PPS' Corporate Blog

October 9, 2012

Pussycat Dolls, the X Factor and Attracting Talent to Your Business

Filed under: Applicant tracking, Corporate Blog, Job applicants, Talent Pool — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — ppsworks @ 2:16 pm

Now I’m no X Factor fan but something did catch my eye this week.

It appears that for the first time in the show’s history, researchers have been actively scouting and encouraging bands and performers to audition for the show.  In fact it turns out that half of this year’s X Factor finalists have been actively approached to apply.

Now I can’t quite recall ever agreeing with the Pussycat Dolls (until now), but as former member Nicole Scherzinger

comments- “I think it’s great….it opens up the pool for wider talent”.

If her record career should ever dry up, Ms Scherzinger might just find she has a glittering career in HR/Resourcing

The Pussycat Dolls speak sense!

ahead.

The point is, she is absolutely right.  The producers clearly want to deliver quality for the ‘interview’ panel (and TV audience), so they proactively approached the market to see what it had to offer.

The same rings true of your recruitment attraction strategy.

On the surface there is little wrong with advertising vacancies online and waiting for applications to drop in.  But a resourcing attraction strategy whose success is heavily reliant on the right candidate applying to your advert, at exactly the right time is both flawed and high risk.

If your HR team lacks the time, technology or specialist skills and expertise required to entice high quality talent into your business, you will eventually get found out.  Vacancies will remain unfilled, gaps will be recruited to with expensive agency staff or worse still, below par applicants may end up being recruited.

At PPS we are the recruitment engine behind many recognised UK brands.

Our outsourced recruitment services have helped the likes of Halfords, Severn Trent, Turning Point, Oasis Dental, Hermes and Lloyds Pharmacy to find, attract and select high-quality applicants to their businesses.

If you would like to talk to any of our clients about our work and how we have helped them please get in touch on 07939 297 337.

Written by Lee Burman, Business Solutions Manager at PPS Works

Connect with Lee on LinkedIn

Twitter: @leeburman

September 7, 2012

What is a talent pool?

Filed under: Corporate Blog, Recruitment, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , — ppsworks @ 12:22 pm

What is a talent pool?

PPS define and deliver talent to clients in the shape of staff who, as a minimum, add above average value to their company – through quality of work, and longevity of service. Talent exists at all levels within a company, from Industrial Placements to Executives.

Confusingly we also refer to the function of our Applicant Tracking System to be able to store pools of applicants as Talent Pool technology. Even though there is not always talent in the pool!

 So let us try to be clear!

Registering your interest to work for a company via their website will submit some of your basic details (sometimes only name and email address) to their recruitment database. This does not immediately qualify you as talent for that client. In fact for some of our clients, their pool of applicants who have registered an interest is so large, yet so unfocussed to their needs, that finding talent within it is like finding a needle in a haystack.

However, everyone in this pool has expressed an interest in working specifically for your

What is a talent pool?

What is a talent pool?

organisation. Whilst you may not be able to offer them a job, what you can do is treat them well. With good communication, timely updates and company information, you build on that interest. In time, they will become good customers, if not talent, and will be more prone to use your services or recommend true talent to you.

What about the biggest pool of them all – the job boards. It takes some time, but amongst the millions of Candidate details on the hundreds of job boards in the UK, there resides most certainly a good quantity of talent. You just need to know how to find it. An advance working of Boolean search helps here, and then to remember that they might not know who you are, so a practised ability to win them over will help. Many of our clients source a good deal of true talent via this method (with our help).

And the best talent pool of the lot? The individuals who have applied specifically to work for you, who you have screened for talent potential, and that are sitting in a pool that you are nurturing until the next suitable job role comes along. Particularly in the current times, good applicants often, though far from always, exceed the number of current vacancies. But for many clients, those vacancies will come along again before too long. So keep the good candidates, who have already cleared the first hurdle of wanting to work for you, and the harder second hurdle of being of the correct calibre to be real talent for you, interested, excited and ready to go as soon as the next vacancy arises.

Focussing on the bottom end of the list of ‘talent pools’ will save you time – a much better ratio of potential applicants to job offers, and money – less need to spend on advertising if you have a ready-made pool of applicants waiting to hear from you, when you recruit.

What does a talent pool mean to you? How much talent is in yours?

- Will Shepherd, Director of PPS

Connect with Will on LinkedIn

July 13, 2012

Organisations and the wider society

Filed under: Uncategorized, Recruitment, Corporate Blog — Tags: , , , , , — ppsworks @ 2:19 pm

Organisations are having to put social value at the heart of what they do. For public sector organisations it is now a part of the procurement fundamentals and for private companies any brand is now expected to show how they also are giving back to society as well as making a profit.

Being seen to be involved in society and making a difference attracts people to work with an organisation and it has been a value that needs consideration. The vast majority of graduates score an organisation’s corporate responsibility as being very high on their list of must-haves when choosing organisation to work for. 86% of global consumers also believe that businesses need to place at least equal weight on society’s interests as on business’ interests.

The backlash from recent economic events has seen political leaders pushing for organisations to be more responsible.  CSR has also come a long way although it still tends to be seen separate rather than a synergistic part of what the organisation does.  Without the involvement of HR, CSR can be seen as PR.

Organisations and the wider society

Being involved with the wider community has benefits for both organisation leaders and society.

By being involved with working with communities an organisation’s leaders acquire value from understanding and making a difference and learning from others outside of their usual scope of knowledge.  Wider society benefits from the experience and passion of leaders really being involved, and people are engaged with a business in a proactive way.

Leaders often talk about wanting to get involved with helping a community, or setting up a project that helps others or doing more than just donate money to charities. The thing is it can be a bit daunting and it requires real leadership to get involved.

How are you going to do it?

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Toby Buckle from HazelBranchAbout Author – Toby Buckle

Toby is a leadership development specialist who has a passion for helping people through coaching and training.

He founded Hazelbranch in 2007 and has worked with organisations as diverse as National Geographic, The 3663 Group, The Prison Service, The Muscular Dystophy Campaign as well as working with the leaders at PPS.

Toby also runs the social enterprise Leading The Change which delivers leadership skills that enable people to make change happen through community development. To find out more click here.

Toby donates his time to sit on interview panels for senior appointments at Great Ormond Street Hospital and advises Social Enterprises for the Business Community Partnership.

Follow Toby on Twitter

June 22, 2012

Welcome to the PPS Corporate Blog!

Filed under: Uncategorized, Recruitment, Corporate Blog — Tags: , , — ppsworks @ 2:05 pm

Welcome!

The PPS Corporate blog is about all things recruitment expertise. From best practice in applicant handling, to getting the most out of agency supply chains, we cover it.

Every week, we will be sharing the opinions and experiences in practice of our team alongside guest contributions from industry experts. If you are interested in voicing your views on anything recruitment related, we would love to have you get in touch with us.

We hope you like what you read and will engage with us with your comments – whether it be directly on the blog, LinkedIn or on Twitter.

Be sure to subscribe to the PPS Corporate blog and share, share, share using the buttons at the end of each post!

Once again, welcome to the PPS Corporate blog.

- The PPS Team

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November 23, 2011

Can recruitment tools be used for Volunteers?

Filed under: Recruitment, Temporary recruitment, Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , — ppsworks @ 10:23 am

Volunteering is rewarding and socially beneficial. It’s rewarding for people who want to use their professional skills and knowledge to benefit others, to give back to an organisation that has positively impacted on their life, either directly or indirectly or make a difference to the lives of others less fortunate. Socially, it can also be a great way to meet new people, make new friends and get to know your local community.

However the wider sociological and economic impact of volunteering can’t be ignored.  With the highest youth unemployment in decades – volunteering is also a great way of gaining new skills, knowledge and experience, enhancing a CV and improving one’s employment prospects.

Volunteering can be rewarding and socially beneficial.

As an ageing UK population volunteering also offers opportunities for older people who are now working longer, who have valuable skills and experience.
It is also for many organisations an important route to other types of engagement with the organisation, such as part time or full time working.

Click here to read more of PPS’ Managing Director, Amanda Marques’ thoughts on recruiting volunteers

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