PPS' Recruitment Blog

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

December 20, 2011

Would you pay £200 a day to gain work experience?

Filed under: Graduates and Industrial Placement, Recruitment, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , — ppsworks @ 9:34 am

A recent article on Recruiter detailed a company which coordinates arrangements for interns to pay employers a fee of up to £200 a day for work experience. Within the article, paying for an internship, which offers the possibility of future employment after, is illustrated as an attractive alternative to the years of debt graduates face after university.

In some ways I can see the comparison; many attend university as a way to develop the skills and knowledge they hope will benefit their career progression in the future. For those who do not attend, the financial costs may simply outweigh any perceived benefit. They might be willing to pay for work experience instead, which is another way of gaining such skills and knowledge, to support their standing in an ever competitive labour market.

However, I personally feel that there is no comparison between paying for work experience and paying for a university education. And should paying for work experience become widespread, it could cause many potential issues.

Students can take out loans to cover the cost of going to university; loans which carry a low-interest rate and a fair repayment scheme. As the article does not mention how interns pay for the work experience, I assume it is paid straight away. This is the biggest difference I see, and I feel this could contribute to inequality.

If companies were to charge £200 for a day of work experience, there would be many potential employees who would miss out. Those in the lower-income bracket would be cut off from obtaining work experience that could lead to a job.

I also struggle to see why a company would want to restrict their talent pool of applicants to only those who can afford to pay for a day’s work experience. The article highlights that with a financial transaction in place, individuals are motivated to make the most of their work experience.

It seems as though in the company’s mind, coughing up the cash indicates motivation. I tend to disagree. I could be a highly motivated individual with the ability to do a really great job however, if there was no way of funding my work experience, the company would lose out on a potentially highly valuable candidate out of their talent pool. This is without considering the  negative impact such an experience may have on my view (and those in a similar position) of the company. Or the potential long-term harm it could do to the company’s ability to hire in the future.

Overall I personally feel it is a step too far, especially in today’s current climate, to allow employers to make money out of job seekers’ desires to find work. What do you think?

Written by Loretta Snape, at PPS.

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Theme: Customized Shocking Blue Green. Blog at WordPress.com.

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 40 other followers