Supplier beware!

Given the extent to which we work successfully we other multi nationals, we found the situation surprising, and it left us bemused, puzzled and deeply concerned.  Our only explanation is that this has been be motivated by the hiring leader’s need to save face or money or both – she had already had a failed search engagement for this role with another firm, and with the role then being filled internally, was presumably under question as to why she’d engaged us at all.

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Is your recruitment agency protecting your company brand?

.... I know that companies spend a fortune on packaging, marketing, advertising, securing community goodwill, etc.  It will have taken them either a lot of money, or a lot of time to have achieved credibility for their brand.  And a recruitment "partner" can effect a fantastically negative impact on this, in just seconds and for free.

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Sydney siege and thoughts for HR teams

...more importantly, where does the moral compass of your management team and company lay in making exceptions?  (We heard just this week about the new employee at a household brand employer who was sent overseas for a work trip,  He suffered a horrific car accident, and wasn't eligible for financial or medical support beyond the first couple of months of his hospital stay because he didn't qualify under the company's policies for employees still in probation)

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Enjoy the Christmas party however...

Certainly the party cannot get out of control.  Like the Christmas event when Sam took full advantage of the free booze to the extent she was carted off in an ambulance after just 2 hours to get her stomach pumped.  Or when police had to break up the fight that ensued between 20 colleagues – for a whole year their management teams had been vying them against each other in “healthy” competition and slanging matches (so it was just a matter of time till that much warring testosterone resulted in fisticuffs)

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Recruitment agency fees

 I'm an advocate for cost containment when you do need to utilise the experience/support/expertise of a 3rd party recruitment service.  I'm also aware that there are still some recruitment providers who haven't changed their fee ratios or champagne and long lunch lifestyles since the nineties, and I know that that exorbitant fees do not guarantee the best service and results from any agency.  

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Quit with class from your HR job

There may be short term satisfaction in telling your bosses or colleagues what you really think about them, and emphasising this with some colourful insults, but there is nothing to gain in the mid to long term.   This is also a good reason to avoid last day drinks – in the emotions that practically everyone feels on their last day, it’s too easy to say the wrong thing with a little artificial courage…

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Supply and demand

He went so far as to suggest that we'd made up the role,  that we didn't know what we were doing, and that the employer would be furious at us for not having effected the introduction.  He demanded to know who the other candidates were, and who the employer was so he could check into the validity of a/ the job existing and b/introduce himself to the company directly since we didn't know what we were doing.

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Competency Based Interviews

Competency based interviews (CBI) are a trend that is not slowing down. Many of our HR community will be familiar with the CBI approach and may well have used this format to conduct interviews in the past. However the experience of being on the “other side” of a CBI process is likely to be quite different, and to help your interviewing success, it is useful to understand the reasoning behind use of CBI as a screening and selection tool.

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