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?

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

Dear Editor,

There seems to be nothing ‘controversial’ about Pret’s recruitment (Why can’t a Brit get a job at Pret? – 23^rd 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.

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.

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.

There are many industries which have successfully run inspiring apprenticeship programmes for years.  The engineering, manufacturing and utilities sector in particular have programmes which have a clear recruitment policy and direction, ensure excellent training and result in relevant qualifications for those taking part.  Indeed for these organisations the apprentice programme is a vital means of getting future talent into the business.

For those thinking about creating an apprentice scheme it is essential to consider the basic facts. The volume of applications to any programme will be enormous and so a consistent and efficient response management solution is essential.  The reputation of many apprentice programmes can be severely damaged by media savvy youngsters happy to publicise the lack of response or failure to acknowledge.   Unlike Lord Sugar’s prodigies, most young people have limited work and life experience and so while a screening process is essential, it is important to tailor it correctly and to ensure any hiring managers understand this before interview.  While making fantastically good television I am not sure most young people would survive his recruitment process in the real world and the fall out could be badly damaging to the employer brand.

However, perhaps most importantly organisations need to ensure that the HR and learning & development teams have a clear training strategy in place.  An apprentice is ‘one who is learning a trade or occupation’ (Oxford English Dictionary) – in other words they do not know it all at the beginning and should not be expected to, but neither are they incapable of rising to a challenge and contributing a huge amount to business.  If it isn’t possible to properly train and guide your apprentices then should you really be recruiting them – no matter how tempting the offer from Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg?

By Amy Johnson, Business Solutions Manager at PPS

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!

Another notable element to 2011 UK politics was and remains the complete un-electability of the current Labour hierarchy:

“What’s wrong with Ed Milliband”

“What’s wrong with Ken Livingstone (1)?”

I passed an interesting evening at a Labour Party fundraiser in July with Ken Livingston and Ed Balls. Ken Livingston thinks it’s all a game. And the more he drank, the more fun it all became. But it’s a serious issue running a great City like London. We elected the joke candidate back at the first ever Mayoral election – let’s not do it again in 2012:

What’s wrong with Ken Livingstone (2)?

London gets its chance to star on the world sporting stage next year, and so 2011 was about Olympic preparation. Stadiums being built, millions squandered on opening ceremonies, athletes looking for qualifying times, transport systems getting ready (and train, bus and taxi drivers extorting Olympic bonuses because London will be ‘busy’), and applications for those precious tickets:

Non-olympic praise for London transport

Olympia ticket mania

I got lucky, with tickets to see the diving, the athletics, and the wheelchair basketball. I think that the Olympics will be good for London now that we have committed to all that money anyway, so bring on a sunny sport filled summer!

There’s nothing like recruitment, and over the years I have seen how it includes all types of individual. One of them making the headlines with his humble approach to management was Tim Watts of Pertemps:

Watts awarded £100,000 costs

And in a similar vein, though not in recruitment this time, another employer with an interesting approach to management:

Boss forced to sell home for ‘theif’s’ payout

I have flown with Ryan Air on a number of occasions this year, and as long as I take a deep breath while going through the booking process (or get my wife to do it), so as to not explode at their latest method to extract another fee from me, I have to say that they have served their purpose. For short flights to otherwise hard to reach locations, they have been efficient and on time for me in 2011.  But I still laughed at this YouTube video – stick with it to the end – it’s worth it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPyl2tOaKxM&sns=em

While not quite as glorious a sporting moment as beating Australia on their own turf, the English Cricket team’s progress to World Number one this summer by beating India was a pleasure to behold. An article about what their Coach sees as the reasons for the teams rise to the top (written before India took their revenge in the Autumn) makes for an interesting read. Getting the right balance of team harmony, while maintaining a culture of being able to challenge each other when necessary resounded with me:

England’s rise to the top – the Coach’s view

We spent a scary evening at the Shepherd household in August during this summer’s riots. The site of a van full of riot police sat round the corner from our house was not entirely comforting! I like to think that they had sought out a nice safe part of South East London for a quick rest!

This particular rioter reinforced the message that recruitment process outsourcing PPS always gives to its clients – beware your how you reject applicants who apply to work for you. Make sure that you give them a good ‘brand’ experience – they may become customers (or looters) in future:

Applicant Tracking System would have prevented riots

Jeremy Clarkson had his own views on the rioters and is now being ‘investigated’ (what is there to investigate – it was on live television!) for his comments about striking workers, but here are he and the team doing what they do best – cars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLp4FhDAfQk&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Thank you for reading my random thoughts and opinions of 2011. I hope that you found something provocative, interesting or funny. I also hope that you found something to disagree with – either one of my opinions, or one of the articles. And how was your 2011?  Have your say, and respond with a comment below.

And finally let me wish you well for 2012!

Written by Will Shepherd, Managing Director and part-time reviewer at PPS.