An Evening of Tech Beers at Silicon Canal

I attended my first meeting of Silicon Canal Tech Beers last night and thought it would be worth writing a post to capture my thoughts of the evening and what I learnt.

Firstly its impossible to remember everybody's name, but thankfully meetup.com helps with that.

Google Glass is really cool, but you look like Robocop wearing it. Thanks to the guys from Love the Look to bringing it along for everyone to play with.

After some discussion of the best restaurants in Birmingham, Adams scores highly, we quickly moved to a more favourable topic, beers and economics, Pure Bar, Brewdog and the Wellington seemed popular!

On Economics:

I  learnt that vodka does taste different at different price points, watching the blind A/B test conducted by Stuart and Giles was entertaining. Next time I shall not put it on my tab( learning point)

On Behavioural Economics:

Being told something is more expensive makes it more enjoyable. 

At least 4 of the group wear pebble, and are into some form of fitness logging.

There are some awesome tech start-ups in Birmingham, and we need to shout about them more. 

Birmingham needs a decent profile blog page of how founders have done recruitment to share best practice, think I would be keen to do something around this.

All founders struggle with recruitment, some of the usual stuff around lack of talent but mainly around being able to commit the right amount of time to doing it properly.

A few companies are doing similar things and could share best practice around things like sales and hiring especially around using newer tools.

There is a scarcity of talent on Birmingham, and we lose it to London too much.

The Drop forge is a nice pub and serves great coffee.

Tech people are friendly even the ones that give Klingon welcome waves. 

All in a very pleasant night with some great, interesting people, looking forward to the next one.

I attended in my role as inhouse recruiter for a Birmingham tech Startup through my new company which can be found at http://www.babbagelovelace.com/in-house-recruitment-services.html

Recruitment Tips for Small Business

After 16 years of working in recruitment, I typically hear the same comments from HR managers, Directors and hiring managers about recruitment and the biggest of these is generally cost and quality of service. Recruitment companies cost us too much and we get poor candidates from them so I thought I would outline a few helpful hints as too how you can save money.

Firstly understanding how recruitment agencies work can give a good insight into what drives some of the behaviours that can be found out there. Most recruiters work on a contingency basis, that is you pay them if you find a candidate. Its low risk but you pay a huge premium for this. Recruiters have little confidence in you as a client, own the candidate IP rather than you so can sell them to other clients and are interested in making a fee so will show little loyalty to you as a client if a better role  or bigger fee comes up.

1.       Do you need to hire?

Often hiring is a reactive process, somebody has left or been performance managed out or in the worst case been dismissed and the immediate response is quickly ‘find me a replacement’. Companies should spend time evaluating whether they need to hire someone that is exactly the same, what the role will cover before starting the recruitment process. Often the role may change, somebody else internally may fit(see point 9) or the role can be covered by the existing team.

2.       Promote somebody and hire an apprentice( succession planning)

Do you succession plan? If a key member left, is there somebody ready or wanting to take on the role, does this mean you can hire a less experienced or qualified person and motivate your existing staff through promotion or job challenge?

3.       Write a good job spec

The recruitment process starts with writing the right job spec, which includes company brief, person profile, skills, and competencies. This will help make sure you recruit the right person.

4.       Do it yourself

There are a plethora of options available for companies to recruit themselves for value. The issue for most companies is the time to do this, but companies like Babbage Lovelace can help.

5.       Referrals

In local markets like Cleobury, odds on, somebody in your company will know someone who could do the job, how do you approach them, how do you get them to recommend them, do you have a referral system in place?

6.       Careers Page

It amazed me how many companies still don’t have a careers page that is up to date or allows candidates to add their CV’s to a talent pool. Particularly in areas like Cleobury where there is a small pool of people, building up a talent pool of the local market that you can approach when you have a job is essential to reducing your recruitment fees.

7.       Negotiate your fees

Most agencies are willing to negotiate, it’s a competitive marketplace out there, there are even sites that will auction your job for you.

8.       Exclusivity

If you are going to work with an agency, offer exclusivity in return for specific returns, exclusive ownership of candidates, lower fees, free advertising or research.

9.       Contract management

Companies that use lots of contractors can often make savings through better contract management, either through an Recruit Process Outsourcer, standardisation of rates, volume rate negotiation. This all starts with an audit internally to capture the current start of what you have.

A good process to follow is 

Do we need the job?

Is there anybody internally who is planned or would be capable of the job

Do we have anybody in our talent pool that would be interested in the job

Does our workforce know anybody for the job?

Can we do it ourselves?

Go external to an agency? Negotiate, Exclusivity!

Babbage Lovelace In-House recruitment specialise in providing recruitment services by the hour in a fully transparent manner for SME companies. We offer a free one hour consultation to discuss key challenges you might be facing.

http://www.babbagelovelace.com/in-house-recruitment-services.html

Flowers, Di Canio and Dymond - When will we ever learn

We used Psychometrics - Why did it go wrong?

As many will have seen this week, numerous articles have been published regarding the recruitment of Paul Flowers at Co-op, George Dymond at Morrisons and the hiring of numerous football managers who were completely wrong for the business or left extremely quickly with the use of psychometrics being quoted in a number of them as a key reason for the hire.

Recruiting a Chairman of a bank with no previous banking experience on the basis of his leadership and previous board credentials might be seen as foolish, especially following the numerous reports into the financial crisis which stated that one of the key drivers was leadership that did not understand the products or risks within the system.  One does feel that the job description was far more people and behaviours focused rather than domain experience.

Bringing people in who leave within 3-6 months because the job was not what was envisioned demonstrates a lack of desire by the organisation to  fully understand what their needs are at the outset by either failing to outline the role or environment in which candidates will work; of course being blinded by one of the many recruitment fallacies such as halo, mirror, PLU or their background can also be reasons why the wrong person is hired.

What this overlooks is the key reason for hiring a headhunter or recruitment specialist, to advise, design or oversee the process, challenging either the board or the leadership team that they hire the right person  for the role in a proper selection process. Given the recent scenario at Sunderland with Di Canio, one does wonder whether they assessed him at all in their selection process or just went with someone who they thought brought credibility?

This brings us onto the other crucial role of a headhunter, fully referencing candidates both through the formal side of their CV but also by talking to others who have worked with them to understand their work style and limitations, coming back to the Di Canio situation, one feels a couple of quick phone calls to Swindon might have influenced the decision to Sunderlands benefit.

How boards and leaders design the assessment of the hiring process is something where the recruiter can bring a great deal of experience both through their structured interview technique, arranging testing, role plays and case studies through to advising on the decisions that they take.

Having a panel involved in the interview and assessment process can overcome shortcomings associated with having the same person making hiring decisions, however the panel needs to be balanced and not subject to groupthink or influence by the most senior person.

While psychometrics will have a key role to play in hiring especially when the team fit and motivations are key to ensuring that a person will be able to lead a group of experienced leaders and personalities, the focus of a recruiter should be on making sure that both sides are aware of the opportunities and constraints around the job, assessment is accurate and competently carried out, and the expectations should be clear for all when decisions and offers are made.

Psychometrics and aptitude tests have long been used to set benchmarks and give boards, leaders and hiring managers a good reason to rule people out but they should never be used as the only reason to hire without all the other checks and balances of a proper assessment exercise.

If any football clubs or banks wish to employ me in the search for their next manager I would be happy to talk to them!
What are your thoughts?

Thoughts from the LEP conference 2

So a quick review of the LEP conference today at Worcester Sixways, some great thoughts and ideas on how to improve the structural positioning of Worcestershire and how we can be involved.

Awesome overview on employment and skills especially apprenticeships from Karl at Thermo Bosch Group, I am a huge fan of this and can see real value especially where companies have significant long term contractors in the business that they could add real value by training apprenticeships up.  Great target of 10,000 by Karl and his team and well on the way to achieving it. If you are a business in Worcestershire, you should sign up for this!

Lots on younger people and skilling them up,I thought the focus on linking schools with businesses up was a really strong innovation and added real value, especially as it would help drive our youth to make proper career choices rather than blindly following a education route. I wanted to question on what the strategy for older people who need to reskill especially given the demographic in Worcestershire.

For more information on the 'Connecting Schools and Business Programme' and Apprenticeships then email enquiries@wlep.co.uk

A new service - Tweetups's, using twitter to organise meetings in the interval worked for me but not sure about others, but well done OGL computing Maybe put the WIFI password in the main room as well though as quite a few of us had to get it at the break.

Overall, I thought the LEP was going in right direction, I was shocked to hear about lack of inward investment capability,they have made a great start especially around the video and a brochure but needs significant work and ambition, I do think this is a key role for the LEP and needs to be in conjunction with the economic development arms of the various councils, but knowing how focused that Birmingham, Manchester and other cities are, while we will probably never punch at that level we should do more.

Finance - Not another one, how many more portals are there for SME's to find finance? I did have a great thought that we should look to follow the example of the Oxygen Accelerator model in Birmingham and start to attract innovative startups through new funding models though. If we focused this onto particular sectors such as food, green technology and cyber security we could really build some depth and strength there.

Brilliant examples of turnaround from Brintons and Holywell Malvern, especially the move to export internationally.

I did think that compared to what used to be the RDA, a little surprised at the lack of money they are being given!

Good strategy around clusters and sectors for the region and very true that while we need to work with our surrounding LEPs, they are really in competition with us for the same funds and workforces.

A good conference, and great to see Worcestershire finally uniting Business and government to drive the area forward, I look forward to next year and seeing what progress is made.

Hiring Locally vs Relocations

Should I recruit more locally? Thoughts from the Worcestershire LEP conference 1

I was talking with a HR manager today at the Worcestershire LEP conference about their hiring practices and recruitment when we touched upon the topic of localism and CSR; not your usual recruiter speak I know but I thought I would pen some thoughts that might be of use to other HR managers. 

1.     The Benefits of hiring locally:

1.1  Reduces Greenhouse gas emissions and improves health for workforce through the promotion of walking, cycling and car-sharing. Reduces stress in employees with long commutes.

1.2  As mentioned in Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (reference) each additional ten minutes spent commuting leads to a 10% decline in all areas of civic engagement; if you are a small village or town this can have a major impact.

1.3  Keeps money invested in the local community. The salaries you pay are likely to have a significant impact on local businesses; a multiplier of 3-4 would not be uncommon. When Longbridge in Birmingham shut down overnight, so too did many small business.

1.4  Fosters an engaged workforce through social activity. If a significant number of your workforce live close to one another they are likely to develop more engaged social networks.

1.5  No relocation costs. 

1.6  Reduced turnover of staff.  One of the key reasons people leave a job is that they are “fed up” with the commute, and whilst the age of homeworking is still developing, hiring people locally who are committed to the workforce and area will have a key impact on attrition.

1.7  On-going attraction. Referrals and attracting former colleagues are key factors of hiring in today’s economy.  Hiring local people means that they are more able to do this (unless you are a football manager and able to bring whole teams with you!).

1.8  Locals job-search locally.  People often begin their search for work locally resulting in the lower search costs on both sides and consequently, a greater chance of success in hiring and finding a new role.

Lots of positives for companies here to hire locally, far more than I had initially thought however before I get too carried away with the localism agenda, perhaps some thoughts on the disadvantages first.

2.     The Disadvantages of hiring locally

2.1  Restricts the supply of workers to the organisation. This can be especially important if you are in a service or creative industry using skilled workers that are hard to find.

2.2  May mean the local community are too reliant on one employer, as seen throughout the North of England when coal mining was shut down in the 1980's.

2.3  The costs of hiring may increase as the supply of labour within a radius goes down and employees bargain for greater salaries or rates. This can certainly be seen in London currently as salaries rise for particular skills sets especially in programming or programme management.

2.4  Settling for the available talent and missing out on the best talent.  Research has shown that recruiting top performers has a greater than expected impact on company productivity and growth.

3.     The impact upon your recruitment options

3.1  The type of job.  If the job is a permanent hire then going locally may be the better option; conversely contractors and FTC or temps may be able to travel more if the rate is higher.

3.2  The skill set needed.  If a job requires a particular skill set or expertise then you may need to look further afield, particularly if the role holder is a very rare skill.

3.3  Commuting.  Have you looked at travel time?  What would you call local? In London local may mean within a 1hr commute which can be as far as Brighton.  However, for somewhere like Worcestershire this might mean Central Birmingham to Bristol? Use tools like www.Mapumental.com to work out what are realistic commute times - you may be surprised!

3.4  Location. What is your location? Do applicants have to drive? Could they walk, cycle, take the bus or train? This may have a major impact on whether you are able to go further.   Recruiting in city centres may be a deterrent to drivers given the traffic delays yet may also attract more candidates as they will be better served by public transport.

3.5  What is the competition? If you work in a particular market or industry segment that requires specific skills i.e. optoelectronics or software programming, do you know where to find other sources of talent?

3.6  What is the level of the role?  The more senior the role the more likely you are to have to widen the search area unless you are in a major city. Even then I would argue that the more important the hire the less location matters and the more the emphasis is upon getting the right candidate.

Top 10 things for startups and founders to think about when choosing their technology platform and hiring.

www.babbagelovelace.com

As a founder or senior leader within your startup, have you asked yourself these questions and got answers you are happy with, if not make the time to work through them, you could regret it later down the line especially when you do finally get investment.

1. Are there staff available in the local area?

It might be obvious but it is amazing how many startups will go with the latest technology like Scala, paper.js, Clojure or Slate, Faust or Squirrel and build an amazing new product but then when they try to recruit the extra programmer they really struggle to hire. Spend some time thinking about where you can find the skills locally or will you have to cross train or relocate talent. Even languages that are becoming more mainstream like Ruby can be difficult to obtain. Resources like IT jobswatch can give you an idea of demand, a quick search on Linkedin might give an indication of supply.

2. What are the rates for permanent/contract staff for your technology stack?

Assuming you are going with your favoured technology when you are preparing your cashflow and hiring plans, take a look at salaries/contract margins. Many startups are amazed at what they might have to pay to get that right skillset especially outside of London where the assumption is to pay less, but competition is really hot for tech skills right now.

3. Where are the big technology companies that use your skillset?

One of the reasons that clusters grow especially around technologies is that there happens to be a large employer of that skillset locally. The reason there were so many start ups in California was Xerox Parc, so many embedded software companies in Cambridge was Acorn and networking technologies in Scotland was NCR and 3Com. Have you looked at the local big tech employers and their tech stack to see if its easy to get people from there.

4. Are you part of a community already?

Have you joined and are active in the local User Groups, Meetups?T his will give you an idea of the quality and depth of local talent.

5. Universities

Have you made links with the local universities, especially the Computer Science courses? One reason for successful startups around York was the quality of their C Science course especially around AI and Vision.

6. What happens when you get funded? Do you have a plan

One of the key bottlenecks for startups is planning, from building and launching a product, creating great customer service and doing the investment rounds when you finally get that magic funding, typically a lot of it will go on hiring. If you have not pipelined and thought about how to do this it can create a major challenge for companies.

7. It's OK, we will just bring in overseas candidates!

Think again, the average time to hire, process and gain a work permit is likely to be around 3-6 months especially if they are not in the country already. On top of which, Visa's are becoming much scarcer now under new legislation. Yes you can still hire from within the EU, but the competition is fierce and most candidates want to live in London as that is the area they know.

8. Beware the unicorn!

While research suggests that recruiting the top 5% of programmers will have a disproportionate effect on your productivity, the reality is they are few and far between for a reason and you have to pay disproportionate salaries and benefits to attract them and present them with the right challenges otherwise they will move on swiftly. A good solid team to start will pay good dividends and if you see one them make a decision then otherwise you could miss delivering waiting for the unicorn.

9. Are you attractive compared to your peers?

Have you undertaken a review of your hiring competition? Not just the local startups but major employers, startups within 1 hours commute which if you are in Nottingham, Birmingham or Manchester could almost be London to see how you stack up on benefits, culture and salaries?

10. Do you actually tell people you are hiring!

A common issue for startups is to focus on their product and sales and not have their website telling people they are hiring or what they are looking for in the future. The key is to make sure that its very visible on the front page.

If you would like to get a free review of hiring practices at your startup or just advice on where you might be able to improve then pick up the phone to Peter on 01299 833980 or email me at peter.chatterley@babbagelovelace.com

Why recruiters can add more than just sourcing candidates?

Many organisations view recruiters as just databases of candidate CVs that they search using keywords and then send them an invoice when they hire the person. I thought it might be useful to demonstrate how I worked with one client that hopefully changed this perception.

A legal company in Bristol asked me to talk to them about their recruitment for paralegals as they were having problems in the department with people not working out and the managers were continuously hiring but struggling to see enough good candidates.

While the initial conversation was focused around how we could source better candidates for them, on further investigation we formed the view that their issue was not around sourcing candidates, they actually had a very strong pipeline and a great employment brand in the market with plenty of applicants.

Speaking to the hiring manager, it became apparent that their issue was selection of candidates, both in how they managed their time and assessed candidates, we advised adding a number of written tests which could be completed earlier in the process thereby allowing managers to only interview successful candidates. We also advised on having a much more rigorous process around performance management in the first six months to raise the overall quality of the team.

We formed the view that these changes alone would have a significant impact on their recruitment, firstly in reducing the time managers spent interviewing poor candidates and secondly by changing the impact of bad hires through faster managing.

Early indications are this is having a good impact on their hiring processes.