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, […]

Graduates? No thanks!

Neither school leavers nor university graduates are providing employers with what they need due to basic problems with literacy, numeracy and attitude, a Tesco executive said today.  The broadside came only days after university union, the UCU, slammed the business community for failing to “make a proper contribution” to funding for higher education, despite being […]

Small businesses, watch your back when hiring

Small business owners know the value of good employees. But unlike large corporations, smaller businesses are often unable to absorb the risks and liability that may come from bad hiring decisions. In this article, Traci Canning, Managing Director, Kroll Background Worldwide will be offering guidance on carrying out employee checks. More and more, employers feel […]

Drowning in a sea of applications

When you have so many applicants to sift through, recruiting can seem a huge ordeal. Dan Hughes offers a lifebuoy and explains how it has worked for Waitrose. Many employers experience the challenge of sorting through a sea of job applications to find the select few with the greatest potential for success in their organisation. […]

Beating the frustration: improving HR’s relationship with recruiters

Historically HR and recruiters haven’t had a great relationship, yet they both need each other – something has to be done so we can both get along. While in theory recruitment only forms a small part of an HR manager’s role, in practice it can be one of the most time-consuming elements. In addition, at […]