect on Ireland was devastating. However, the effects are temporary and in the long run having a younger, growing, home-owning population will be of great benefit to the country.

Confidence has been eroded by the above points, and by the media’s constant negativity. For example, The Irish Times chooses to Headline the ESRI’s gloomy predictions above Davy’s or NCB’s – and that has led people to save, save, save! BOI & AIB are awash with money, but little investment. In 2007 Ireland, the US and UK populations saved about 2% of their annual income. Recessionary fears have led the US and UK populations to save about 5.5% of their income, but Ireland’s people are now saving about 12% of their income. This is too high. There’s no money-go-round, no buying, investment or development. The country has frozen and must be unfrozen. The fear and negativity must stop now… tell people the Good News… tell them THE TRUTH!

Another example (and close to my heart) is employment and I have two points. The first point is, let’s be clear, the rate of unemployment has dropped every month from a loss of 30,000 in January, to a gain of 16,000 in September. The media may explain the gain as seasonal adjustment, but so was the drop in July and that wasn’t mentioned. Either way, the employment situation is getting better and better. The second point is known, but not well publicised: it is well reported that in Ireland we have about 12.5% unemployment (about 420,000 people). In Ireland we count every person on the live register as ‘unemployed’, so this includes everyone working part time, on maternity leave pay, sick leave pay, disability, now on ‘3 day weeks’, and this about 180,000 people, leaving 240,000 as fully unemployed. In most other countries, including the US and the UK they do not count the 180,000. In their measurements Ireland has 240,000 unemployed, about 7 or 8 %. Things are getting better! Indeed, at Brightwater we’ve just had our best month of the year thank goodness – I see some light at the end of the tunnel!

GDP is another stat often bandied about and we all know how all the predictions were of Ireland being the worst affected in the EU. We also know that Finland, Spain and many others have fared much worse than Ireland. However, the truth is still that our GDP has slumped, but why? One reason is property where there is little building going on – and because of our young, home-owning population the GDP slump is exacerbated. Germany and others didn’t have the same building growth so never got the reverse swing either! But of course, when the economy returns, our GDP growth will also grow disproportionately to everyone else’s. Secondly, confidence in Ireland is eroded by 24/7 bad news reporting (don’t you sometimes feel “get me outta here”)?! Retail sales are an important indicator of confidence and while they have fallen off remarkably since 2007, since January 2009 the indices have risen by the month from 84.3 to 93.3 by June. Finally, and most importantly Ireland is part of the global economy which is why all the major parties called for a ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. In Ireland, a remarkable 90% of our GDP comes from exports versus an average 40% for the EU as a whole. As such, when there is a global crisis, Ireland’s production is hit hard, but when the global economy rebounds, we rebound further and faster.

In conclusion, Ireland has a dynamic and internationally woven economy that is suffering exponentially as part of a global recession. We also have a young, home-owning population that are not currently buying and finally, we are gripped by a negative media that delights in eye-catching, misleading headlines about the demise of the country, giving us confidence problems.

When will we get out of recession? To paraphrase Henry Ford: If we believe we’ll get out of recession next quarter, then we’re probably right; and if we believe we’ll get out of recession in 18 months, then we’re probably right again! For my part, I call on the media to help boost confidence with more balanced and positive reporting of the economy. For example, if everyone was properly informed about how well our exports have performed in comparison to other EU countries, then they’d realise that, notwithstanding temporary housing-related problems, the long-term outlook for the economy was good. After all, the housing-related problems will eventually go. Sooner or later the global credit crunch will end, mortgages will become more widely available and house prices will stop falling. In the long-run, it will be the performance of the manufacturing and service exports that will have a far more decisive effect on the economy than temporary housing-related problems.

Welcome to Part 2 of the Irish Recruiters “Future of Recruitment Conference Series”!

Recruitment’s ongoing evolution through technology is fast paced and relentless and the economy we live in is proving to be hugely challenging. This half day conference is going to provide more diverse presentations and discussions to dive into such topics as social media, search engines, micro-blogging, green IT, cloud recruitment and much more. Basically, it’s more of Part 1 with another great opportunity for networking, learning, discussion and insights from recognised recruitment innovators and leaders from Ireland and the UK.

This
is an Irish Recruiters LinkedIn Group event. The mission of which is to raise
the level of recruitment sophistication in Ireland using technology, communication and education to promote a variety of new tools, techniques and technologies to source
the best talent the world has to offer to these shores.

To learn more about Irish Recruiters go here.

The conference will delve into such subjects as:

• Cloud recruitment and the rise of the app wars: With the new Nokia N97, New iPhone 3GS, the revamped Palm Pilot series and Google Ion/HTC Magic (Android), mobile phones have gone from being smart phones to now being mini-computers. As part of being an advanced internet recruiter understanding how to use apps to harness ATS, smart phones, mobile devices and web sites to increase your productivity is going to become more important in the near future. But what apps are out there and how can they be used? Also, with the advent of bar photo technology, touch computing and augmented reality the boundaries of advertising and communication are being stretched. What technologies out there are currently leading the way? This section will build on the previous cloud recruitment presentation given in Part 1.


• Cloud computing and ATSs: Cloud Computing or SaaS (Software as a Service) has been identified as Gartner as being one of the biggest computer trends for FY10. But how does this relate to your ATS? Can you harness the power of the cloud and place your ATS on the web. We will hear from EMC about why and how they are thinking of adopting cloud computing to their ATS offering in their office in Cork using SalesForce.com and the new force.com offering.


• Online Video Recruitment: There is a new automated interviewing service in Ireland
  that helps you easily screen large multiples of job applicants using online
  video. This service reduces the need for face to face meetings with candidates.
  It allows batch asynchronous interviewing to occur providing maximum
  flexibility for candidates and freeing up Recruiters time. Sonru promotes the
  green economy by reducing the necessity to travel to interviews. Fergal
  O’Byrne, respected IT industry visionary, will give us his viewpoint on how
  technology is evolving, how Sonru which he has recently joined as CEO is
  leading in video innovation and his opinion on the future of recruitment both
  in Ireland and abroad.
  


• Twitter Jobs Search: It’s hard to stay away from hearing about Twitter at the moment but still a lot of recruiters are not convinced of the advantages that it offers to recruitment. One of the first companies to identify a job search functionality gap in the market was Twitter Job Search. They are now trying to integrate their search engine with some of the top 3 search engine providers and are announcing partnerships all around the world. The co-founder, entrepreneur and visionary Bill Fischer will be talking about how they saw a gap in the market, how recruiters and job seekers are using Twitter and Twitter Job Search and the future of micro-blogging as they see it.


• RPOs and their current focus: RPOs are getting more coverage in the news of late as some multinationals are turning to them as a way to reduce their costs in the current recession. Alexander Mann is one of the biggest in the business in the UK, and they have expanded aggressively around the world with over 1,000 employees in 60 countries. They will be explaining who they are and what they offer; providing us with their opinions on the challenges that they and RPOs are facing and the technologies they are harnessing for their clients as they look to the road ahead.

Speakers

Declan Fitzgerald

Declan has over 14 years experience in HR and recruitment and is currently a recruitment evangelist and global sourcing manager in Microsoft. He currently specialises in creating sourcing initiatives to support the companies move to distributive development in India, China, Israel, Denmark, UK and Ireland. He is the author of Ireland’s premier recruitment blog: Irish CyberSleuth blog and founder of the Irish Recruiters LinkedIn Group which is the fastest growing recruitment social network in Ireland. He has designed, consulted on and lectured on social media and Internet sourcing strategies, tools and tactics all over the world including recent sessions in Europe, Israel, China, Singapore, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia and Australia. Declan will be chair for the conference. Twitter @irishrecruiters; LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/irishrecruiters

Bill Fischer

Co-Founder and Director of Workdigital Ltd, the vertical search solutions development company that built workhound.co.uk and twitterjobsearch.com. Co-Founder of DVD Station, Inc., a world-class media/entertainment internet retail systems company. Former VP of marketing for a massively multiplayer online gaming company with over 2.4mm customers in 50+ companies, and builder of marketing systems for a user generated content site acquired by Electronic Arts. Previous marketing and general management experience at more.com, and Ebates.com. A frequent speaker, interviewee, and panelist for entertainment trade and classified search and was acknowledged in the editor-in-chief of Wired’s book, The Long Tail, as an expert on collaborative filtering and internet search engines. Twitter: @williamfischer LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/wmfischer

Martin Cerullo

Martin has worked for Alexander Mann Solutions since 2006, and is the Director responsible for the global resourcing communications practice, which manages all employer branding, sourcing and recruitment innovation across AMS clients. Martin has 12 years experience of working in the recruitment sector, with a major focus on employer brand management and development, recruitment advertising, website development and sourcing strategies. Martin has also built and managed solutions in outsourcing of graduate recruitment attraction and selection. Before Martin joined AMS, he spent the previous 6 years working for Euro RSCG Worldwide, one of the world’s largest global advertising groups. As a board director of the Riley division, Martin had responsibility for 2 advertising agencies as well as the development of strategic services such as employer branding, diversity and digital recruitment and managing relationships with clients including Morgan Stanley, British Airways, BP, Airbus and B&Q. Twitter: @martincerullo; LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/in/martincerullo

Fergal O’Byrne

Fergal
joined Sonru, as Chairman in 2008, having previously been a business mentor to
the company. He subsequently became CEO in September 2009, after serving as CEO
of the Irish Internet Association for 4 years. He is an internet industry entrepreneur
and founded Interactive Return (formerly webBusters) back in 1998. He is on the
Board of Directors of IGOpeople.com, WINC, and CCD Ltd. He is also Chair of the
Project Advisory Group for Fáilte Ireland’s eBusiness Support Initiative.

He regularly mentors start up and seed capital companies in Ireland and
Denmark. In 2004 he was awarded the Microsoft/IIA Net Visionary Internet
Marketer of the Year Award. Fergal is a member of the Irish Internet
Association, Marketing Institute of Ireland and Engineers Ireland.

Fergal’s
most recent book – 10 Online Marketing and Search Engine Essentials was
published by Thompson Books. He has been a guest lecturer on the MBA course at
the Smurfit School of Business, Dublin. He was part of the original team that
helped to set up eircom.net and was Content Development Manager in charge of
such projects as the Doras Directory. He holds an Honours Degree in Electronic
Engineering from DIT, Kevin Street. LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/fergalobyrne

EMC (TBC)

Agenda

1.00 – 1.15 Registration

1.15 to 1.45 “Introduction, cloud recruitment & the start of the app wars” – by D Fitzgerald

1.45 – 2.30 Alexander Mann “RPOs, current challenges and the future” by M Cerullo

2.30 – 3.15 Sonru “The rise of online video recruitment” by Fergal O’Byrne

3.15 – 3.45 Break, Networking & Unemployed Recruiters’ Corner

3.45 – 4.15 Breakout Discussion “Job Boards Vs Social Networks: Where are you placing your bets and how will both evolve?”

4.15 – 5.00 EMC and the rise of the Cloud ATS, by (TBC)

5.00 – 5.35 Twitter Job Search, “The rise of Twit” by Bill Fischer

5.35 – 6.15 Q&A, Live Mic Session

Capacity

The conference will be in one of the Westbury’s “Grafton” rooms which have attendance of 100 people. There will be 10 tickets reserved for unemployed recruiters. All tickets will be sold on a first come first served basis.

Payment

Payment will not be accepted on the day of the event and tickets will finish being on sale as of the 5th of October.

Sponsorship

If you would like to sponsor the event please contact declanfi@microsoft.com

Hailed by the judges as “the consummate Ambassadors for the industry”, Parc Aviation were also found to be “Professional and conscientious, this agency shows passion for what they do and a confidence that knows no bounds! The level of staff loyalty over the years stands testament to the success and strength of this agency”.

Agency of the Year in a small agency category was Locumlink. This agency was seen by the panel to be “a trend-setter in recruitment. With an infectious passion for the industry and an innate understanding of how to use technology to dive a business, this agency to exudes both efficiency and innovation”. Sigmar Recruitment were double winners on the night with awards for Best in Practice (Technical Engineering) and Best in Practice (Accounting & Finance).

Designed to identify and reward excellence in recruitment in Ireland, the initiative was open to all registered recruitment agencies in Ireland and judged by an independent panel.

FULL WINNING LINE-UP AS FOLLOWS:

• Best Agency Online Service – small agency– Recruiters
• Best Agency Online Service – large agency – Grafton Recruitment
• Recruitment Consultant of the Year – small agency – Michelle Kilcar (CCP Recruitment)
• Recruiter of the Year – large agency– Martin Fox, (Robert Walters)
• Best In Practice – Healthcare – Servisource
• Best in Practice – Accounting & Finance – Sigmar
• Best in Practice – ICT – Vantage Resources
• Best in Practice – Secretarial – No Awards
• Best in Practice – Sales & Marketing – CPL Resources Plc
• Best in Practice – Hotel & Catering – Noel Recruitment – second year in a row
• Best in Practice – Technical Engineering – Sigmar
• Jobseekers Choice (in assoc with RecruitIreland.com) – Logiskills
• Agency of the Year – small – Locumlink
• Agency of the Year – large – Parc Aviation

The panel of judges were made up of Sean O’Meara, Former Chief Executive of Young Advertising; Kirsty Kirkwood, Former European Head of HR at State Street Ireland and Mark Fielding, CEO of the Irish Small & Medium Enterprises Association, (ISME). Ex-MD of Computer People Ltd, Grainne Martin was a new addition to the panel this year as a recruitment advisor.

Frank Collins, NRF President, “Despite the all-consuming doom and gloom of the recession, the intense competition and standard of submissions for the event is testament to the strength of activity, success and motivation that continues to prevail within this most dynamic industry. The event proceeded as a way ore celebrating a very hard year in the industry and we did just that!”

The National Recruitment Federation is a voluntary organisation set up to establish and maintain standards and codes of practice for the recruitment industry. Representing member companies throughout Ireland the NRF focuses its attentions on providing these members who have opted for self-regulation with the best possible service in terms of communication, support, advice sharing and problem solving.

For further information please contact:
Elaine Roddy
NRF Director
Ph: 01-8161754 / 087-8272373
Email: director@nrf.ie

No really, I am serious and I am not a politician trying to up-talk the national psyche! It is coming; the real skill is in knowing when and how.

No really, I am serious and I am not a politician trying to up-talk the national psyche! It is coming; the real skill is in knowing when and how.

I have already written here (several times) about managing in recession, the need for change management, critical business analysis, cost and risk reduction etc. Some companies may have tackled these things rapidly and professionally and know precisely where the business stands and how it will survive for better days. Other companies may be still wrestling with the difficult problems, carrying out very little strategic thinking and may be overly-worrying with the related and damaging stress. These latter companies need to bite the bullet and have a clear plan for, at least, survival for a minimum of another year.

Several years ago there was the possibility of a serious pandemic (bird flu) and those larger companies with the financial and human resources at their disposal began to examine where they might be exposed. They prepared contingency plans to manage the risks involved. The pandemic never happened and these plans are probably now out of date and may even fail if put to the test; circumstances change and so do our business and personal needs. For example, do those plans to address a bird flu outbreak adequately cover the current Pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus we are currently experiencing? How has the current recession affected the way our company was structured and staffed and is it a different organisation to what it was back then?

In any case, it is always better to have a plan than to have no plan at all. Even a bad or outdated plan can be modified, corrected and applied incrementally in response to changing circumstances.

Gut instincts and hunches do not suit all and are not the professional manager’s way. In general these things are only of real value when viewed in the context of a professional plan; like a test for the logic of the plan. Relying solely upon gut instinct and snap decisions is a sure-fire way of increasing stress and the likelihood of failure.

So, for the purposes of this exercise let us say that you have met the recession head-on with detailed problem analysis and decision-making and are now operating within a strict budget which will see you through until those elusive ‘green shoots’ appear. These shoots are as elusive and just as mysterious as crop circles. We cannot yet be sure if they are genuine or just created by politicians to deceive us into thinking things are improving.

Of course there is risk; we do not have a crystal ball in which we can see the future. Therefore it must be a combination of experiential knowledge and good analytical reasoning which will allow us to foresee the potential fluctuations which indicate positive economic/commercial shifts – the real green shoots.

The gut instinct is actually an interesting phenomenon. Of course it is not the gut, although we do sometimes feel that tightness in this region when activating a decision which appears to be based exclusively on that logic-less hunch. That is probably the result of fear. In fact, it is a complicated and automatic process involved at several levels within the brain where, at a subconscious level, all the stored information about the subject matter is scanned and compared against the ancillary information which is, in turn, measured off against a desired result.

The brain or mind, reaches a conclusion and filters this to consciousness and we have our spontaneous decision which we call ‘gut instinct’. Perhaps it is in the last nanosecond, when the realisation of this decision is perceived at a conscious level that we start questioning and challenging this and the result might be somewhat different from that created at the subconscious level. For this reason the gut instinct is not always reliable and it takes practice and many successes before we can hone this internal human ability to a sufficient level of trust.

This brings me to leadership and management; the seat of all decision-making. As you know there are always good and bad managers and leaders. Unfortunately, the trust is sometimes vested in the position of authority rather than in the individual who inhabits the position. There is a difference.

So although the leader or manager carries the responsibility for analysis and decision-making, the clever ones, those who understand their own abilities, strengths and weaknesses and general limitations will seek third party assistance and advice before proceeding with an action which could have potentially damaging consequences. This is also a positive management and leadership ability and demonstrates intelligence. I would prefer to know that my managers are engaged in this cross-referencing of knowledge and experience rather than reckless under-informed decision making.

Bridging the invisible internal boundaries between people in business is a way of capitalising on the human capacity of the organisation. Sharing information and requesting information and participation in the search for beneficial initiatives is not an automatic process. Such a developmental culture needs to be established. This is a formal way of seeking a constructive and positive way forward. It is not consensus management, which can create a management abdication of responsibility and accountability. It is, however, a way of recognising and utilising human capacity in a practical and beneficial way.

For every business there are trends, indicators and evidence of change. This occurred on the way into recession and will be found on the way out. The clever ones who looked and found these trends on the way in and acted accordingly, are in all probability, not suffering as much as others and may even have created something very new, productive and profitable from the exercise. It will be these same ‘lateral thinkers’ who will find the evidence of positive change on the way out and benefit again.

There may be many factors to be considered and observed and many different people with different abilities to see these often delicate threads of change. Combining these information byways will lead to a more detailed map; a highway rather than a byway, where the way forward becomes more visible. With this clarity we will be able to identify the opportunities.

As management consultants we can assist leaders to develop these proactive and creative skill-sets; to establish a common effort, to identify and benefit from the structured sourcing and analysis of particular key business trends and take advantage of the positive threads of change.

Pat Sheridan, Managing Director, 1 Stop HR Limited

1 Stop HR provides comprehensive Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations support services. Pat Sheridan can be contacted at 021 4614020 or at pat@1stophr.ie and further details are available at www.1stophr.ie .