Article 1: Facebook. Heard of them?

If you haven’t, it’s a social networ….oh forget it. Of course you have but it’s worth us looking at the stats: The company has a market cap of $305 billion, there are1.6 billion monthly users (more than WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram combined), 300m photos are uploaded every day and 300,000 statuses are updated every minute. That notwithstanding, Mark Zuckerberg is now worth $50 billion. It’s safe to say it’s a business that has done pretty well.

They have also come top of yet another list. This time it’s The Lighthouse Company’s Shipping Forecast New World Talent survey that asks 600 c-suite executives (called c-suite as it refers to a corporation’s senior management – CTO, CEO, COO etc) from advertising, media, tech and marketing their opinions on the state of recruitment in the UK.

Facebook was named ‘best performing company for recruitment’ ahead of other media giants like ITV, Channel 4 and the7stars. One example of Facebook’s forward-thinking recruitment processes is their trial of the ‘Rooney Rule’. It was named for NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers owner Dan Rooney and the rule requires recruiters to interview at least one black or ethnic minority candidate for every Head Coach or senior football position, and Facebook translated that to their own recruitment.

The ‘could do better’ list was topped by Twitter…

Article 2: PLEASE Think Before Hitting ‘Send’…

It’s a message you’ve heard a dozen times – probably this week alone – but there’s evidently no harm in repeating it for all those who STILL believe you can do or say anything you like on Facebook, Twitter and even LinkedIn now with no comeback whatsoever.

If you want to flirt with people who are expecting to be flirted with, download Tinder. Don’t do it if you are a well-known industry professional. Back in September, Charlotte Proudman, a 27-year old barrister and Ph.D. candidate connected with a 57-year old, well-known and well-respected solicitor on LinkedIn. After thanking her for connecting, he said ‘I appreciate that this is probably horrendously politically incorrect but that is a stunning picture!!! You definitely win the prize for the best Linked in (sic) picture I have ever seen.’

She replied with this shut-down; ‘I find your message offensive. I am on LinkedIn for business purposes, not to be approached about my physical appearance or to be objectified by sexist men. Unacceptable and misogynistic behaviour. Think twice before sending another woman (half your age) such a sexist message.’

After she got the message, she decided to tweet it out to see how many other women had experienced something similar and she was ‘overwhelmed’ with the response

The lawyer in question subsequently issued an apology through a legal news website and as far as we can tell, the matter is over. But, if you’re about to flirt, be offensive, sexist, misogynistic  potentially libellous or threatening online, even if you think it’s completely benign or ‘just a laugh’, take a moment to read what you’ve typed before hitting ‘send’, ‘tweet’ or ‘post’. It could very well be the worst spilt-second of your life…

Article 3: Refugees Are People Too…

Pick up any paper or go to any news site and the headline story will be about the migrant crisis. In 2015, Germany took in 1.1m Syrian asylum seekers, but this isn’t an article about politics or our views on what’s happening, it’s a story about two students who decided to do something amazing.

David Jacob and Philipp Kuhn, Communication Design students at HTW Berlin have created the world’s first online job platform for refugees in Germany called Workeer and it was designed to be the first point of contact between refugees and potential employers. The site lists a whole plethora of jobs, from manual labourers all the way up to engineers and software developers and employers can post jobs on the site and advertise the skills their particular business needs.

Co-founder David Jacob said ‘refugees have better access to the internet than most people think’ although there are still plenty of hurdles to jump through to secure work for a foreign national. A law graduate from Damascus, Houssam Y, who has found himself in Germany wants a job that showcases his impressive skills but he said he’d take ‘an apprenticeship or any odd job – anything. I don’t want to live without work. I want to pay my way through life.’

The site is gaining some great traction in Germany (currently it’s just in German) but we hope that Workeer (or similar) finds its way across Europe but Jacob and Philipp know what they’re up against – ‘the great response to Workeer has meant that many job seekers and employees have registered. Many of them have created already exemplary filled profiles and job listings. However, there are many potential improvements to be made. We now want to build a team, which takes care of this bigger problem.’

Good luck guys and kudos to you. The refugee crisis that has engulfed Europe needs people like you two who aren’t afraid to say ‘what can we do to help?’

Article 4: 2015 – Recruitment’s Best Year – EVER!

Here’s the headline fact – since the 2008/09 recession, recruiters have put four million people into permanent jobs! Go on, crack out the Champers, you deserve it!

 In November, the REC released their eighth annual Recruitment Industry Trends Survey and the 2014/15 numbers are very, very impressive indeed:

• 634,000 people were placed into permanent roles via a recruiter
• Just 1% of agencies working on permanent placements are accepting margins below 10% whereas more than a quarter (26%) are securing margins of 20% and over (up from 8% last year)
• On any given day in 2014/15 1.2 million people were out on temporary, contract or interim assignments via a recruiter, up 3.6% y-o-y
• More than 103,000 people now work in the recruitment industry, up 7% from 2014
• Average annual sales per consultant working in permanent recruitment were £96,00
• You can have a look at the infographic here, and REC Chief Executive Kevin Green said ‘This is a very exciting time for recruitment. Overall turnover has increased, employers are making more use of agency workers, contractors and interims and recruiters filling permanent vacancies are commanding better margins in a tightening jobs market. This report provides invaluable benchmarking data for our members for assessing how their businesses are performing compared to overall industry averages and to agencies operating in their sector.’

 He continued in a more profound, existential manner…’ Every day recruiters change people’s lives and make businesses more prosperous. Our industry is the engine that drives the UK labour market, enabling people to find work and businesses to find the talent they need to succeed.’

However it’s dressed up, we all did good last year and long may that continue!

Article 5: The Candidate Experience is Getting Better, We Promise…

 Honestly, we do! Or, more specifically, LinkedIn are telling us that it’s getting better. A massive 62% of talent acquisition leaders said employer branding (the process of promoting your business to a specific target group) was a top priority at their business and further, one of the best ways to enhance employer branding is to offer a great candidate experience during the job hunt.

As an employer, what elements of the candidate experience should you be looking to improve upon? Here are a few tips we came up with over lunch….*

*LinkedIn came up with them after a lengthy and presumably very expensive survey process involving more than 20,000 and many hundreds of hours…

69% – candidates who want to know the role’s responsibilities When you’re offering a job list the responsibilities rather than let the candidate guess

 8/10 – the number of professionals who say a negative interview will make them change their mind about a role The interview can be make-or-break when it comes to securing top talent.

49% – percentage of candidates who want their business questions answered

As the interviewer, you know all about the specific role but how much do you really know about the ins and outs of the business as a whole?

77% – candidates who want good news by phone

If you’ve got good news for a candidate, rather than an impersonal email or worse, one from your PA, pick up the phone!

6/10 – number who want you to feedback updates

Feedback isn’t just ‘congratulations’ and ‘bad luck’. Candidates want constant communication while they’re being considered for a job.

94% – want feedback if they are rejected…but only 41% get it….

Candidates appreciate it and it will help them with their future experiences in the job market but above all, it’s common courtesy.

You can see the full article here but if you hadn’t heard the phrase ‘employer branding’ before, now’s the time to look it up!

Article 6: Is Diversity the Buzz Word of 2016?

 Have you heard of Angelica Coleman? No? If you haven’t, she worked for Dropbox from 2013 until 2015 when she left. It’s a common story in the work place – people get jobs, work for a few years, look around for better jobs and then leave when one comes up. There’s nothing really surprising about that which is probably why you haven’t heard of Angelica Coleman.

Except this isn’t that. There’s a little more to the story. Angelica Coleman is African-American and was, quite remarkably, in 2015, told this by a white manager: ‘If you ever want to be anything other than an admin, you need to go somewhere else.’

 After leaving, she said ‘I left Dropbox because as a black woman working on bettering myself, the tech industry doesn’t give a shit. Even with the skills to do more, if I had stayed at Dropbox, I would have always had the submissive role of serving others and never calling the shots. Why? Because a white manager didn’t want to see me do more.’

This isn’t the era of Rosa Parks. This is 2015 and diversity in the workplace has either become a massive hot potato or vital. We’re not sure which.

The biggest tech companies have all hired a Head of Diversity (Google, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Yelp and Apple) and of course with multinational businesses like these, implementing a global diversity policy is, ironically, difficult, but what about smaller companies?

In another ironic twist, virtually all corporate diversity policies are still failing to meet even the most modest diversity targets because…wait for it…they lump all diversity groups together. You couldn’t make it up.

School taught us that stereotyping is wrong (definition: a simplified and standardised conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group) but having a diversity policy is a good start. However if you employ a ‘recruit all diversity groups in the same way’ model you’re setting yourself up for a huge fail because the very elements that make groups diverse in the first place means that ‘one-size-fits-all’ will never work.

Diversity in the workplace is vitally important but the diversity has to be diverse, if you get what we mean…

Article 7: The LinkedIn Seven Deadly Sins Recruiters Commit…

 As a recruiter and more importantly a business owner, it’s not always been plain sailing, especially in the first year or so. There’s a lot to learn about running a business and especially a recruitment business. But, slowly and surely, we got there. Then, we got involved with social media…

Our LinkedIn page is regularly updated with recruitment-based stuff but according to socialtalent.co, there are seven deadly sins that recruiters use every day on LinkedIn which, if you recognise, you really ought to stop….!

1. DO NOT publish job ads as blog posts. People don’t want to read bullet-pointed lists of skills. They want thoughts, ideas and advice from industry leaders.
2. DO NOT spam someone offering them deals on carpet cleaning immediately after connecting with them. Your message will get deleted and so, probably, will your profile.
3. DO NOT post shouty ‘we’re hiring’ messages. Social media is all about having a conversation, not a platform to see who has the loudest voice.
4. DO NOT use impersonal InMail. Connect with the people you want to talk to, don’t hide behind your connections. You’re a recruiter and you are supposed to have mastered the art of effective communication.
5. DO NOT use the top search bar to look for relevant skills and keywords. This is, according to LinkedIn, a cardinal sin and one that ‘low performing recruiters tend to start almost all of their searches.’ Use the Advanced Search facility and use Boolean search strings. You’ll need to do some research on this but it does work!
6. DO NOT scrimp by using a free account to try and recruit. You can’t cheat the system regardless of if you think you can. Search results are weaker and more diluted and for a few pounds a month you become more competent as well as more committed as now you’ll want an ROI.
7. DO NOT hide away on LinkedIn. As a recruiter who bases his or her career on honesty and professionalism (we bet that’s what it says on your website anyway), you need to be visible. When you contact people they need to know immediately who you are, what you look like and where you’re from. You can’t start a professional relationship like you’re the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Article 8: The Best Recruitment Video of the Year (and it’s only February)

 You don’t need to be Spielberg to create a fantastic recruitment video. You don’t need to spend tens of thousands of pounds of a team of bearded hipsters from Shoreditch to come and shoot an avant-garde take on your business for three days, nor do you need to employ perfectly-proportioned models to do your bidding for you.

All you need is a camera and a happy workforce who genuinely love what they do, who they do it for and why they do it. When you’re making a recruitment video, do what the guys at American Metal Roofs from Charlotte, Missouri have done. Give appealing reasons to work there. That’s it.

Take a look at the video here and take notes! This is how to make a recruitment video.

Credit Risk Analyst

SAS-based Credit Risk Consultant required for a global consultancy firm partnering with world leading banking clients. Working with teams of experts on varied and challenging projects, the company offers a dynamic and exciting career opportunity. The company prides itself on internal growth and training and is unrivalled by other consultancies.

Applicants will be able to explain Credit Risk models clearly and accessibly. Produce comprehensive and well-structured analytical reports, preferably within Retail Banking and proven development of Risk Rating Models for PD, LGD and EAD estimations.

This role will also require applicants to hold knowledge of IFRS9 & Regulatory frameworks (Basel III).

We require:

• A minimum 2 years’ experience in financial risk management
• Strong knowledge of SAS & SQL
• Strong statistical skills, including track record of using logistic regression to build propensity models
• Experience of developing, calibrating or validating and monitoring Risk Rating Models for PD, LGD and EAD estimation as per risk regulation
• Good knowledge of financial products, including retail, wholesale & insurance.
• Be able to adapt models to be compliant with IFRS9.
• An understanding of the credit risk regulatory environment
• Ability to present complex analytical concepts to all levels of the business
• Ability to determine, develop and document data requirements, modelling assumptions and model results
• Able to provide advice on risk management approaches Presentation skills

Skills:

• Consultative approach
• Stakeholder engagement
• A good team player that can also work independently
• A self-starter who is proactive in nature
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Abilities to build cross functional and external relationships
• Able to deliver project objectives within deadlines

On offer is the opportunity to work for a European leader in digital transformation. The role comes with a competitive salary, the opportunity for further development and the potential for a wide and diverse career.

Article 1 – Samantha Tipton is the King…
Be honest, are you one of the 46m people a month playing King.com’s Candy Crush Saga? If you thought that number was high, here are some more facts and figures about the game we all get invited to ten times a day on Facebook –

• 61m ‘likes’ on Facebook

• One in seven people in Hong Kong are regular players

• In the US Apple iStore, daily revenues are around $630,000

• It’s the third most popular free app as well as the highest grossing app on Google Play

• It has been installed half a billion times across Facebook, iOS and Android devices

It’s massive. It’s Angry Birds all over again and those who play it appear to love it.

This is a recruitment newsletter though, so why are we talking about games that have been specifically designed to detract you from working hard and furthering your career?

It’s because our colleague, Sam, has just signed up King.com as a client of Asset Resourcing. Not only are we immensely proud to have such an influential business on board, it is a testament to building, nurturing and maintaining solid business relationships that last.

She always takes the ‘friend approach’ to recruitment and always finds that by not badgering people on the phone and letting them contact her in their own time, the resulting relationship is one of mutual respect and subsequently more successful.

The hiring manager at King.com was aware of Samantha’s recruitment techniques and the standard of candidate she represents because she operates a European recruitment community on LinkedIn of which a number of King.com executives are members. As well as posts about specific roles, Samantha posts interesting and relevant articles and incites debate about the European job market, HR, business development as well as links to key speakers throughout Europe. It’s a method of client engagement that adds value to the Asset Resourcing service offering.

At the moment, she is looking after King.com’s senior recruitment and recruiter roles for London, Germany and Stockholm. There is also a Learning and Development business partner position in London and a HR Business Partner in Barcelona with other positions within the HR space in the future.

Article 2 – News in Brief

We thought we’d give you a selection of some of the jobs and recruitment stories making the rounds in the last week or so. Have you read anything interesting, funny or newsworthy? Drop us an email at enquiries@assetresourcing.com or follow us on Twitter @AssetResourcing and tell us. If it’s befitting our esteemed newsletter, we might include it next month!

How Much Overtime Do You Do?
Alan Jones writing in last week’s London Evening Standard has suggested that according to the TUC, 5.4m people worked more than their contracted hours for no additional pay in 2013, amounting to £640m of unpaid or ‘free’ work. The article goes on to say that one in five workers do almost eight unpaid hours a week with the highest proportion of workers, an estimated 900,000 coming from London. Breaking it down further, it seems that workers in their early 40s are most likely to do unpaid overtime, and the most common jobs where employees go over and above are, unsurprisingly, in education, professional, scientific and technical jobs.

Do you work overtime without being paid? What are your thoughts? Do you mind putting the hours in or do you resent not being paid for the work you do? Tell us at the details above.

Student Pessimism
In the same paper, Alison Kershaw reported that in an NUS poll where the student body questioned almost 4,000 students and recent graduates about their views on the jobs market. It turns out that pessimism is still rife amongst arguably our most vital demographic. Some say it’s the responsibility of big business to improve the job market and some say that it’s unfair to make students and recent graduates work for free for weeks or months in order to get experience. It’s that vicious circle again. Just over 40% said they were pessimistic about their chances of finding a good job in the next 12 months but 28% were optimistic…

What do you think? Are you a recent graduate with good or bad experiences of the job market? Tell us using the contact information above.

Mobile Friendly? No? Why Not?
On www.recruiter.co.uk, Sue Weekes writes that despite one in three jobseekers searching on a mobile device, it appears that employers still don’t get it and are driving away potential talent as a result of poor and non-responsive websites that aren’t optimised for tablet and smartphone.  Mobile browsing is a case of ‘search, find, act’ and if the estimated 88% of people searching for jobs on mobile can’t find what they’re looking for on poorly formatted corporate websites, they will very quickly go elsewhere. As a corporate employer, if your website isn’t optimised for mobile and tablet, you may be missing out on the best talent in the market.

What are the best and worst sites for mobile browsing? Let us know!

Article 3 – March Jobs Report

Asset Resourcing MD Ben Sweeting is a regular contributor to the monthly UK Jobs Report compiled and published by KPMG and the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) and he has pinpointed two very interesting elements that have emerged, including a paradigm shift in the balance of power from employer to employee –

• Employer confidence is growing strongly as we move deeper into 2014 and their thirst for new staff is at a 15½ year high. The UK construction industry is showing improving growth figures (as is manufacturing across the Eurozone) and as is common, when construction grows, other sectors will follow.

• Bernard Brown, Head of Business Services at KPMG (and one of the key compilers of the monthly report) essentially said that even though jobs are being created, there has been a decline in the number of people entering the jobs market. What appears to be happening more and more is that the preference for talented employees seems to be a ‘try before you buy’ mentality before committing to long-term or permanent roles. This shifts the balance of power back into the hands of the employee who can pick and choose where they want to work and for how long. This is most common in the TMT (telecoms, media and technology) industry but it seems other industries will follow.

With the escalating crisis in Russia and the Ukraine, global markets are ‘cautious’ so we’ll always suggest treading carefully and remain vigilant to business threats.

Carrying on the vacancy theme, ONS data states that vacancies were up over 15% on an annual basis in the three months to December 2013 and importantly, internet-based recruitment spending rose by 9.0% in the third quarter of 2013, the sharpest increase for almost two years.

As part of February’s report, all contributors (including Ben) were asked to specify areas in which they have encountered a skill shortage in the preceding month and the usual suspects are all represented – accountancy & financial, IT & tech, secretarial & clerical and blue collar & engineering.

Perhaps the most notable inclusion in this list is ‘social media’. Businesses are now understanding the importance of social media and engaging with their clients and customers (as is evident by this newsletter, Asset Resourcing are embracing the world of social media) and we are confident in saying ‘watch this space’. Social media and content marketing is a vital component of any business’s marketing strategy and we think that niche industry sector is about to explode with more and more dedicated social media roles coming to the fore.

We certainly are, but are you seeing more in-house social media or content marketing roles coming up? Let us know on Twitter @AssetResourcing.

Article 4 – Say what?

People really do say the funniest things, especially when it comes to jobs and work, but some of these quotes really are quite profound –

‘Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life’. Confucius

‘I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.’ Michael Jordan

‘The difference between a job and a career is the difference between forty and sixty hours a week.’ Robert Frost

‘My mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general, if you become a monk you’ll end up as the pope.’ Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.’
Pablo Picasso

‘A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately they don’t have a J.O.B.’
Fats Domino

 

Article 1 – 2014’s ‘’Must-Have’ Tech for Recruiters

Every week there seems to be an 18-month old tech business with three employees and no balance sheet being bought by Google or Facebook for three billion dollars making the business-boy CEO richer than Australia. The trouble is most appear to rely on teenagers taking pictures of each other.

Thankfully for the more cerebral, there are a host of applications, tools and software out there that are incredibly useful for recruiters, candidates and clients alike. Here are the best ones to look out for in 2014 –

360Social 360Social is a toolbar for the Google Chrome browser (Firefox, IE and Safari are in development) that allows recruiters to research individual candidates by browsing through their various social media profiles. It tracks the social media footprint of candidates and will tell you whether they are squeaky clean or prone to trolling Stan Collymore…

Sonru Every recruiter in the world has at one point or another had issues with good candidates not being able to attend interviews because they’re not in the same city or even the same time zone. Sonru is a video interviewing solution that allows recruiters to record interview questions, set a deadline and invite candidates to email their responses back.

TalentQ This is a very useful tool that offers psychometric testing (competencies, personality, motivation, skills and behaviours) to candidates so you can quickly sift through the metaphorical wheat from the chaff.

What tools, software or websites do you use to simplify, streamline and generally made your life easier? Let us know on Twitter @AssetResourcing.

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Article 2 – Did You Meet Your Partner at Work?

In honour of Valentine’s Day this month, it’s time to celebrate those lucky souls who meet at work, lock eyes over the printer and after a few flirty post-work beers and some surreptitious emails proclaim undying love for each other.

When you look at it objectively, there’s no real surprise that so many coupes meet at work. You’re essentially in the same room with the same people for 8-9 hours a day, you collaborate on projects and you eat and socialise together. It’s inevitable that friendships will form and attraction often follows.

A recent survey conducted on behalf of the Daily Mail has suggested that 14% of couples who met at (or through) work end up down the aisle compared to 11% who were introduced through friends.

There are some real benefits to meeting at work –

• You have at least one thing in common
• You can essentially ‘test-drive’ your potential partner, studying them in a professional environment (and they’ll probably look better in smart work attire rather than a weekend tracksuit)
• It’s convenient to work together, travel together and socialise together

It’s not all plain-sailing however. It’s risky to make a pass at a colleague because a) you’re not sure how they will respond, b) if they respond negatively, it could make things awkward, c) will embarking on a workplace relationship affect the team dynamic and d) what will the company reaction be?

Here at Asset Resourcing, we’re traditionalists. If you fancy someone at work and it’s appropriate, ask them out on a date!

Have you met your life partner at work? How did it manifest itself? Were there any issues or stumbling blocks? Let us know!

Happy Valentine’s Day all!

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Article 3 – January Jobs Report

Asset Resourcing MD Ben Sweeting is a regular contributor to the monthly UK Jobs Report compiled and published by KPMG and the REC and he feels there is a real sense of optimism creeping back into the jobs market.

Ben’s optimism is valiated by Bernard Brown, Head of Business Services at KPMG. ‘Business confidence has reached a new high and it’s easy to share the renewed sense of optimism amongst employers. Permanent placements alone have hit a four-year peak and with temporary hires accelerating to a 15-year high there is clearly room for corporate investment and, with it, job creation.’

The headlines from January’s report include –

• Demand for staff continued to increase while…
• Staff availability is on a sharp downward curve
• Permanent salaries are at their highest growth rate since October 2007
• Hourly pay rates for temp/contract staff also rose, but not as sharply as for perms

While there are certainly plenty of reasons to be cheerful about the latest news, we proceed with a certain level of caution. Employees who are considering a new job are still being hesitant about moving companies or industries in favour of keeping the status quo for now. There is still a case for ‘it’s still an uncertain market and I have a job so I’m going to ride out the storm and see what’s out there later in the year’ but we genuinely believe that the green shoots of recovery are starting to flower.

There is still a risk that employers who are desperate to fill talent gaps will pay artificially high salaries to secure (and retain) the best employees and couple that with the steep fall in staff availability, you can see why we’re not quite ready to put the bunting out but we do feel that 2014 will be a year to look forward to.

What do you think about the state of the market? Are you optimistic? Are we in the midst of a recovery back to pre-2008 levels? Let’s hope so!
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Article 4 – Funny Ha Ha

How many offices have you been into where the walls are covered in posters with ‘inspirational’ messages, one step on from ‘you don’t have to be crazy to work here, but it helps?’

Here’s what they should really say…

‘If you can stay calm while all around you is in chaos…it’s likely you haven’t completely understood the severity of the situation’

‘Whatever you do, do it properly and to the best of your ability. Doing it wrong and blaming others makes you perfect for middle management’

 ‘Never put off until tomorrow what you can confidently avoid altogether’

‘Plagiarism saves an awful lot of time and effort’

Article 1 – Jobseekers – How Mobile Are You?

2013 saw a staggering 48% year-on-year increase in jobseekers searching available roles from their mobile devices. Totaljobs.com suggest that 34% (up from 23% y-o-y) of their incoming traffic comes from smartphones or tablets.

The same company also report that people completing and submitting applications via mobile device has risen by 68% thanks in part to Google Drive, the search behemoth’s online storage facility. There has been growing demand for greater mobile functionality when it comes to job searching and Google have said that by the second half of 2014, around half of all recruitment-related searches will be done on mobile devices. There is also an increasing trend for jobseekers to react to searches they find on their devices by sending them to themselves to complete at home on desktop computers.

A fully mobile optimised Asset Resourcing website will be launched by the end of the month and as always we’d love to know your thoughts so please keep an eye out.

How are you searching for jobs? What would make your searching experience easier? Let us know!
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Article 2 – December Jobs Report

December was a month of growth across all the metrics relevant to the UK Labour Report prepared every month by auditors KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).

Asset Resourcing’s own Ben Sweeting is a regular contributor to the report and the headline facts are as follows –

• Permanent and temp appointments rose at strong rates
• Vacancies have increased at their fastest rate since July 1998
• Perm salaries are at a six-year high while candidate availability declines
• Internet-based recruitment spending rose by 4.6% in Q2 2013

Staff Appointments

Following November’s theme, recruiters are reporting a continued increase in the numbers of perm staff placed although as is the norm, the numbers eased in the run-up to Christmas. The increases were as a result of the number of available vacancies. As for temp placements, billings were up and the rate of growth is still strong but has moderated to a five-month low, again, due in part to the general slowdown in the run up to the Christmas holidays.

Vacancies

Demand for high-quality, talented staff remains high with the rate of growth accelerating to a 15-year high. Demand for perm staff is higher than for temp staff but nevertheless, both have risen. Where perm roles are concerned, the private sector showed the strongest growth and while public sector roles showed growth, the levels were slight.

Sector-Specific Staff

The Engineering and Nursing/Medical/Care sectors showed the strongest rate of expansion, closely followed by IT & Computing, Executive roles and Accounting/Financial. A return to buoyancy in the property markets has also seen increases in the Construction industry but overall, Q1 2014 looks to continue the upward trend.

Staff Availability

Temp and perm staff availability continued to fall in November (the fall in availability of temp staff was the sharpest for nine years). Part of the issue resulting in the lack of available (and appropriately qualified) candidates is the school of thought which says ‘I have a job, let’s not rock the boat right now’ and starting salaries are rising at the fastest rate for six years because of higher demand as well as the shortage of skilled candidates.
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Article 3 – The Asset Resourcing Christmas Party

On wet and windy Wednesday 18^th, we had the Asset Resourcing Christmas Party. It was a great end to another successful year.

We went to Party at the Pyramids at AldenhamCountryPark. They had a giant Sphinx, pyramids, acrobats, dodgems and a casino (we don’t remember seeing bumper cars in Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra but hey-ho).

We were spoilt for entertainment and enjoyed a little friendly inter-company competition on the bucking camel. The evening began with a four-course dinner, during which we were entertained with fire dancing and aero-acrobatics performed by a harem of dancing girls – they chaps couldn’t take their eyes off them!

This years’ chosen charity was Peace Hospice Care, a fantastic organisation providing invaluable services to patients and families across South West Hertfordshire.

Article 4 – Say ‘hello’ to Samantha Tipton!

Asset Resourcing is growing! Samantha Tipton joined the team in December as European HR Consultant. Here she is in her own words (mostly…) –

AR: What does an average day look like for you?
ST: In a word – busy. In some more words, I am involved in the full 360° recruitment service and that includes business development. Building my own desk involves lots of emails, phone calls and working my way through LinkedIn. I’m monitoring who’s recruiting and I’m also building ethical, lasting relationships with candidates and clients.

AR: What do you like about working for AR?
ST: The close-knit family atmosphere and the support I got from the directors was immediately obvious. I have a certain freedom and flexibility to create, generate and build my own business with the ability to structure my day in a way that will be most beneficial to the business and my clients.

AR: How has your career progressed in the recruitment industry?
ST: I started my recruitment career inAustralia as an internal recruiter for a multinational infrastructure company inSydney. When I graduated I joined a city-based recruitment company heading up the German HR desk. I worked there for six months before I was approached with the suggestion of relocation toGermany. I then applied for the role at Asset Resourcing….

AR: What areas of recruitment are you looking after and what do the prospects like for candidates coming into your space over the next 12-18 months?
ST: I look after the HR recruitment for Central Europe and theUK. With a large and growing market at my disposal I hope to generate lots of roles, both permanent and interim across Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and of course the UK.

AR: Where do you see the future of recruitment going in the next 3-5 years?
ST: With the advent of social media, recruitment is now global with interviews being conducted via video conferencing and Skype as opposed to just the traditional ways. Candidates will become more mobile which will in turn open up markets where recruitment is not necessarily as big as it is here in theUK.

AR: What traits do you consider useful when working in recruitment?
ST: Organisation – you must have the ability to prioritise. Motivation – it’s not about the money, rather having the desire to build and grow a business. Communication – in order to build relationships with candidates and clients.  Confidence – to be able to speak to people you have never met and be able to sell them a person or a position.

AR: What are your favourite sports team, band, book and film?
ST: In order – Everton (football) and Worcester Warriors (rugby), Bloc Party and Florence and the Machine, Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks and anything directed by Guy Ritchie!

AR: Lastly, can we have three ‘out of the office’ facts about yourself?
ST: I watch rugby in winter and sailing in the summer, I love being pampered, going shopping and eating out and I’m a proper gym junkie!

Thanks Samantha!

Article 1 – Say ‘hello’ to Samantha Tipton!

Asset Resourcing is growing! At the start of December, Samantha Tipton joined the team as European HR Consultant. Here she is in her own words (mostly…) –

AR: What does an average day look like for you?
ST: In a word – busy. In some more words, I am involved in the full 360° recruitment service and that includes business development. Building my own desk involves lots of emails, phone calls and working my way through LinkedIn. I’m monitoring who’s recruiting and I’m also building ethical, lasting relationships with candidates and clients.

AR: What do you like about working for AR?
ST: The close-knit family atmosphere and the support I got from the directors was immediately obvious and I have a certain freedom and flexibility to create, generate and build my own business with the ability to structure my day in a way that will be most beneficial to the business and my clients.

AR: How has your career progressed in the recruitment industry?
ST: I started my recruitment career inAustralia as an internal recruiter for a multinational infrastructure company inSydney. When I graduated I joined a city-based recruitment company heading up the German HR desk. I worked there for six months before I was approached with the suggestion of relocation toGermany. I then applied for the role at Asset Resourcing….

AR: What areas of recruitment are you looking after and what do the prospects like for candidates coming into your space over the next 12-18 months?
ST: I look after the HR recruitment for Central Europe and theUK. With a large and growing market at my disposal I hope to generate lots of roles, both permanent and interim across Germany, Switzerland, Denmark, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands and of course the UK.

AR: Where do you see the future of recruitment going in the next 3-5 years?
ST: With the advent of social media, recruitment is now global with interviews being conducted via video conferencing and Skype as opposed to just the traditional ways. Candidates will become more mobile which will in turn open up markets where recruitment is not necessarily as big as it is here in theUK.

AR: What traits do you consider useful when working in recruitment?
ST: Organisation – you must have the ability to prioritise. Motivation – it’s not about the money, rather having the desire to build and grow a business. Communication – in order to build relationships with candidates and clients.  Confidence – to be able to speak to people you have never met and be able to sell them a person or a position.

AR: What are your favourite sports team, band, book and film?
ST: In order – Everton (football) and Worcester Warriors (rugby), Bloc Party and Florence and the Machine, Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks and anything directed by Guy Ritchie!

AR: Lastly, can we have three ‘out of the office’ facts about yourself?
ST: I watch rugby in winter and sailing in the summer, I love being pampered, going shopping and eating out and I’m a proper gym junkie!

Thanks Samantha!

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Article 2 – December Jobs Report

November was a month of growth across all the metrics relevant to the UK Labour Report prepared every month by auditors KPMG and the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC).

Asset Resourcing’s own Ben Sweeting is a regular contributor to the report and the headline facts are as follows –

• Permanent and temp appointments rose at strong rates
• Vacancies have increased at their fastest rate since July 1998
• Permsalaries are at a six-year high while candidate availability declines
• Internet-based recruitment spending rose by 4.6% in Q2 2013

Staff Appointments

Following October’s theme, recruiters are reporting a continued increase in the numbers of perm staff placed although as is the norm, the numbers ease in the run-up to Christmas. The increases were as a result of the number of available vacancies. As for temp placements, billings were up and the rate of growth is still strong but has moderated to a five-month low, again, due in part to the general slowdown in the run up to the Christmas holidays.

Vacancies

Demand for high-quality, talented staff remains high with the rate of growth accelerating to a 15-year high. Demand for perm staff is higher than for temp staff but nevertheless, both have risen. Where perm roles are concerned, the private sector showed the strongest growth and while public sector roles showed growth, the levels were slight.

Sector-Specific Staff

The Engineering and Nursing/Medical/Care sectors showed the strongest rate of expansion, closely followed by IT & Computing, Executive roles and Accounting/Financial. A return to buoyancy in the property markets has also seen increases in the Construction industry but overall, Q1 2014 looks to continue the upward trend.

Staff Availability

Temp and perm staff availability continued to fall in November (the fall in availability of temp staff was the sharpest for nine years). Part of the issue resulting in the lack of available (and appropriately qualified) candidates is the school of thought which says ‘I have a job, let’s not rock the boat right now’ and starting salaries are rising at the fastest rate for six years because of higher demand as well as the shortage of skilled candidates.
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Article 3 – Jobseekers – How Mobile Are You?

2013 has seen a staggering 48% year-on-year increase in jobseekers searching available roles from their mobile devices. Totaljobs.com suggest that 34% (up from 23% y-o-y) of their incoming traffic comes from smartphones or tablets.

The same company also report that people completing and submitting applications via mobile device has risen by 68% thanks in part to Google Drive, the search behemoth’s online storage facility. There has been growing demand for greater mobile functionality when it comes to job searching and Google have said that by the second half of 2014, around half of all recruitment-related searches will be done on mobile devices. There is also an increasing trend for jobseekers to react to searches they find on their devices by sending them to themselves to complete at home on desktop computers.

How are you searching for jobs? What would make your searching experience easier? Let us know!
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Article 4 – The Asset Resourcing Christmas Party

On wet and windy Wednesday 18^th, we had the Asset Resourcing Christmas Party. It was a great end to another successful year.

We went to Party at the Pyramids at AldenhamCountryPark. They had a giant Sphinx, pyramids, acrobats, dodgems and a casino (we don’t remember seeing bumper cars in Elizabeth Taylor’s Cleopatra but hey-ho).

We were spoilt for entertainment and enjoyed a little friendly inter-company competition on the bucking camel. The evening began with a four-course dinner, during which we were entertained with fire dancing and aero-acrobatics performed by a harem of dancing girls – they chaps couldn’t take their eyes off them!

This years’ chosen charity was Peace Hospice Care, a fantastic organisation providing invaluable services to patients and families across South West Hertfordshire.

They raised even more money through a silent auction where Ben’s Jägerbomb-fuelled generosity was rewarded with a new piece of ‘regal’ art for our office wall – amongst other “wins”. The night got better as the drinks flowed, the DJ played cheesy classics and, ignoring ‘the no drink-driving rule’ we bashed around on the dodgems. What did we learn? Drinking on a school night is always a bad idea and Ed’s a surprisingly good body popper!

Happy New Year everyone!