Speaking the Language of Marketing

Irish Marketing Journal
January 2014
As his company approaches a quarter century of successfully placing marketing professionals, The People Group managing director Colm Buckley acknowledges that recruiters as well as candidates need to continually update their skills, writes Paul Golden.

'Trust, integrity and a specialist focus on marketing and sales are all vital to maintaining our brand and reputation. We have a genuine interest in people finding the right roles and companies in which to develop their careers. Our relationships with blue chip multinational organisations, as well as indigenous companies, are based on successfully filling roles with high calibre talent," says Colm Buckley, managing director of The People Group.

According to Buckley, all the consultants who work at The People Group have a marketing qualification and have worked successfully within industry at various levels of management prior to joining the company. But while he believes it is important for them to understand marketing as a discipline, Buckley also recognises that the industry is continually changing.

"A good recruiter has the ability to work closely with their client, listen to their needs and help them identify what it is they require. In many instances a client may not have fully worked through the balance between what they want and what they actually need. Our people can give them advice on their competitors, how departments are structured and what has worked in the past as well as - critically - what hasn't.

"We have been asked by clients to provide impartial feedback on talent gaps in conjunction with reviewing the strategic marketing plan for the company or business area. While technology has helped enormously in the recruitment efforts of client companies, the craft of good recruitment remains.

"Identifying top talent that clients cannot find themselves and bringing them to the table is a service that all of our people provide on a consistent basis. Our brand and reputation allows us to access unique candidates who, in many instances, are not actively looking for a move. In many instances we receive referrals from candidates we have not placed before".

The People Group has a reputation for providing solid career advice and understanding the types of organisations and cultures within which candidates can develop their careers, which is a crucial factor in generating repeat business.

A good recruiter will not merely source a panel of candidates - they will also make the client aware of a candidate's motivations and ambitions for a career move, Buckley explains. "They will manage the hiring process effectively and anticipate any issues. With the growth of social media and various online recruitment tools the process has become more commoditised, but finding he best possible talent for a company is not the same as purchasing a product online."

"The product we deal with is unique in that it can say 'no' at the last minute.Talent has an opinion and options as well as time contraints. It can be unpredictable, high maintenance, irrational and sometimes uncommunicative. It has thoughts and feelings, it will consult with friends and family members and if it doesn't like your culture, company values or management style it will not work for you. So the recruitment consultant is vital in managing the process successfully."

He admits that the recruitment landscape remains challenging, albeit on the up since late 2012."We have begun to see more opportunities at middle to senior level and have completed a number of projects at marketing director level. Companies seem to be more intent to rebuild their marketing teams."

Aside from good marketing experience and career progression, Buckley says more emphasis is being placed on digital marketing skills."That said, 'attitude & fit' are back with a bang. Most companies have suffered from morale issues over the last few years so a positive, can-do atitude is essential. Energy, initiative and drive are key attributes that are being sought after and it is critical that candidates fill clients with this confidence during an interview process."

He credits candidates for researching the industry before pursuing a career in marketing and maintaining realistic expectations in terms of likely salary and career progression."They are doing their research and they have an idea of where they want to be.Finding the right company, culture and management team/style where they can progress their career is important to candidates," he concludes.

Marketing Vacancies

The Recruitment Revolution

The Sunday Business Post
 
January 19th, 2014


The recruitment sector is changing, but it's important to keep sight of the fundamentals, writes Gareth Naughton.
 
The advent of Linkedin and other social media tools has revolutionised the recruitment process, with the result that some companies are taking it in-house. Are they shooting themselves in the foot, however, by foregoing the expertise of an experienced recruitment agency or consultant who may be better positioned to secure them the best candidate available?

While recruiters have reported an upturn in business in the past year, there is no doubt that the playing field has changed. It is a small market and that means tougher competition and clients looking for agencies willing to go the extra mile. Added to that you have the advent of a raft of new ways of accessing potential candidates which cut out the middle man.

Colm Buckley, managing director of The People Group, which is celebrating 25 years in business this year, believes that this is a persistent issue for the recruitment industry and one which cannot be ignored." You won't get many recruitment company owners to admit this but the truth - globally - is that many clients have deserted or are deserting the recruitment industry, at the moment and over the last number of years," he said.

"In a lot of businesses they are cynical about the value we add to a process, they are sceptical about our ability to deliver anything that they cannot get themselves through LinkedIn or other social media."We are very concious that any decent-sized blue chip in Ireland and certainly globally, is building very sophisticated systems. They are using LinkedIn themselves, they are hiring internal recruiters who in many instances come from the recruitment industry. All of that is specifically designed to cut out third party recruiters."

It is Buckley's contention that the fundamentals of recruitment - the craft of the business - are being forgotten as people look to technology to solve their staffing issues, rather than bring in a third party.This technology should be seen as an extremely useful tool, he believes, but it is not the cure-all for all recruitment problems.

"LinkedIn for us is, in fact, something that we use as a secondary tool. It is important and there is no doubt you will find very good people on LinkedIn, but we use our own methodology of tried and trusted relationships, of picking up the phone, of getting referrals, word of mouth," he said.
"I could name four or five companies that I have personally placed senior digital marketeers in over the last six months and I have found those individuals by word-of-mouth from other candidates that we had dealt with here and built up relationships with over months and years.We are running away with ourselves with the digital world and media, but they are only tools."

Underpinning the issue is that clients are no longer prepared to pay a fee for a bunch of CVs. They are looking for somthing more in-depth - the value-add that a recruiiter should bring to the table. They are looking for rcruiters capable of identifying the right talent and guiding those candidates to the point where they are willing to accept an offer.

"Recruiters need to be real experts at talent identification. There is no doubt that they need to build communities both on and off-line," he said."Ten years ago a good recruiter would have told you that their network, the people they know and could access, was the most critical thing in them being able to do their job above and beyond the competition.

"There is no doubt about it, integrated social media and digital marketing networks are very important in terms of building your brand and reputation but they are not a panacea for the recruitment process at the end of the day."

Karen O'Flaherty, chief operating officer at Morgan McKinley, said Ireland's recruitment industry had changed with a greater emphasis on specialist consultants with more in-depth knowledge.
"Because are own industry has changed, we have employed a lot of people who would have already worked in particular sectors. They are networked, they understand the industry and the people they are talking to are more affiliated with them," said O'Flaherty.

"If they are talking to those people and, equally, clients and candidates on a day-to-day basis they (have better knowledge and experience) in where the opportunities are, having the conversations to predict where the hiring might be and being able to match the skill-set with the employer better than anyone else."

Employers are looking for advice on what is out there on the market if they are planning potential hires, and a skilled recruitment agent should be able to provide the necessary insight, O'Flaherty said.
The recruitment agent acting as the middle man is beneficial to both the employer and the jobseeker, she argued, with the former likely to find a candidate who is going to stay put for a period of time and the latter bringing negotiation skills to the table.

"There are a number of employers who are happy to pay over and above for the right person, others canot afford to pay certain people, but they are looking for that expertise on how to serve them on benefits when they cannot necessarily afford to pay out on salary. Somebody who is actually very industry-specific and that has day-to-day knowledge can add a lot in that middle ground," she said.
The sector has changed as well because the "quick buck" mentality of the boom is no longer prevalent. The market is too small to sustain it.

"There is a realisation that you have to look after your customer, whether that is the professional or an employer. That has left are industry thankfully, and people are out to give a good service, knowing that if they don't get a return, in the first instance, that the jobseeker or the employer will come back to them," said O'Flaherty.

View Jobs