Blog

Unsocial Recruitment

Earlier this year I was contacted by Hays, the recruitment company. They run seminars for their clients and having read about me, they asked if I could come to their London offices and talk to a group of HR professionals about how social media might, and might not, help to improve communication. We agreed I would waive my usual charge for speaking, and in return Hays would send some promo material to their guests before and after the event, and they would reimburse my out of pocket expenses. I’m a little reluctant to work like this, but as I believe in a basic principle of value trumps price, I decided to give it a go. The date was agreed and booked.

Next I went to meet the guy from Hays to talk a little more about the session and to check out the layout and feel of the place, it really helps to have an idea of the physical environment you’re working with. We sat in the room talking and the Hays guy came across really edgy. ‘Are you OK?’ I asked, ‘You seem very nervous’. ‘Well you see….’ replied Hays guy, ‘it’s just that…well we’re not sure how this session is going to go and whether we should be doing it?’ He paused, before blurting ‘We don’t want you to talk about social recruiting because it’s not something we do.’ ‘I wasn’t planning to focus specifically on recruitment’ I replied, ‘it’s not my area of expertise and anyway, it wasn’t in your initial brief to me.’ Hays guy sat back, visibly relieved at having had his confessional moment.

‘You will need to have a plan, some ideas around fielding questions etc’ I said to Hays guy. He tensed again, ‘what do you mean, a plan?’ ‘Well just because recruitment is not an area I will be covering, doesn’t mean your customers aren’t going to have questions about it, does it?’ The conversation continued and we parted company having agreed I would finish my prep, I would also send over a few images to frame the discussion, plus an updated two page guide about What Goes Around for Hays to circulate to their guests. Hays guy would manage any social recruitment curve balls, and I agreed I would support him where I could. I pulled everything together and sent it across as agreed.

A few days before the event I checked in with the recruiter. I confess I was a little surprised that Hays had not been back in touch with me, and what followed was an awkward backtrack on behalf of Hays guy. ‘Errr, umm, yeah….oh, Hi Doug, funny I was just about to call you, yeah been meaning to give you a buzz. Thing is you see, we’d like to postpone the event, just for a few weeks so we can gain more publicity for us and you, OK? I’m on the case and I’ll be in touch again very soon.’ And that, dear reader, was the last I heard from Hays guy.

Plans change – I know that. And I also know it’s basic good manners to be proactive when plans change, perhaps a dash of honesty wouldn’t go amiss either. Hays’ website says ‘It’s All About People, Worldwide’. Certainly didn’t feel like it to me, I sincerely hope they treat their customers and candidates better than this. I guess the main reason for sharing my tale is so that the next time you get an ‘offer’ like this – perhaps you’ll find a way to approach it more usefully than I did?

You might be thinking, ‘shit happens Doug, get over it’, and I am over it – just about ;). Subsequently Carole suggested to me that the next time someone proposes a similar arrangement, I should include the option for a cancellation/postponement charge. Interesting thought, and I’m also aware that with all of the varied paid assignments I’ve been engaged with, this fizzling out experience has never happened, weird huh?

 

Bacon Sandwich

I am not, nor do I aspire to be, a gourmet chef. And I enjoy cooking. I enjoy the preparation, the cleaning, the choosing, the slicing, the steaming, grilling, and the time it takes to produce something good to eat.

Last Thursday I made spaghetti bolognese at Keira’s request. I prepared it at the same time as she was doing a piece of homework about table tennis as part of a bigger Olympic project. My focus was all over the place, trying to get the food right and trying to respond usefully when Keira needed help. The end result was an interesting and well laid out project from Keira, and an acceptable dinner from Doug, though Keira said she enjoyed both the dinner and the project, and that matters.

Since then I’ve prepared a salad nicoise (well almost), bacon lettuce and tomato sandwiches, and a roast dinner. They’ve all taken longer to make than they might, and that’s fine – remember, taking the time is one of the things I enjoy about cooking. And they’ve all turned out deliciously great, even if I do say so myself.

Take the BLT as an example. The bacon was trimmed and grilled to perfection, the tomatoes were at room temperature and cut just right with a super sharp knife. The lettuce was fresh, the bread seedy (in a good way) and there was a little mayo on it. Keira and I declared these sandwiches among the finest we have ever eaten, until the next ones. Sadly I didn’t get a picture of the BLT, it kinda disappeared too quick – you’ll just have to take our word for it.

Too often we get horribly busy. Work has a nasty habit of expanding to fill the time available. I often meet and work with people who run back to pack, cram packed diaries. And they are always late for something. Face it folks, you can’t manage a series of meetings that run from nine to ten, ten to eleven, and eleven to midday, without a break. When are you supposed to get from one to the other? When are you supposed to take a pee? When are you supposed to think about what just happened and what may happen next? It takes a little discipline to factor in a few minutes to get from here to there, and all that other stuff. And it’s worth it. And whilst I’d take the nicoise, the sandwich or the roast over the bolognese any day, I do realise that sometimes, you just gotta make stuff happen. Not always, sometimes.

I’m off for breakfast, hope you enjoy yours.

 

Ordinarily Outstanding

I was part of a fascinating conversation yesterday which came together under the banner of The Petersham Project. There’ll be more about that later, for now I want to retell a story I recalled about a guy I worked with named Trevor.

Trevor supported a lot of sales teams when I worked for BT. Sales people aren’t known for delivering reports on time, keeping sales databases up to date, doing performance reviews etc etc, but I tried to help Trevor by being timely and accurate and in return he was enormously helpful to me, and many others.

Trevor delivered his work in an understated manner, I talked with him about this often and he would say ‘I’m just doing my job’. And he is right and he is one of the best examples of someone just doing their job that I’ve ever seen. Reminders from Trevor would be timely and friendly. Mistakes would be corrected and pointed out to you nicely, so you might not do it again next time. Simple, ordinary stuff, done in a thoroughly outstanding way. Trevor’s behaviour stood out also because the prevailing atmosphere was largely toxic. At times (not always I hasten to add)  we had people in positions of power behaving tyranically and often that transmitted through the organisation resulting in people seeming to take pleasure in others misfortunes. I may come back to this toxicity another time, for now I just thought it was important to help contextualise Trevor and the fact he chose to work in the wonderful way he did.

At the end of one year, Trevor was recognised for his efforts with an Outstanding appraisal. In BT we had five appraisal grades: Outstanding, Very Good, Good, Generally Satisfactory, and Needs Improvement. Outstanding and Needs Improvement were like hen’s teeth, really rare. In terms of trying to measure performance, the company had become great at aiming for mediocrity, and of course it’s easier to manage folk if they’re all ‘doing OK’, right? Interestingly, after being in receipt of an Outstanding, Trevor spoke with me a few times about feeling pressure to ‘up his game’. He didn’t want to, and as someone who worked with him I didn’t need him to either, Trevor’s work was spot on. This approach seemed to be getting him down.

I’ve not seen or spoken with Trevor for over three years now, but his behaviour has made a lasting impression on me. So too has the rather slavish way that he was then expected to up his already outstanding game. We don’t all want to be rock stars, so why is there a constant drive and pressure on our people to behave that way?