PPS' Recruitment Blog

February 8, 2012

Smartphone applications – do they have a place in recruitment?

Filed under: Job applicants, Recruitment, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — ppsworks @ 2:12 pm

From blackberries to iPhones, to HTCs and Samsung Galaxys, with a smartphone to suit every type of user it is no surprise that recent figures indicate sales of smartphones have shot up by 75% worldwide.

Their applications, better known as ‘apps’, have been working their magic on many industries – you can now check your balance using your smartphone, or do your weekly shop or spend hours on end helping out a bunch of birds that seem to be quite angry about something.

Could smartphones be a staple of the future of recruitment?

Could smartphones be a staple of the future of recruitment?

For many services and products, having a custom-made app makes sense. It makes the customer experience easier, faster and efficient. Companies also benefit. Apps can be marketing tools to broaden customer base and build consumer loyalty, as well as doubling up as an office away from the office.

So could the smartphone and its applications do the same within the recruitment industry?

Online job boards have seen a 1500% increase in traffic from mobile devices since 2010. With peaks of job searching activity in line with the morning commute and late evening slumber, it seems that going mobile allows job seekers to search for longer throughout the day. Furthermore, Jobsite accounts that 9% of all mobile traffic ends in people actually applying for a role, with 5% of all of the applications it receives coming from mobiles.

With numerous people using their smartphone to follow job boards, search for the latest vacancies and apply, can recruiters get in on the action?

Firstly, recruiters can use apps to attract candidates. Video clips are a great way of advertising a vacancy, and a creative approach to standing out from the crowd. Downloading the official apps from Social Media’s ‘Big 3’ allow you to source and check out potential and passive candidates on the go.

Using mobile technology can assist in simplifying the screening process too. Apps such as the Hire Syndicate and Auto Search enable recruiters to collaborate with fellow recruiters and scour multiple websites using simple Boolean search strings. Candidates are able to submit their CVs to recruiters, which are then stored on a database for easy viewing and screening. Companies such as PepsiCo have created their own career app that gives prospective applicants the opportunity to get a feel for the company before they apply.

Whilst research does suggest that shunning mobile technology within recruitment may affect the amount of talent attracted, there still seems to be a long way to go before the handy Smartphone and its apps become a staple recruitment tool.

What are your thoughts? Do  smartphones and their applications have a place in recruitment? Comment and share!

Written by Bavinder Chahal, a recruiter at PPS

February 1, 2012

Dear Editor…

Filed under: Job applicants, Recruitment — Tags: , , , , , , , , — ppsworks @ 10:45 am

Check out our Director, Will’s response to this article in last week’s London Evening Standard.

Dear Editor,

There seems to be nothing ‘controversial’ about Pret’s recruitment (Why can’t a Brit get a job at Pret? – 23rd January 2012) – rather, it seems to do a fantastic job of securing them enthusiastic employees, focussed on giving the customer a top level of service.

I run a recruitment outsourcing business, and read your article hoping for an insight into how Pret recruit. When setting up a recruitment process, you look to have as many high calibre individuals as possible apply, and then build fair, efficient and fool proof methods to screen those applicants before hiring the best.

It strikes me that Pret achieve exactly this, and that the lack of Brits applying is a problem which lies not at their door.

With thorough screening and interview stages, Pret’s recruitment process seems to mirror that of many companies today – funnily enough, the responses from unsuccessful candidates seem to be quite similar too. Pret’s “graduation day” seems not too dissimilar to the prospective employee days of many of our high profile national recruiters, either.

Perhaps instead of sandwiching (pardon the pun) quotes from disgruntled candidates in between the all-too familiar bucket-passing statements from our so-called politicians, your reporter could look a lot more closely at why the calibre of ‘young Brits’ applying don’t make the grade. We might be able to have more of an informative debate then.

Try asking about government plans to address the gap between the minimum wage and the London ‘Living wage’. Or investigate what schools, colleges, career bodies and job centre plus are doing to prepare tomorrow’s employees for the world of work.  Even better yet, compare the validity of a recruitment process that has such stark results with others, and ask why it is so good? Maybe we could learn something from it.

Assuming that Pret maintain their high standard of recruitment, I shall continue to buy my morning coffee from them – it really does taste better when served with so much enthusiasm!

Yours Sincerely

Will Shepherd

www.ppsworks.com

What are your thoughts? Comment and share!

Written by Will Shepherd, Managing Director of PPS.

January 16, 2012

We’re hiring! Graduate and Industrial Placement opportunties!

Filed under: Graduates and Industrial Placement, Recruitment, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — ppsworks @ 3:10 pm

PPS are hiring, and we are looking for an incredible bunch of fresh, talented and passionate graduates and Industrial Placements students to join our growing (and pretty cool) team.

We have got fantastic opportunities in I.T, Marketing and Recruitment - this is our tenth year of taking on new recruits and we’ve developed a well-structured scheme that develops and supports you during your time with us.

I.T – More specifically, our Graduate I.T role revolves around applications development, PHP, SQL and good old Web and Systems design. From database to front-end product, you will be involved in all aspects of our in-house web-based recruitment applications, with our lead developers guiding you every step of the way. Interested? Apply now: http://www.ppsworks.com/careers_apply.php

Closing date: 24th February 2012

Marketing: Our graduate marketing role encompasses broad aspects of professional services marketing – from social media to more traditional forms of marketing. From blogs to Twitter, to client and in-house newsletters to pay-per-click campaigns, this role gifts you with real experience and responsibility with a melting pot of elements that make up marketing at PPS. Interested? Apply now: http://www.ppsworks.com/careers_apply.php.

Closing date: 30th January 2012

Recruitment: Our industrial placement is a Recruitment Administrator role, which we have had great success with over the years. So much so, that a majority of our previous industrial placement students have returned to PPS and are now performing key roles across the organisation. With us, you’ll get insights into every aspect of a client’s and candidate’s recruitment journey – from sourcing to advertising, to screening to assessment centres. With full training and opportunities to be at the frontline of our recruitment services, you’ll return to University with a bag of skills and confidence. Ready to take that next step? Apply now: http://www.ppsworks.com/careers_apply.php.

Closing date: 31st March 2012

To get a greater feel for PPS as an organisation, feel free to browse through our site using the links above, and for more insight into working at PPS, click here.

If and when you are ready, we would like to hear from you. You can apply online here.

January 10, 2012

Apprenticeships: getting it right.

Filed under: Recruitment — Tags: , , , , , — ppsworks @ 11:51 am

During the past few months I have uncovered a great deal of uncertainty around what an Apprentice is and what is expected of them.  Certainly the beloved BBC programme does little to shed much light with its demands for candidates who have done nothing less than set up a million pound turnover business by the age of 17.   At the other extreme,  there are examples of organisations looking to jump on the apprentice bandwagon but who have done little to erase the common prejudice among line managers, expected to manage and train them, that all 16 year olds are capable of little more than Facebook profile management.

For many, apprenticeships are the building blocks to a career

Announcements over the past year that the government would provide extra funding for businesses willing to createmore apprenticeships has, in these tough economic times, seen a surge in interest and calls from the boardroom to create them.   With the aftermath of university education too looking so bleak, there is also increased interest from young people in alternatives to a degree and more vocational training.

Click here to read more of Amy’s views on getting apprenticeships right

December 22, 2011

Review of 2011

Filed under: Uncategorized — ppsworks @ 10:22 pm

On the basis of a not insignificant number of hits on my post a year ago, I thought I would spend a few moments putting together my second annual review. For those of you unfamiliar with the review, while I am the Managing Director of PPS the Recruitment Outsourcing Business, it is around this time of year that I like to use the PPS blog to publish my personal and largely un-recruitment related review of the year. As ever, feel free to have a read and comment if you like!

If you looked closely at the articles from last year, you would know that I rarely read more than the same staple of 2 or 3 newspapers. However, this year -  I am going interactive – and have included a couple of on-line links as well.

Like all years, 2011 contained a feast of notable events, intriguing goings on, opposing opinions, and not a small amount of the bizarre. Here’s a selection of the (mainly) articles that got me thinking this year (those that I remembered to keep a copy of anyway):

On the political front, 2011 was the year that everyone blamed everyone else for the mess we are in.  It was the banker’s fault, it was Gordon Brown’s, it was the Greek’s, it was the banker’s again. It was George Osbourne’s, it was the French and German’s, it was Margaret Thatcher’s, it was Obama’s, it was the rioter’s. But it wasn’t us!

“Middle Classes are to blame, says IDS”

“Living the even better life”

“Why Goldman must repay its debt to Society”

I’m certain that some elements of the investment banking world have got a lot to answer for, and the world has to get to grips with how it controls the excesses of such complex global financing.

Yet at the same time, an awful lot of us got rich too over the last few years – we shared in the excesses, and somehow this has certainly lessened the society that we live in. I for one, am convinced that there is a direct correlation between the start of the financial crisis, and the growth of dog crap on our streets. I blame the dog owners!

Click here to read the rest of Will’s review of 2011

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