Take action on ‘blatant racism’ in best paid professions

A charity has called on HR professionals to do more to tackle institutionalised racism in their workplaces in order to encourage more members of the UK’s ethnic minorities to apply for prestige jobs.  A report, which is due to be published tomorrow, has revealed that more than a quarter of people from ethnic minority groups […]

Dole claimants 5: Job vacancies 1

While the jobless rate among OECD nations may have remained static in April, TUC figures indicate that dole claimants in the UK now outnumber job vacancies by five to one, with London, the North East and Scotland worst hit.  Statistics released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes mostly developed nations, revealed […]

Follow the 3 Cs for the key to recruitment

Recruiting, hiring, talent attraction, talent acquisition…whatever words you use you can’t escape the fact that sourcing and hiring new people for your business is far harder to get right than it is wrong, with new research showing that a negative experience can damage your bottom line.  Its long been said that you can tell a […]

The disease of unconscious bias

Unconscious bias is everywhere, malingering like a disease. I have the disease, and so do you. Even the most freethinking, open-minded people are at its mercy – and it’s the single biggest block to UK organisations increasing diversity. Traditional thinking has generally assumed that patterns of discriminatory behaviour in organisations are conscious. We assume that […]

Council tender advert ‘disturbing’, says rights and equality commission

A council may have opened itself up to costly legal action after issuing a tender for a ‘female, white and non-Muslim’ taxi driver as part of a wider contract.  According to the Northampton Chronicle & Echo, Northamptonshire County Council has been forced to issue an unreserved apology following the incident. One of the elements of […]

Council ‘Quo’ recruitment campaign off target

In a warning to HR professionals everywhere of the perils of using humour in recruitment campaigns, a council has caused outrage by apparently banning Status Quo fans from applying for management jobs.  Brighton & Hove Council has been forced to apologise to the rock band and its fans after spending £10,000 on a recruitment web […]

Barratt homes discover the ideal time to build their dream workforce

The current economic situation has led to a growing number of candidates on the market, which in turn has meant many organisations have seen an increase in the volume of applications received. Many organisations have struggled to cope with the increased workload as the recruitment process has buckled under the strain of applications. Recruitment activities […]

The future of recruitment: An uncertain world?

Where are we heading when it comes to recruitment? Richard Nott, the website director of CWJobs.co.uk, an IT specialist recruitment site, gives his view. Recruitment, like all elements of business, is very much affected by the constantly evolving economic and political landscape. The industry has been at the forefront of the rollercoaster of uncertainty and […]

Poor recruitment practices damaging brands

Poor recruitment practices are damaging employers’ brands, losing them customers and hitting the bottom line, but are nonetheless becoming increasingly common as organisations find themselves swamped with growing numbers of job applications. According to research undertaken among 1,600 UK adults by psychometric testing specialist SHL, negative recruitment experiences are all too frequent among jobseekers, with nearly […]

LV= launch recruitment campaign with a difference

An insurance and pensions firm has unveiled a quirky multi-channel recruitment campaign in which potential applicants take photos of staff on posters using their mobile phones and receive recorded messages about what it is like to work there.  The campaign by insurance and pensions company LV=, formerly known as Liverpool Victoria, is based around five […]

An introduction to social recruitment with Bill Boorman

Social recruiting – myths, legends and a take on reality from Bill Boorman, social recruiter and TRU Events unconference organiser. You’ve probably heard a lot of noise about social recruiting. From the champions to the naysayers, everyone has a view. With so much written about theory, and what ‘social’ could do, and so few real […]

The new age of ethical recruitment

Mark Roberts looks at how the recession has created a new wave of ethical recruitment and explains how it works in practice. As we emerge from recession, the recruitment industry is a very different beast to the one that enjoyed the boom times of the late 1990s and early 2000s. In those hectic, sales-focused, days […]

Loreal creates virtual reality for recruits

Cosmetics giant L’Oreal is piloting an online virtual reality game to help it with graduate recruitment and instil it with the ‘cool’ factor at the same time.  The new game called Reveal requires students and graduates to assume the guise of avatars. Their aim is to work on virtual projects and undertake problem-solving tasks across […]

Generation standby: 20% would turn down a job which banned Facebook

A huge one in five people would turn down a job that prevented them from using social media at work as the boundaries between work and home continue to blur, according to a new report.  The report dubbed ‘Web 2.0 in the Workplace 2010’, which was undertaken by security software provider Clearswift, indicated that so-called […]

Green jobs for the Welsh valleys

British Gas has opened a green skills training centre in South Wales, with the aim of equipping 1,300 local long-term unemployed and its own engineers with the necessary expertise to handle the emerging technology.  The centre, which was opened by Carwyn Jones, First Minister of the Welsh Assembly Government, is based in Tredegar in the […]

‘Dire’ job figures signpost tough times ahead

‘Dire’ official jobs figures mean that the new government needs to take swift and decisive action to get Britain working again, according to a prominent HR body.  Data from the Office of National Statistics indicated that the number of people out of work in the three months to March rose by 53,000 to 2.51 million […]

Letter to an ex-MP – what next for the honourable members?

What can discarded MPs do now they are bereft of their constituencies? Gary Flood has unearthed this correspondence between one ex-MP and an executive recruiting agency for a light hearted look at what MPs might turn their hand to next… From: Executive Career Counselling LtdTo: Ex MP Joan Smythe IN STRICTEST CONFIDENCE Dear Joan, Thank […]

Next government must curb public sector job cuts

A recruitment industry body has warned that an incoming government of whatever stripe must address two immediate priorities – stimulating jobs growth and cutting expenditure without creating a public sector recession by shedding thousands of posts.  The warning came as research indicated that the rate at which recruiters filled permanent vacancies slipped last month from […]

Recruitment rates up but gap in private and public sector grows

While hiring by private sector organisations is set to surge this spring, the public sector jobs outlook is the bleakest for six years – although overall the balance is positive for the first time since the winter of 2008. According to the latest quarterly labour market survey of 800 employers undertaken by the Chartered Institute […]

Survey reveals dissatisfaction with recruitment agencies

Nearly three quarters of employers find it difficult to find good recruitment agencies, while a huge nine out of ten believe that recruitment processes take too long. These are the findings of a survey among 250 UK business owners and HR professionals undertaken by research firm Vanson Bourne and commissioned by TalentPuzzle, an online marketplace, […]