It's Talent, Stupid!

Paid Intern Required - To Change The World of SME Recruitment

As some of you may know we have been talking about how Chemistry will revolutionise SME hiring, we still plan to launch this product Q1 2011.  However we need help!

We had an MBA graduate lined up to drive the concept and initial plan we have in to a full blown product launch, however this has fallen through, something about "speeding trains".

So we need an Intern/MBA graduate who wishes to add a full, well funded project launch to their CV or MBA project.  We envisage this being a full time role for the next 3-4 months, possibly longer but we are happy to discuss timing.

The role will involve you leading and being 100% accountable for the complete from strategy to implementation of a Chemistry IP based revolution in how the SME market in the UK (initially) recruit.  It's not an over statement to say that this is possibly the most exciting thing to happen in recruitment, since Jesus said "John, Matthew, David, Peter, Simon, James, Bartholomew, Thomas, James, Jude, Judas, Andrew..d'you want a job?" Actually that might be an over statement but you get my point :-)

If you are interested please give me a call on 07968178876 or email me at [email protected]

And we thought the recruitment industry was bad (or L&D, our part in its downfall)

Chemistry have a fundamental belief, that business need to take their  people seriously, which implies at the moment we don't think they do...to clarify we don't think they do (just to dispel any myth on our view).  This belief drives all our behaviour, who we hire, the services we offer, how we deliver them and most importantly the clients we attract or repel.

As anyone who has read our stuff before will know, we have largely focused our growing range of IP on recruitment/resourcing, as we have a view that if you can stop hiring the wrong people for your organisation and start hiring the right ones, then ongoing development and succession planning will be so much easier.  The truth is, that all this is true, however most clients are now in a world where they need to make the best of the assets they have, the ability to just go and hire new and potentially better people are gone.  Not sure that was ever the right way to go about it but there is nothing like an economic "perfect storm" to make people behave differently.

Seeing this change in direction, Chemistry started looking at the offerings in the so called Learning & Development space about 18 months ago and without wanting to sound like a stuck record...what an utter pile of crap, seriously it appears that recruitment is not the only area full of flaky process, "wham bam mam" like initiatives and services that are so distant from companies business issues as to be rendered irrelevant.

The current vendor market seems to be largely split in to training, e-learning (just daft), performance coaching, personal coaching, life coaching, executive coaching, the new and crazy "active coaching" (what!) and then a whole range of sensational high impact events based stuff.  Of course this is all underpinned by LMS (Learning Management System) technology, which just like ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) appear to be deployed in customers multiple times by multiple vendors...none of it working!

Bottom line is there did not seem be anything that has "stuck", much like a political party, short term high impact initiatives seem to run rough shod over long term, sustainable and genuine change.

Once again we find a lot of money being spent on the wrong things, with very little effort put in to What Good Looks Like, oh and absolutely no measurement of success, yep exactly how we found the recruitment market.

So we have addressed it, nope actually we've punched it in the face, wrestled it to the ground, given it a kick in the nuts and said do you know what "it's just not good enough!"

Chemistry have arrived late in to the development party, looked at what everyone else was wearing and how they were dancing and said, do you know what it's just not cool.  It's overpriced, not scalable, has little lasting impact and above all is not employee driven, in short not cool.

Cool is creating a set of tools that are simple, easily passed on and deliver sustained behavioural and performance change, both at an individual and group level.  Cool is a method of delivery that is scalable (by the employee not us), cost effective (no one has any dosh) and an immense of fun to be involved in.  Cool is what happened to me the other day when watching the first employee guru's teach their peers to "Grow Talent"...it was an incredible feeling.  However that was a "moment", what is way cool is what is now happening in the online communities fostered and managed by the employees themselves, yep sustained behavioural change.  It's called Pod Coaching, it's the pivotal step towards the holy grail, a learning organisation where the people are coaching and giving feedback to each other...it's a behavioural change virus, initiated and spread by the employees themselves.

It's not L&D, but it might be Chemistry :-)

R

Rollercoaster rides and heart bypass prevention: finance in a small business

When I sat down to write about my observations of finance in a small business I thought not only would I be here forever but I would also probably send every reader to sleep. Lets face it finance isn’t the most exciting subject. Although I must admit when you are involved in the day to day running of finance in a small business to use a cliché, it is like a rollercoaster. You can always tell when I have received a large payment or get to invoice a fantastic piece of consulting work (the up), to when someone doesn’t use the Chemistry PO process and surprises me with an invoice not only unapproved, but needing to be paid as soon as possible (the down).  No two days are the same. One day I am invoicing x amounts of pounds to an assortment of clients, and the next, preventing Marie our Business Support Exec from spending that extra £2.50 on deluxe Cranberry jelly for Simon’s (Director), Turkey and Cranberry sandwiches at lunch!

The finite balance between movement of cash into and out of our business brings me nicely to my main observation and headache within a small business, namely cash flow. I am sure like most business small or large you are most likely to be passionate about the products or services you sell, and are most likely to want to focus your time and energy there, so the financial responsibilities usually fall to the bottom of the to do or desirable list. However, what most people forget is cash is the fuel that drives the business. Without it you can’t run your Bridging the Gap Event, travel overseas to meet with the new or current clients, or even pay your employees! Cash flow is affected by a number of different factors some you can control others are just that little bit more difficult! Below are my observations of what I can control, can’t control and what is just plain frustrating when dealing with cash flow in a small business.

CAN CONTROL

Internal Chemistry PO Process: It took a while but I now think most of the business is scared of making any purchases without a PO number. Controlling spending from month to month has had not only had a huge effect on our cost base but has also aided with the cash held within the business. A good PO process has made us recognise what is important for us to spend the cash on that month and what can be purchased later, meaning we never empty our engine, and have the fuel to drive the business forward.

Invoicing promptly – this is one I am very good at! I know this seems obvious but I think that putting off invoicing gives the customer the impression that you don't care how long it takes to get your money, setting you up for issue later on when payment is due.

Clearly state payment dates – It’s amazing how many companies hide their payment terms and date in amongst their Terms & Conditions. Put it on the front, you want your invoice paid on time don’t you? Do not rely on the customer to look at the invoice and search through for the payment date and add 30 days -- or whatever your payment terms are.  Business Link the official government website for businesses, place great emphasis on the design of a good invoice stating all payment dates should be clearly visible on the front of an invoice if you want to reduce the risk of late payment.

Be Meticulous – Having high detail is always helpful in accounts.  Being meticulous with invoices and purchase orders is probably one of the most important ways to avoid late payment. If any of the details are wrong, most clients will just send it back and obviously the clock's ticking on you getting paid.

CAN’T CONTROL

Late Payments:

No matter how many times I put that call in to the accounts payable team or the client direct, I always get some excuse, and no payment seems to materialise; I know that we are not the only victim of late payment. The majority of small businesses say late payments have damaged their cash flow situation dramatically.

According to a survey from RBS and Natwest some 71 per cent of SMEs have suffered from late payments in the past 12 months. The study estimates that in the last year a total of £62 billon was owed to businesses in bills paid beyond agreed deadlines. Of this, around £15 billion was more than 120 days overdue.

Stephen Alambritis, Head of Public Affairs at the Federation of Small Businesses, adds: ‘Poor payment practices can drastically affect cash flow for small firms at a time when business owners are doing their best to hold on to precious funds.’

A survey from the Forum of Private Business, found small businesses currently have an average of £47,000 tied up by late payments. 

POSSIBLY HAVE A BIT OF A HANDLE ON BUT IS JUST FRUSTRATING…

I am finding with the recent economic worries most large business are now implementing a strict Purchase Order Process. I believe the process has always been there, however now I feel it is being used to hold onto their cash for just that little bit longer, and used as an excuse not to pay invoices on time. Most accounts payable teams use no PO number as a rule to put your invoice back to the end of the queue, even though the client has approved it, and guess what you start your payment terms again!

Generally obtaining a PO number from a large business takes weeks. I find myself having to go through 2 or 3 signatories on our invoice to then be able to get a PO. Everybody gets involved these days the client you deliver the work for, the quick bit, the finance team, accounts payable team and procurement it’s a nightmare especially as one team does not seem to communicate with the other. I reckon I spend half my week chasing my tail to get a PO raised, time which would be much better spent on reducing the cost base, or chasing up a payment. Cash flow is once again affected and we haven’t even got to late payment stage yet…..

To quote, “Many financial analysts consider the condition of a company's cash flow to be one of the most important indicators of that business's financial health. After all, a well-managed flow of cash--like a strong heart--is usually indicative of a healthy business, while poorly managed cash flow, or a weak heart, can cause problems that affect the entire business” www.entrepreneur.com.

Getting to grips with all of the above should stop Chemistry having to have a by-pass in the near future.

You want me to WHAT with my time?

Let’s get one thing very clear before we begin. I didn’t come up with the topic for this blog.

It was shoved on my plate like those extra mushrooms you didn’t want at school dinners. Whoever dared conjure the thought of a ‘Time Management’ blog should quite frankly be hit hard and repeatedly with a spatula.

I could think of nothing more dull, dissatisfying, and down-right depressing as looking objectively at my ‘time’, and moulding it into some sort of quantifiable, clearly-signposted manual as to how the next 7 days of my life are going to pan out. Urgh.

And this, of course, is why I was singled out as the “perfect” candidate to write about ‘Time Management’. It’s a little bit like making Ashley Cole blog on the meaning of the words, “I do”....

You see, it’s not just that I hate managing my time through experience, I intrinsically loath the thought of having to write down ‘what it is I’m going to do today’. Certain aspects of my psychometric profile will tell you as much - I’m high ‘Self-Starting’ (I prefer to get things moving than to think about the implications of my actions), high ‘Detail’ (I like to get stuck into individual tasks rather than sets of tasks/the wider picture) and a non-‘Conformist’ (I do things my own way, I question anything that has “process” written on it, and I dislike being part of a rigid structure).

To use a phrase coined by The Prodigy, “THIS IS DANGEROUS”.


Strategy 1 - Embrace

This is the dilemma: if I am unable and more to the point unwilling to plan, to map how my week is going to look, and think realistically about when I can meet deadlines, then I don’t make myself particularly valuable to my employer. So unless I change and adapt, it pretty much sucks to be me. Think Scott Adams’ depiction of ‘Dilbert’, whose first piece of advice under the heading ‘Time Management’, is “always postpone meetings with time-wasting morons.” I don’t want to be a time-wasting moron.

The challenge is to make something so innately uninspiring such as ‘planning’ an interesting read. If I can somehow crack this, I can perhaps get myself interested in managing my time. Perhaps...

In search of an answer, I started to think about some seriously uncool things which have suddenly shot to fame and become fashionable. Like gardening. Or crocs. Or having friends on the Internet...  I thought this might give me some inspiration.

Does ‘Time Management’ have what it takes to burst onto the Yuppies scene in the City? Well, you’d be surprised how far this morbid subject has come - it has appeared in GQ, in ‘askmen.com’, and there are close to 20m results for a ‘Time Management tips’ search on Google.

At this point, my low conformity began to kick in.. My thought process started to follow a clear and very logical path: "Time Management is a popular topic. Therefore lots of people must be interested in it. The fact that it's been talked about for a prolonged period of time must mean the majority of people think it's a good idea. Therefore,there must be something wrong with it..."

Strategy 2 - Slag it off

Let's think about this for a second. The only reason why ‘Time Management’ has become such a fad, such a cult phrase of our times, is because it has attracted an army of zombie-like, city-dwelling, utterly confused and thoughtless followers who believe it’s the ultimate solution to their hectic schedules. These people are desperate. They are vulnerable. Sure, 'Time Management' sounds like a bloody great thing to do. But has anyone actually questioned it??

As far as I can see, there are two key problems with ‘Time Management’:

1)‘Time Management’, as a concept, is an utterly stupid one. I understand that in ‘Time Management’ thinking circles, this is called the ‘Time Management myth’. Make no mistake, ‘time’ is the most un-manageable thing that we as humans know of. We can’t control it, and yet we talk about ‘managing’, ‘making’, ‘giving’, and ‘grabbing’ (by far the worst of the lot) time. It’s an outrage.

“Can I grab a piece/slice of your time, mate, when you can spare a minute?”

Er, yeh, maybe when you stop talking to me as if my name’s Domino’s Pizza and I can give a commitment to segmenting my time very neatly into small pieces before dishing it out willy nilly (takes about 1/2 hour for delivery)... Oh, and by the way, if it’s a pepperoni we’re talking about, you most certainly can’t ‘grab’ ANY of it.

There can be no denying ‘Time Management’ concept is very very odd, and because of this our understanding of time is confused. We delude ourselves through language into thinking that it is something we can manipulate. IT ISN’T.

2) The people who talk about ‘Time Management’, who condone it, are adding to the confusion. One of the ‘requirements’ of this blog was to explore some ‘cutting-edge’ thinking, and there are some seriously weird concepts flying around. Beckwith’s first ‘Cornerstone of Planning’ (an old favourite), for instance, is ‘predict the future’. I’ll repeat that: PREDICT THE FUTURE. What do you mean by this, Mr Beckwith? Hmm? This is hardly a ‘cornerstone’ is it? When I think of ‘cornerstone’ I think of something reliable, something unmovable. And ‘predicting the future’ is a pretty flakey business if you ask me.

The other problem with these so-called ‘experts’ is that they are almost as dull as ‘Time Management’ itself. Just have a look at this guy’s attempt to bring ‘Strategic Planning for your business in 5 minutes or less’. He’s trying his best to make it interesting, bless him. He’s trying to make it brief. But 5 minutes (or less) is still just way too much time talking about planning. I had to go and watch something else to cheer myself up...

Now this lot, along with their ‘Time Management’ axiom, are entirely to blame for the shabby revision schedule I remember setting myself at school for my GCSEs. It went like this:

08:00 Run/Swim/Cycle
09:00 English
10:00 Biology
11:00 English
12:00 Lunch
13:00 Maths
15:00 Religious Studies
16:00 French

I remember being convinced that this was an indestructible timetable of He-Man proportions that would without a doubt propel me to great success. You see, something very strange and surreal happens when you are writing any sort of plan. You think you’re doing something brilliant, something life-changing, whereas what you’re actually doing is setting yourself up to fail. You morph into Mr Incredible, your testosterone levels go through the roof (if you’re a boy), and you give yourself 2 hours of Maths. 2 whole hours of Maths!! I had even used my own free-will to ‘plan’ physical exercise - never before and never again have I done this.

In real terms, I arose on the first morning at 11, breakfast and a film took me to around 3‘o’clock, by which time the day by my calculations had almost finished.

Take that revision, see you again (briefly) next year.

Think about any time you set yourself a target which at first seemed perfectly achievable, and you look back on it a week later and think you must have been barking mad. “I’m going to run the marathon next year, and the way I’m going to do this is by running 10k every day” might be an example.

Well, frankly, you can blame ‘Time Management’ and the people who condone it.


To sum up...

What I wanted to say in this blog is that ‘Time Management’ and ‘Planning’, as intentions, are essential skills in a business context (that may not have come across strongly). The problem is our understanding of them. If we don’t understand that planning will not enable us to manipulate time, and to cram extra hours into our day, then it is very much counter-productive. People need to be aware of the fact that the moment you put pen to paper to start writing a list/plan/target, you need to be sure that 'idea' does not overpower 'reality'. Because that is not the intention.

It is instead a technique to enable us to become more efficient at what we do, to become more productive. It is not the miracle or the ‘great solution’ that everyone seems to think it is.

So what have I done here in summary? Well, I can tell you I’ve done exactly the opposite I was supposed to. I havn’t used the blog to embrace Time Management. I havn’t researched the topic in depth. And I have come up with my own, untested theory as to what Time Management should and should not be. I have exhibited fully the ‘de-railing’ aspects of my psychometric profile, but I’m sure my current employer was expecting me to do just that.

I have a lot of work to do...

Lava Palaver...

Cath Adam, Chemistry Lead Consultant.  Stranded in the Caribbean.

My adventure began on Sunday 11th April when I left London Gatwick airport 10.00am with only carry on baggage of a tiny suitcase fully believing that I would be returning to Gatwick 5 days later.   Well this was obviously not going to be the case!!!  I am writing this sitting in Boston Airport on Monday 26th April, 15 days later still with my tiny carry on suitcase (now bulging) and hoping against hope that nothing more happens between now and 7:45pm that may keep me from getting on my Virgin Atlantic flight home to the UK at last!!!  The story of how I got here is, what I would call, a complete palaver!!!

I transferred as planned from Barbados to Jamaica via St Maarten.  I was supposed to be there for Wednesday afternoon and Thursday meetings, flying out on Thursday evening to be at home on Friday morning.  We had planned it that way as I needed to be back for my cousin’s wedding, Mum and I were doing a “girlie weekend road trip” up to the wedding in Cheltenham meeting all the family there.  I had been so looking forward to it that when the email, multiple missed calls to my UK phone and a panicked Jamaican assistant had disturbed me during a conference call my heart sank and I realised I was hardly listening to the poor person on the other end of the phone.  My first thought was just to get home in time for the wedding.  I got online to look up news articles to try to find out what was happening.  Called Mum, as a news junkie she always knows what's going on, then got in the hold queue for Virgin Atlantic with millions of others trying to get through.  Bit by bit realising that the chance of getting back in time for the wedding was pretty non-existent.  By the time I got through to Virgin about an hour later the lovely woman on the end of the phone filled me in on her side of things.  She said that there would be no flights out of Jamaica till the Thursday so the best she could do for me was to fly me out of St Lucia on the Monday if I could get myself there.  I got back to my travel booker who then got me booked on the flights to get me there in time.  There was not enough time to change planes at Miami (as their passport control is so unbelievably abysmal that you can not get through in less than 2 hours!) so I would have to stay there for the night which looking back was a god send as I was by then completely out of Knickers!!!  And no girl will ever even consider wearing a pair of knickers 2 days on the trot!  Plus I only had a business dress (a suit and some shirts) with me. 

After checking into the hotel (and on asking the Mexican male receptionist what the event was that was going on tomorrow and getting the answer “mmm how should I say? I think it is the Homosexuals parade” !!!)  I found out where the nearest Victoria’s Secrets was and quickly went to buy out their spring line.  I stopped off in a few stores on the way buying T-Shirts and something to wear from an evening in Miami spending far more than I could afford but hey, what was I supposed to do?  I was stranded wasn’t I? ;0)  I had also found out to my joy that a colleague from my client was also there over night so I had someone to have dinner with on South Beach! Yea!  A few hours later and a sore head I was back at the airport, new pants and purchases rammed into my tiny case but happy that my travel trauma was soon to be over.  After 5 flights in 4 days straight I was tired and ready to go home…….

I got to St Lucia (by the way it’s BEAUTIFUL, I will definitely go back there some time) which was boiling, and as soon as I got to passport control the smug guy laughed at me and said all flights were canceled for at least a week back to the UK.  Nice.  Thanks!  I kept a brave face and thanked him for the information and then went to get a cab to my hotel…..or so they call it.  I asked the cab driver if it was a nice hotel and he simply said “NO”!  “Oh” says I, “Well are there any others around here”.  “No” says my friendly cabbie who didn’t even want to take me to the hostel as he called it, as he said it was embarrassing for St Lucia to show me it!!  Great.  Things are looking up!  He told me that all the BA crew and passengers from the flight that were supposed to go on Thursday were staying at the only hotel near by and there were no rooms till the European airports opened!  Great!  So I got him to take me back to the airport to the tourist desk to book another hotel.  The nearest town was an hours drive away. 

When I got there I immediately resumed my Internet information frenzy to find out if the flights were going to go. After 2 hours on hold I got another wonderful woman called Justine who told me that she had had loads of people on the phone having a go at her because their flights were cancelled!  What was she supposed to have done?  Gone all the way to the un-say-able place in Iceland and light the volcano herself just to piss them off?  Poor thing.  She and I had a good chat about the chances of flights going and agreed on a flight on Wednesday 21st out of Barbados which was the earliest one she could get me on but she really didn’t think that there was much chance of this going either.  They had been told at that point and I had read on all the websites that it would be the end of the week at least till it was cleared.  There was at this point still the fear that the bigger volcano next door would go off and cause even more nightmares!  The other flights that she had as options by then were Miami on the 26th, New York on the 27th and Atlanta on the 2nd May!

So…. It was Saturday night by then and I was exhausted.  I had a room covered in chintz and no air conditioning and I finally fell asleep hopeful that tomorrow would bring more luck. 

Sunday came and after waking up looking like a school of mosquitoes had been given a lesson by a vampire on how to suck blood all over my body, I had a conversation with the ever-faithful Teresa back in the UK who had also been hawk-eyed watching the news, we decided that the woman at Virgin had probably been right.  The news was by then that there would be very little chance of flights until the weekend but they were ever hopeful every day that it would clear.  I also met a US Army Helicopter pilot who told me that the main problem was not the airlines, who would fly as soon as they possibly could, but it was more the insurance companies.  They would not let the planes up until they knew that they wouldn’t get damaged.  Knowing how long each day was adding to the wait with thousands of passengers every day adding to the list of people needing to be repatriated I decided to call Virgin back and get a later flight with more chance that it would go.  By this time they had got wise and had a call back system (unless you really liked their hold music!)  What a relief that I did!  I called them and had a chat with another wonderful Virgin customer services woman called Samantha Horrocks (no relation to Jane).  I told her what the US Army guy had said and she completely agreed.  She had been chatting to the people at Virgin and although she thought there was a chance it would clear before the end of the week she said that they had been told that when it did clear there would be limited flights allowed to land at the beginning and that she thought Heathrow and Manchester would open first meaning there was very little chance my flight would go.  So she looked into the other options for me.  At this point it was getting really silly.  Miami was 6th May (meaning I would land on my Birthday!), Barbados 29th April but she did find one flight out of Boston on the 26th.  I went for it.

I had at least a day or 2 in St Lucia.  T and I had agreed that I should make the most of being there and try to get some meetings in with people from LIME (my Client) while I was there so I knew I was there for a while.   Ginger problem…. I think so.  I had to get 4 things.  Sun cream, mosquito spray, a hat and a summer dress!!  It was BOILING!  So I covered up as best I could in a work shirt and skirt and walked down to the town.  There I found an English woman who had a shop that sold all the above and was so excited to sell me everything she possibly could and tell me that she had heard on the news that there was NO chance of me getting back for at least a week if not more!  There were over 50,000 Brits stranded she told me.  With excitement!!  A few Eastern Caribbean dollars later I walked back to the hotel wearing all my new purchases.  But it was already too late….

I woke the next morning to even more mozzy bites but to add to that I now had sunburn, really bad heat rash and eczema to boot.  I just didn’t know which part of me to scratch first!  It all itched.  How I had managed to get burned through a shirt and cream and the fact that it rained all afternoon I will never know but that my friends is the joy of ginger skin!!! 

It was at that point that I had a bit of a sense of humor failure.  I didn’t know where I was going, when or with who!  I was in a pretty grotty hotel and was being eaten alive and it had all ceased to be an adventure and started to just piss me off.  I really just wanted to go home.  I spoke to T who told me that one of the guys I was going to meet was on Holiday and I had found out that the other person was an hour and a half away by cab which would have cost me another $100 each way.  It made more sense to do that one over the phone! I had to get to Boston and had to find somewhere to go for a week.  I had so many offers from lovely friends at my client company but decided that the best (and cheapest) option was to get back into the USA and go to my sisters for the week in Nashville to wait it out there until the Monday flight from Boston.  Travel Lloyd at Dial-a-flight got on the case like the hero he always is and got me booked on the last seat for the Nashville – Boston stretch. 

So off I went again.  Back to Miami with another quick stop off at Victoria’s secrets…. a girl’s gotta have clean knickers! The worrying thing is that they recognised me as I went in and all laughed at the fact that I was still here!!!  Brilliant!!  I had become a minor celebrity in the knickers store!!  After what felt like a years wait at Miami again I finally made it at 12.00 midnight to Nashville where my sister and her husband were waiting at the gate with a sign saying “Volcano Refugees”.  I had made it to a familiar face at last.  I was so pleased to feel in some way I was home. 

So this was the good bit.  A surprise visit with my sister and bro-in-law in Nashville.  They were at work all day so I got to get sooo much work done.  Brilliant!  Maybe I should get stranded more often.  My Bro-in-law is also in a band so on Saturday night I boarded the tour bus with the guys and we went on tour to Austen in Texas!  Woo hoo.  It was so cool.  Slept on a bunk, drank beer (and red wine) and had a great time.  However the tour bus would not be back in Nashville till 10.00am on Monday morning so straight after the concert I was whisked directly to yet another airport to get a flight back to Nashville so that I could make my flight to Boston that left at 6.30am in the morning. 

The last leg….. or maybe not!!!

My cab came at 5am, just to be on the safe side, I didn’t want any more traumas!  I got to the airport at 5.15 but the machine didn’t want to accept my passport.  I got a lady over to get me booked in who told me that I was on hold but not to worry it was just procedure!  The flight was delayed till 7.20 already so I got to the gate as soon as I could but it didn’t open till 6.00.  At 6 the lady had a look at my ticket and said dismissively “the flight was over booked so I probably wouldn’t be able to get on today”.  I looked at her in horror and asked if she was joking?  I asked why it was me that was bumped and was told that I was the last person to check in.  Apparently everyone else had checked in online the night before.  I was told at that point that they may see if someone would be willing to take another flight and was asked to just wait and see what happened.  They were not going to close the flight till 30 mins before the flight time so I still had about 45 mins to wait.  I sat with my leg jiggling nervously waiting for news and after a while went back to the desk to check.  At that point the deadpan lady said in the 3rd person that some people get very angry when this happens.  I told her that I certainly wouldn’t get angry but I may spontaneously burst into tears if I didn’t get on the flight.  I did at least get a smile at that!!  I then went and sat back in my seat and a nice man in cowboy boots and a suit (well I was in Nashville) asked me if the flight was leaving.  I told him that it was delayed till 7.20 but my voice cracked as I said it.  He asked me if I was ok so I told him that I might not be able to get on the flight.  He asked why which I explained and so he asked my name and leapt up saying, “right, let’s get you on this flight”.  He went off and offered them his ticket so that I could get on but by that stage they explained that there was a guy who had checked in online but had not showed up so there may be a way we could both go.  This finally transpired to be the case and we finally both got on the flight.  Only to be delayed by a further hour as there were some mechanical difficulties with the plane!  Nice! 

This still wasn’t the end!!! 

When we got to Washington Regan airport we all had to get off the flight and get back on.  They said they would call us when the flight was boarding again so I went to the coffee stand just by the gate to get a cup of tea.  I realised they were boarding when I noticed a couple from the flight rushing past and to the gate.  When they said they would call the flight they literally meant that they would shout out that the Boston flight was boarding.  No announcement or anything.  Just a shout!  I was the last one back on the plane with a genuine concern by this point that fate was giving me a very strong signal that I shouldn’t be on the flight!!! 

We got to Boston and after another 8 hour wait I finally got my boarding card and got on the flight back to the UK!  Finally!  Phew!!!!!

Just as a point of reference, here are all the flights I took in 2 weeks!  No wonder I’m exhausted!! 

Sunday 11th April - London Gatwick to Barbados = Virgin Atlantic

Wednesday 14th April – Barbados to St Maarten = Caribbean Airlines

Wednesday 14th April – St Maarten to Jamaica = Caribbean Airlines

Thursday 15th April – Jamaica to London Gatwick = Virgin Atlantic – CANCELLED

Friday 16th April – Jamaica to Miami = American Airlines

Saturday 17th April – Miami to St Lucia = American Airlines

Sunday 18th April – St Lucia to London Gatwick = Virgin Atlantic – CANCELLED

Monday 19th April – St Lucia to Miami = American Airlines

Monday 19th April – Miami to Nashville = American Airlines

Sunday 20th April – Austen to Nashville = Southwest Airlines

Monday 26th April – Nashville to Washington = American Eagle – Nearly Not!

Monday 26th April – Washington to Boston = American Eagle – Nearly Not!

Monday 26th April – Boston to London Heathrow = Virgin Atlantic

Any one for a Summer Holiday in Cornwall this summer???

Mark Swain, Chemistry Lead Consultant.  Stranded in Lanzarote.

Like 50,000 other Brits, I was stranded abroad by the volcanic ash – in Lanzarote (culturally Spanish, geographically African).  OK, as my boss would probably say, he found it difficult to have empathy with someone who is stuck with 28 degree temperatures and a sea view.  But the situation was a bit surreal, with varying degrees of apathy and panic.  In between planning a route home, my mind wandered to reflecting on the people and performance issues you see in a situation like that. 

For the first time in 5 years we’d booked a package holiday.  That was great in a number of ways 1) it pretty much guaranteed us a ride home (although the question of when was a more tricky one) and 2) it brought us into contact with the unique species – the holiday rep.  This showed up the importance of selecting the right people for such a frontline role.  There were two reps at our hotel a) the “Super Rep” and b) the “Blooper Rep”.   They each represented one of the two biggest holiday firms in the UK, but I’m invoking the “no names policy”.  So how did they respond?  As the name suggests, every time “Blooper Rep” opened her mouth it was closely followed by her foot.  I didn’t hear any swearing, but there was pretty much everything else directed towards customers – tears, aggression, stress, stroppiness, lack of any empathy and refusal to help.  We all could have coped with that, if there was any good information being given - all we got was a “rabbit in the headlights”.  You realise how quickly someone’s reputation disappears.......

So what about the “Super Rep”?  No prizes for guessing what they did.  When news of the volcanic ash broke he simply made himself visible.  He popped up everywhere, speaking to anyone and everyone to gauge feelings and help where he could.  Not surprisingly, when he had to deliver bad news, it couldn’t be his fault, could it?!  So is this good customer service, or a different personality being able to stand up to conflict and crisis?

If businesses didn’t change and have problems, or throw up daily challenges, then I’m sure “Blooper Rep” would be fine.  But your business isn’t like that...no-one’s is these days.  I’d argue that a robust selection process would have weeded out someone like that.  Could she have coped if she had more life experience or learning?  OK, I admit that this was an impossible situation, and one that you couldn’t expect the reps to deal with perfectly.  So why the difference in performance?  Maybe there was a lack of skills and experience, but I’d argue it’s more about values, beliefs and personality. No amount or customer service training can teach you how to respond in that situation – you either have the right basic approach or you don’t.

Safely back in the UK (5 days late) my reflections are of people – some star performers , most doing a decent job, and a few that just couldn’t stand up to the pressure.  This sounds very similar to many of the teams we assess and develop.   Perhaps those in the “decent job” category could have been great, if only their managers had coached them better.  The fact that most of the reps’ managers “hid” from the problems is a point for another day.    So....selecting the right personalities for your business is absolutely critical.  You can provide all the training and professional development you can find, but when push comes to shove people judge your business on approach and attitudes.  Do what my wife did – build a team that drives and builds and delivers results, so that when you have an “enforced absence” you can lie on the beach and soak up the sun!

Recruiter Forum - Five Cool Things We Have Learnt About Great Service

Hi, OK so i was kindly asked to present to the Recruiter Forum on "headturning value add service".

Thought "value add", was a bit of a cliche, so avoided it like the plague but the notion of great service is of real interest to us at Chemistry.

So sat the team down and asked them, what we have learnt over the last 6 years on what "great service looks like" for us in our industry, doing our thing...here's the five cool things we have learnt.

R

Possibly The Coolest Job In Recruitment...

OK, I am extremely excited not just because I am blogging after a bit of a dry spell but because I am absolutely convinced this is the most exciting, fabulous, endless land of opportunity of a job advert that I have ever posted.

Chemistry as some of you may know are having a ball at the moment, 2009 was an amazing year and 2010 has started at twice the pace, we have hired 3 new highly talented people since January and are adding 2 more shortly.   We have acquired some stellar new clients in Vodafone, DiData et al and 50% of our work is overseas.  Chemistry is now a truly global (well the work is) management consultancy specialising in that complicated of all subjects people and their performance at work. In short we are having a blast, doing cool stuff with cool clients that changes the individual and the organisation for the better, making a diference is simply the best work ever!

So in our consultancy business we are seizing the wealth of opportunity in front of us, there is however a BUT. 

BUT we are missing out on another huge opportunity.

Chemistry initially started with a mission to change the world of recruitment, and for those people who have experienced it I think we have at least shown them a different way.  However recruitment is now only 20% of our monthly revenues, and whilst this is a £500,000 turnover, profitable business.  It's not exactly rocking our world or our clients/candidates, it could be so much more.

Remember we have a killer proposition, Chemistry are the only recruitment vendor to be over 75% accurate in predicting the future performance of new hires, the proposition was developed with our customers, for our customers and proven in over 5 years by the customers.  It's not only disruptive and market leading, it works. Find more about the service here, http://tinyurl.com/y9axffp

So here goes, we are looking for someone to lead the Chemistry recruitment team, shape it, mold it, drive it and generally take it from a £500,000 niche, yet cool business to a £multi-million business that shifts the entire client and candidate expectation of what can be delivered by a recruitment vendor.

We are completely open as to whether this is an individual or maybe a small recruitment firm who fancy a chat about joining the chemistry team, actually we are just open to a conversation.

We have the best proposition in the market place, global clients, a great (perfectly formed) existing team delivering great work, money to invest in the right things and we believe a growing reputation for knowing our stuff. No risk here, just huge opportunity!

We se still have the "fire in our belly" to give our industry the kick up the backside it needs.  So if you fancy making like a bloody great big foot, get in contact :-)  As usual we would refer you to http://tinyurl.com/ykmoc36, its our Health Warning, please read it!

As per Chemistry's modus operandi, we have profiled What Good Looks Like for this role, if you would like a copy of the profile or any other information, call me on 079681 178876 or email me at [email protected] or tweet me at http://twitter.com/rogerphilby/

Look forward to hearing from you.

Roger

Tom's notes from the Chemistry ‘speeding train’

Well…I guess the first thing to mention is what a fantastic view! We’re going on a good bit of track at the moment – speeding along nicely. Slightly hectic, mind. Lots going on and lots to see. I suppose the main drawback is there doesn’t ever seem to be much time to pause and take any of it in. Hair a bit windswept, too…

I had heard much of the ‘speeding train’ concept before I joined Chemistry a month ago. It was mentioned in every single one of the four interviews that it took to get me here. It’s been perennially blogged about, reiterated, reinforced and repeated ever since.

It’s a serious topic. Apparently, the original proposals for Chemistry in-house recruitment had concluded that any candidate who could jump through both sets of front windows of Roger’s Maserati (approx speed 100mph – walk in the park), and come out the other side, would get hired.

So when I sat down with Roger for my monthly review last Friday, it was with predictable pre-destined velocity that the conversation veered towards the speeding train. It was at this point that Roger informed me that this month, the train hadn’t been chugging along at the regular 800mph, it was in fact more like double: “It’s actually going at more like 1600mph”, he stated, his eyes wide open with fierce optimism and energy.

This being the case, many of the things I have managed to get done this month have been unintentionally deleted from my memory – they have been unsparingly barged out the brain by more actual/pressing (but probably no less important in the grand scheme of things) issues. Still, I can tell you I’ve certainly had some highlights, and I’ll attempt to give you a not very coherent summary of what its been like on the train so far:

 The key (memorable) stops:

 

·      Snow Hill – a tough climb in the first week at the beginning of January. LOTS OF SNOW. Slight altitude sickness. Taught me how to work remotely, a core predicate to the ‘working from home’ concept

 ·      London – venue shopping for our much hyped Talent Forum – date TBC

 ·      Project Management Creek – yep, this has been a frantic one. Ran Vodafone development sessions in the Talent Labs for 80+ sales managers. Prep time: 1 week

 ·      Departures lounge – Rowan gets off the train. He’s gone up north to Manchester. A big loss. The self-styled sales and marketing God is no longer. Cue humungous brain overload in attempt to manage the deficit.

 ·      New passenger – sourced a new member of the team (pretty hard to do given our ‘intolerant’ nature and time constraints). Congrats, Rosie

 ·      Fuel stop (Biscuits/Chocolate in general) – right so not really a ‘stop’, but just had to put this in. It goes without saying that if you’re in for the long haul, biscuits are a must. Have managed to overturn Roger and Rowan’s health campaign. Bringing back biscuits is a big achievement. Simon will strongly agree

 

Now to delve into the train analogy a bit more before I wrap up. It’s actually a great little metaphor for the jobs we find ourselves in:

Every company has it’s own train. Some are easier to catch than others – they go more slowly. If you miss one stop you can catch it up at the next one down. Either that or you wait for the next train (they’re pretty regular).

The key about being on the train for a particular company is a combination of wanting and being able to stay on it. Are you getting where you want to go? And is it getting you there fast enough? Are you fed up of constantly taking the same slow, regular train, which always ends up in the same place? What are the views like? Dull? Inspiring? Is the dull journey, for example, a worthwhile one, if where the train is going to end up is where you want to be? Is it worth getting off the train and risking not getting to your destination on time altogether?

I’m one of these people who can’t stand sitting on a slow train that stops at every corner. The great thing about being on (just about) a train of such great speed is that, as long as you can stay on it, you go places quickly. The downside? There’s not much time for reflection or for the idea of ‘getting up to speed’. Still, we are all different, and this type of journey isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Different speeds and journeys will suit different types of people. So I guess it’s lucky we have such a well-developed railway network these days…  

So I hoped I’ve managed to take this analogy to its full extent in Chemistry-esque fashion. Must fly, we’re due an announcement any second…

ATTENTION. Please stand clear of the platform – the next train is not scheduled to stop at this station.

HOWEVER. For those of you who wish to have a go at jumping on, you may do so at your own risk… Thank you.

 

Tom.

Good news, it’s not all our fault…

OK, regular readers of this column will know I am fairly caustic when it comes to our industry, recruiters are no better than estate agents, you know the rhetoric.  Well, I am not convinced it is all our fault.

Ever heard the expression, “People are our No.1 asset”? Yep, me too.  I have heard it muttered by the same people who then go and hire without a job description, or ring ten agencies and ask them to all drop their trousers on the fee and send them CVs by the end of the day.  So when does hiring not knowing what you are looking for, or trawling the bottom of the candidate pool look like trying to find your No.1 assets?  The truth is it doesn’t. 

This blog was originally written written by Roger Philby for Recruiter Magazine and published on their website on December 9th 2009.

According to research the cost of mishiring an individual is 4-14x their base salary and most UK organisations are getting 75% of their hires wrong! This is why £24 Billion per annum is spent managing poor performers in UK PLC.  Except, these aren’t poor performers (disgusting label), these are individuals who have had the misfortune of being hired by the wrong company for them.

So whose fault is that?

The individual? The recruitment companies being used?  Or the companies using them?

Pick me…Pick me...I know!

Truth is a lot of companies are getting the service from recruitment companies they deserve, there you go I said it, it might not be the recruitment companies fault.  If the recruitment company is called and asked to send CVs by the end of the day, what can they do?  A thorough and accurate selection? Or a spray and pray approach?  If my first conversation with a client is, “everyone else is doing it at 12%, so you have to” what chances my heart is in the accurate selection of the right individuals?  If I am treated as one of many suppliers, not engaged with properly, not trusted, not given the full information and terrified that if I send in the wrong candidate (not that I’d know what wrong is at this stage) I’ll get canned from the PSL what chance that I’d do the best job? 

Answer is simply none.  

It is a bit of a cheek that the same people who moan about how crap our industry is, perpetuate the problem by being equally crap in how they engage us.  Seriously, if these companies put as much care and effort in to the hiring of people as they do say, a new server installation I believe the service they received would be infinitely better.  Sound stupid?

Think about it for a minute,  when installing £50,000 of servers, they would write an RFP detailing the specification (the job spec), they would detail the process for sourcing, work with the vendors on refining the spec, then put together a proper tender (selection) process, meticulously going through the pro’s and con’s of each server.  They would then select the server and put together an installation team (induction) and then have a post installation service agreement (90 day coaching). 

OK, now re-run the client process for the last £50,000 hire you made…

Figured it out?

What they actually mean is our servers are our company’s No.1 asset, simple.

Time to reinvent yourself

This blog was originally written by Roger Philby for Recruiter Magazine on October 14th 2009.

Adversity - the mother of all invention? Lord, I hope so!

I can think of no other industry where creativity, new ideas and therefore invention is more lacking than in recruitment. If processors have Moore’s law, recruitment has ‘sod’s law’, as in sod’s law the agency will charge you a percentage of the salary which bears no relation to the work done, or sod’s law they won’t deliver what they said they would. So, if this recession is the mother of all recessions, maybe this is the one where we will see recruitment agencies reinvent themselves. Personally, I think the current model of intermediary is dying - and if not dead, on its death bed. Don’t believe me? Try reading What would Google Do? by Jeff Jarvis or FREE by Chris Andersen.

The basic economics for the client do not stack up any more: why pay 25-30% to an intermediary when for far less they can employ a researcher, or use a fixed-fee job board or LinkedIn (isn’t that just what you recruiters are doing?). In the current model it doesn’t work for the client, so their reaction is, ‘drop your fees (pants)’ and there are many a recruiter today with their pants firmly by their ankles.
So as the cash cow declines, us recruiters should be doing two things, firstly:

• Demonstrate value - Listen to the client; they have the answer!

Even chickens can fly in a hurricane, and that’s been the recruitment market for the last five years. Agencies have done well, despite having no differentiating factor at all. As the calm comes, these guys are dropping out of the sky and pecking at fewer roles - literally scratching in the dirt.

However, there is hope! Clients will pay for perceived value, so we can create our own stay of execution by listening to the customer and learning from it… they are saying ‘we need to save money’. That doesn’t mean you need to drop your trousers - just articulate your value. Where can you save them money? What service could you offer for free? If the best you can offer is a salary survey - then get in the truck, as it’ll be the slaughterhouse for you!

• Innovate - Listen to the client and the candidate. They have the answer!

Your current model is dead. You can choose not to believe me, but rest assured the guys who innovate now and produce the ‘game changing’ service(s) will reap the new client and candidate zeitgeist.

These are exciting times to be in recruitment; the clients and candidates are ready for change. Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, once said: “Innovation is to distinguish between a leader and a follower.” Time to decide what you want to be… Adversity - the mother of all invention? Lord, I hope so!