“How many calls have you made this week?”

 Just a couple of the motivational rallying cries I used to hear working in recruitment agencies. I thoroughly hated having to make cold calls as a recruiter. I remember having to achieve a weekly quota of cold calls to tick the activity target box. It was all about numbers, activity and process. Cold calling is a numbers game, I was told. It’s all about doing the numbers.  

Most weeks I actually went through the motions of making the calls; but some weeks I just pretended to have done so, because I recognised the futility of it all. And it was hardly surprising that it was futile, given the approach I was told / trained to take, and the resulting frame of mind with which I made the calls.

The idea behind it was that sales activities could be described in terms of a funnel. Make a lot of cold calls and you will get past the gate-keeper on the odd occasion. Get past the gate-keeper and you will get a few visits. Get a couple of visits and you might get a couple of vacancies. Get a couple of vacancies and you might get a placement.

So the more cold calls you put in at the top, the more sales you will get out at the bottom. And cliché after cliché fell through this funnel as I waited expectantly for results…

And if you struggled to get to the next level in the funnel, your manager would sit and listen to your calls to tell you what to say or to point out where you went wrong. Be more focused, be more assertive, be more direct, don’t take no for an answer!

In a more realistic and sombre moment, the same manager would admit that cold calling tended to have a very low success rate on the day and that your chances of picking up a vacancy or a meeting from a cold call would be slim to none. Or in other words, they were acknowledging that it didn’t actually work very well as a sales strategy.

Here are some reasons why cold calling doesn’t work:

Cold calling doesn’t work when you are given a list of companies from a business directory and told to phone them to ‘introduce your services’. The MD or Operations Manager in the company you are just about to call to ‘make him aware of what you do’ (which, remember, is the same as what hundreds of others do, and have just tried to pester him with the same story) is in the middle of preparing for a board meeting and couldn’t care less about what you do. He is only interested in his own business*

Cold calling doesn’t work when the companies you call from the list are just ticking along nicely, thank you very much, and have absolutely no need for your services – nor are they interested in keeping your details on file for future reference. Why would they? They can make do perfectly well with the staff they have and would never contemplate paying your fees anyway**

Cold calling doesn’t work when you have lost all confidence in the process as a result of going through the motions day after day achieving nothing***

Cold calling doesn’t work when you pretend you have made your calls when you haven’t****

Here is what your manager might do:

*Provide you with a script to help you explain your ‘quality’ & ‘honesty’ differentiators

**Provide you with a script to improve your objection handling skills

***Provide you with a juicy carrot – whether you like carrots or not

****Provide you with your P45

Before you get to this stage, you may want to consider an alternative, easier to follow, funnel:

• Start with a list of sectors that are likely to experience growth, investment or some form of development, but don’t rule out sectors which are already strong and holding their own; find out about these sectors from industry organisations and news articles, understand the opportunities and challenges facing companies here

• Whittle that list down and target a niche – perhaps an entire sector, or perhaps a small sub sector – based on your own knowledge and expertise, and decide where you think you have the best chance of developing your business desk

• Whittle that list down further to create a smaller list of which companies might be recruiting and try to work out why they may be recruiting at the moment?

• Go further and whittle that list down to create an even smaller list of companies who might actually need your help to recruit and work out why that might be the case – what do you have to offer these particular companies that meets their particular needs at the moment and why?

Then you are ready to decide on the most appropriate way of approaching each of the companies on your target list. And each approach may be different.

You may decide that making a call now is the best course of action, all things considered. And if you do, you will know exactly why you are calling, who you want to speak with, and exactly what you are going to say. And given that you have done your homework, you are automatically improving your chances of working with this company.

And the thing to remember is that this is one call. It is targeted and it has a specific purpose. It is not a random call among hundreds of others from a business directory, where the only objective is for you to get a meeting or a vacancy.

You may decide that cold calling is not the best course of action. Perhaps you are able to use your own database of contacts to get a referral to the person in the company you need to speak with. Or perhaps you have come across the company through social media sites such as twitter or linkedin, and you decide that it would be better to begin some sort of conversation in this way. Or perhaps you may decide that an introductory letter is the best way to start. Or perhaps you are aware that the company will be exhibiting or attending an industry event and you decide that a quick face to face chat would get the initial conversation going in the right direction.

Whichever strategy you decide to take, it is worth remembering that, whilst cold calling does not work when it is carried out in the manner practised by the vast majority of recruitment agencies, it does have its place when it is done properly and within the context of a well thought-out business development strategy.

This got me thinking about some of the lessons recruiters might learn from this type of report. Recruiters setting up a new desk from scratch may consider targeting niche markets, where there is emerging technology or heavy investment, such as renewable energy; or markets on the cusp of revitalisation, such as financial services and life sciences.

But before rushing headlong into these markets, it is worth pausing for a moment to think about the fact that market sectors that are prime for growth may at the same time be market sectors that represent some of the most difficult recruitment challenges.

Forget, for a second, that the competition will be fierce as recruiters up and down the country will be following the trend by proclaiming themselves as specialists in such sectors. This will already make it a hard enough game.

Think, for a second, about the challenges inherent in the actual recruitment process itself within these sectors, and the promise of quick and easy money is quickly put into perspective.

Making money here requires detailed knowledge and understanding of the markets and an intelligent approach to devising your recruitment strategy. To explain what I mean, let us consider what the terms ‘skills gaps’ and ‘skills shortages’ actually mean and how they affect recruitment strategies.

Skills Gaps

• Skills gaps exist where there are differences between the skills possessed by employees and the skills actually required to carry out their jobs effectively.

• Skills gaps typically harm an organisation’s performance, its ability to meet its sales objectives and customer service targets, and ultimately limit its potential for growth.

• Skills gaps occur at various levels and to various extents throughout industry sectors, although some sectors and some levels of job are more typically associated with skills gaps.

• Skills gaps place a strain on employees themselves, when put under pressure to perform at a level they simply cannot achieve as a consequence of their skills gaps.

• Skills gaps tend to emerge through weaknesses in core soft skills, which typically form the basis of an employee’s ability to learn and develop more advanced interpersonal and communication skills, or more sophisticated technical skills.

Skills Shortages

• Skills shortages exist where there are fewer qualified candidates available to meet industry demands

• Skills shortages typically occur as a result of rapid growth or investment in new technology at a pace that exceeds industry’s ability to train and produce qualified candidates

• Skills shortages can occur as a result of globalisation, with qualified employees choosing to relocate overseas for a better life style, opportunity or money, leaving the local industry with insufficient qualified employees

• Skills shortages also occur as a result of ageing populations, particularly affecting industries with a high proportion of older employees who retire, removing their skills and experience from the work place.

So recruiters need to be aware of the difference between hard to fill vacancies that are hard to fill because the majority of candidates interested and available have skills gaps, and those that are hard to fill because there are skills shortages.

When it comes to skills gaps, the decision to work on the vacancy in the first place needs to be made carefully, based on knowledge and understanding of the market and typical candidate calibre – is it worth taking it on and spending time and money searching for candidates who just don’t measure up to the specification; how open is the client to considering candidates who lack all of the required skills; are you likely to damage your reputation by submitting candidates who do not match the client’s (perhaps unrealistic) expectations?

There are many recruiters who are happy to work on this basis and take a gamble on this type of vacancy. And there is no big issue with this provided you are working with an open client who has given you some form of commitment that he is prepared to consider candidates who do not yet meet the full criteria, but who at least show potential through on the job training.

But in the majority of cases, the end result is likely to be frustration all round. Worst case would be that the client recruits the candidate and then quickly realises that the skills gap is too wide to bridge with the resources he has at his disposal, and he then demands a refund.

When it comes to skills shortages, different factors need to be considered. Again, based on the recruiter’s knowledge and understanding of the market, the recruiter needs to be confident that he fully appreciates the particular reason behind the shortage – is it the fact that most of the qualified candidates now live and work in overseas locations; is it the fact that the industry no longer offers sufficiently attractive salaries and opportunities compared with others; is it the fact that technology and investment have outstripped the supply of experienced and qualified candidates?

The recruiter’s role is to understand why there is a shortage and develop the most appropriate search and selection strategy; whether this means searching and recruiting from overseas, headhunting from a local competitor, or convincing the client to offer more attractive salaries and development opportunities.

There would be no point in trying to cold call local competitors, for example, if the cause of the shortage is that the majority of candidates are working in overseas locations. The local competitor may be making do with a skills gap.

Nor would there be much point in spending money on advertising a position, and then re-advertising when the first one draws little or no interest, when the few qualified candidates are already working for the market leaders and have no intention of moving, and hence no inclination to check job sites. These candidates need to be targeted directly and gently coached and persuaded.

The general point is very basic and quite simple – working on a vacancy requires relevant market intelligence and a tailored strategy to achieve the right outcome (or a tough decision not to take it on in the first place) – but it is one that some recruiters may overlook in their haste to get in front of the client and get the vacancy on.

The heart of the complaint is not just that our education system has expanded its offering so widely during the past decade that many of the subjects available in higher and further education institutions are completely irrelevant and out of touch with what our economy needs, whilst many of our industry-relevant subjects are routinely and monotonously delivered by non industry-exposed academics; the heart of the complaint is that our education system has failed at a very basic and fundamental level to deliver school leavers and graduates who are confident, prepared and ready for work.    

Whilst it is clear that many school leavers and graduates do lack basic communication skills, and display little or no aptitude for applying academic and theoretical knowledge to a real commercial setting (if, indeed, it is applicable at all), I believe that it is too quick, and too simplistic, to attribute blame solely to today’s education system. There are obvious faults and failings, which I will touch on later; but the problems run much deeper than this and manifest themselves at various stages from home, through education and into industry itself.

Drilling down to basics, I believe that many of the problems can be traced back to what happens (or doesn’t happen) prior to children entering the education system in the first place, and what happens (or doesn’t happen) as they progress through life, adapting to, and coping with, their upbringing and social circumstances.

Where there has been insufficient effort made at the earliest of stages – where parents, guardians or carers have failed to recognise that it is their responsibility to initiate the process of educating their children by building the foundations of discipline, routine, enquiry and confident self expression, upon which the basic skills of reading, counting, logical thinking and articulate communication are ultimately grafted – here we begin to uncover one of the roots of the problems that manifest themselves when our education system churns out ill-equipped and badly prepared school leavers and graduates.         

Throw into the mix the inexorable gravitation towards technology and gadgetry that, despite their massive advantages and benefits to society, education and industry, also have a tendency to encourage solipsistic behavioural patterns, whilst promoting quick fixes and short-cuts to results that would otherwise have been hard won, and it is easy to see how our problems begin to deepen.

And then our problems are compounded by the fact that, whilst there are many exceptional academics and teachers working in our education system today, there are many more who simply fail to inspire and motivate their students. There are many who are outstanding ambassadors for their subjects and know how to stimulate a thirst for knowledge in their students, but there are some who know only just enough to stay ahead of the students they are teaching. There are some academics and teachers who would rather not be teaching, but have worked themselves into a situation where it is easier to stay in the system than come out (this is typical in many organisations throughout all industry sectors, not just education).  

One of the sad consequences of our various failings is that there are fewer school leavers and graduates than before who are confident communicators in work situations. Fewer than before know how to carry out independent, meaningful research to a high level, or apply what they already know to practical situations at work; in some cases this means that they lack the ability to get the job done at a basic level; and in other cases it means they will have little opportunity to contribute to the discovery of new and innovative solutions to old problems. And this is damaging to our economy.    

As I have pointed out, there are many exceptional academics and teachers. I have had the absolute privilege of being taught by some, at primary school, secondary school and university. And there are, of course, many exceptional school leavers and graduates, many of whom I have studied with. But the responsibility to develop more exceptional school leavers and graduates, who are capable of going on to become exceptional contributors to society and industry, perhaps as academics and teachers themselves, begins at the earliest of stages in the family home, and continues through our schools, colleges and universities, and then on into the work place itself. In other words, we all have a deep responsibility, at various stages, to ensure that school leavers and graduates are prepared with the skills they need to cope in industry.

Now, rather than finish with the weight of the blame appearing to be placed on early upbringing, the social and technological context we evolve into, and our educational failures, perhaps we should turn the whole debate on its head and consider the following: perhaps it is not so much that our education system is guilty of producing school leavers and graduates who are ill-equipped to step into industry; perhaps it comes down to the failures, in some parts of industry, to recognise that today’s school leavers and graduates are immersed in a totally different way of living, with an entirely different style of communication, to previous generations?

However, it is important to remember that energy used in the home accounts for around 25% of the UK’s carbon emissions and this needs to be addressed, otherwise it will be very difficult to achieve our targets at a national level.

There are various steps individuals can take to help reduce carbon emissions in the environment, and this begins by monitoring, managing and improving what we do at home – particularly when much of what we do, and much of what we consume, may be described as unnecessary and excessive.

Monitor: Smart Meter devices

Using various types of Smart Meter devices to monitor and measure our use of gas and electricity helps to raise awareness of how much more we actually use on a daily basis than we need to; and this alone can be enough to motivate us take action.

Simply being more aware of how much electricity we are using when we don’t actually need to – and realising how much money could be saved by using less – helps to gently persuade people to adopt the habits of switching lights off when not in a room, switching computers and games consoles off when not being used and unplugging devices from sockets when not in use, and so on, and so forth.

When a reduction in energy consumption can be translated into individual household cash savings – particularly at a time when the cost of energy continues to rise – it is much easier to sway opinions and create the right type of habits and routines that will eventually lead to a more environmentally aware population.

Manage: Reduce, Reuse & Recycle

Households in the UK throw out an inordinate amount of unused food, waste packaging and general household rubbish every day. A significant and positive impact can be made on the environment by getting into the habit of reducing, reusing and recycling.

Consider when you go to the supermarket for instance. It is so easy to fall into the trap of buying 1 and getting 1 or 2 free; it is easy to simply pick something up in passing when we don’t actually need or want it, just because it was perfectly positioned and cleverly marketed by the supermarket.

We tend to buy more than we actually need or could possibly use – and much of what we buy comes in over engineered packaging – with the result that much of what we do buy ends up being thrown out.

And this just compounds the problems of landfill sites which are harmful to the environment, which emit harmful chemicals and greenhouse gasses into the environment.

Thinking differently about how and what we consume on a daily basis can help us develop better practices and eventually make it feel more natural to choose products and foodstuff that come in minimal packaging, or at least packaging that can be recycled easily, or material that can be reused.

Improve: Insulation

Insulating your home more efficiently can help reduce the amount of heat lost, and therefore reduce the amount of heat you actually need in the first place to keep your home warm in the winter. It is estimated that better loft insulation can actually save you around £225 per year and insulating cavity walls can save you around £110 per year on your heating bills.

Feed in Tariffs & Renewable Heat Incentive

Feed in Tariffs are payments made to individuals for units of renewable electricity they generate at home, using devices such as Solar PV and Micro Wind Turbines. Whilst the initial outlay can be costly, such devices should pay for themselves over their life period.

Within this type of scheme, payments are made to individuals for any electricity they produce, even if it is used in their own homes, and payments are also made for any electricity not used but exported into the grid. There are also similar incentives for the generation of heat from renewable sources, notably the Renewable Heat Incentive, which covers technologies such as Solar heating systems and Biomass Boilers.

Therefore, there are various steps we can all take to reduce the energy we consume at home by improving our buying habits and making small changes to our lifestyle.

The net result is that we can all have a positive impact on our environment, help the country achieve its carbon emissions reduction targets, and importantly, we can all save significant amounts of cash in the long term.

As a result, during the past couple of years, the UK Government has been developing a new legislative framework to ensure that this target is achieved. Below is a quick look at how this framework affects certain types of business.

One of the key pieces of legislation that has been developed makes the introduction of carbon reduction strategies mandatory within many businesses – for example, those operating within energy intensive industries, such as Iron & Steel, food & drink and paper processing.

Furthermore, policies have been developed to incentivise the same within non-energy intensive industries, encouraging proactive carbon management and promoting the increased use of renewable energy sources. Let’s look at some of these policies and measures.

Carbon Reduction Commitment

The Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme was introduced in April 2010. It is a carbon emissions reporting scheme, which applies to all organisations that use more than 6,000 MWh per year in electricity.

Organisations falling into this category are obliged to measure and report their carbon emissions using an agreed set of measurement standards and rules, and will need to buy allowances from the Government to cover their usage. The first sale of allowances will be in 2012 to cover the reporting period 2011 to 2012 and money raised will be retained by the Government.

The ultimate aim of the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme is to bring about a reduction in emissions within a section of the market that is responsible for producing around 10% of carbon emissions in the UK.

EU Emissions Trading Scheme

The EU Emissions Trading Scheme sets a cap on allowable carbon emissions for businesses within energy intensive industries – responsible for around 40% of EU carbon emissions. Such businesses are required to measure, manage and report their emissions using agreed rules and methods.

Setting a cap on allowable carbon emissions means that if installations exceed their cap, they would then have to purchase additional allowances on the ‘carbon market’ and by the same token, unused allowances could be sold back at an agreed price, thus creating a financial inducement for installations to reduce emissions. Over time, the cap will be reduced, with the effect of forcing an overall reduction in carbon emissions by the target date of 2020.

Climate Change Levy & Climate Change Agreements

The Climate Change Levy was introduced in 2001 to encourage greater efficiencies in energy usage. The Levy is a tax on the use of energy for industrial, commercial and public sector organisations. Most of the revenue raised is then returned to businesses in the form of a reduction in Employer’s National Insurance Contributions.

Energy intensive businesses are eligible for discounts on the Levy through Climate Change Agreements, which offer such businesses a discount of up to 80% provided they meet certain energy efficiency targets.

Again, the end result should be a reduction in carbon emissions brought about through using market tools and economic incentives.

Buildings Policy & Sustainable Construction

Somewhere in the region of 40% of UK emissions comes from heating and lighting our homes and commercial buildings, therefore introducing a comprehensive policy on managing building performance will be imperative, both in terms of reducing the emissions from existing buildings, and making them more energy efficient, but also in terms of improving construction methods and materials to move towards zero carbon buildings over the next 5 to 10 years.

Low Carbon Transport

Low carbon vehicles include electric and hybrid electric cars. Electric cars are powered by electric motors only and therefore do not have any of the harmful carbon emissions associated with the use of conventional fuel, such as petrol or diesel; whereas hybrid electric cars also have an internal combustion engine and therefore are part powered by conventional fuels.

Throughout the past couple of years, the UK Government has taken steps to provide a strong platform for the early development of the low carbon vehicle market. Positive legislation has been introduced to counter the relatively high costs of low carbon vehicles until the price of batteries falls and manufacturers can achieve economies of scale through increased demand.

Key pieces of legislation include grants of up to £5,000 towards the cost of purchasing low carbon vehicles from January 2011 until March 2012, with significant funds set aside for infrastructure development, creating dedicated Plug-In points throughout the country to recharge the batteries.

Conclusion

The above is just a very quick summary and overview of some of the key pieces of legislation introduced to ensure the UK Government achieves its legally binding carbon reduction targets. There are various market tools and economic incentives for businesses to perform more efficiently and use less energy, which in turn helps to foster more innovative thinking in terms of streamlining processes or adopting alternative, cleaner technologies.

More detailed explanations and more comprehensive reviews can be found on the UK’s Carbon Trust website and the Dept of Energy & Climate Change website.

Developed countries are required to meet emission reduction targets through creating and implementing their own domestic strategies and through setting a cap on carbon allowances for ‘installations’ within energy intensive industries.

(And to incentivise this process, whilst encouraging global collaboration, there are market based mechanisms to allow the trading of unused credits – including the EU Emissions Trading System).

Domestic strategies may include investing in renewable energy systems and environmental and clean technologies, together with reducing reliance on carbon intensive products and processes in general.

So how does this result in real benefits to individual organisations and businesses? Well, given that emission levels need to be monitored, recorded and reported, there is a burden on developed countries to develop their own national strategy to limit the effects of climate change and find the most cost effective means of achieving this.  

Responsibility within each country’s climate change strategy is shared out among industry groups, businesses and organisations, which in turn need to start thinking about the most cost effective way of accounting for, managing and reducing, their own carbon emissions.

And this helps to stimulate creative and innovative thinking. It generates the impetus to streamline carbon intensive processes and generally reduce production and operating costs; and of course, businesses and organisations who take these steps also tend to enjoy better relations with investors, share holders and various other industry stakeholders.

In light of this, it has been interesting to watch the significant moves that have been made in recent days to cement the details of a powerful and highly attractive trading partnership between Scotland and China.

Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang’s visit to Scotland has heralded the announcement of new links across various sectors of central importance to the Scottish economy, including food and drink, petro-chemicals and renewable energy.

On the surface, the deals seem quite attractive and they look very promising for the Scottish economy – potentially generating millions of pounds worth of new revenue and safe-guarding thousands of jobs.

However, whilst it is certainly true in the vast majority of cases that making trade deals and sharing resources brings short to medium term wealth, we need to hope that the deals that have been brokered have a view on the longer term and that they are of equal benefit to both partners involved.  

A cleverly managed global strategy therefore needs to have a sharp focus on long term objectives, as well as the short to medium term financial gains. We should not be in the business of making windfall deals that will plug short term gaps and funding deficits – only a small number of people will benefit from this.

(How many big companies have set up business in Scotland over the past twenty years, to take advantage of tax breaks and inward investment incentives, only to pull out again as soon as their advantage has expired?)

Rather, we should be in the business of seeking economic partnerships that lead to real and tangible improvements in our current  practices, out of which new ideas, technologies, or processes should begin to emerge, that we can then utilise and exploit, both for our own, and for our economic partner’s, long term growth and development.

This is the type of view we need to take; and if we don’t, questions would need to be asked about who has actually been in control in the development of our globalisation strategy. We need to ask what motives and factors have come into play in seeking out specific partners, who stands to gain most from the deals, and why?

At the time, it felt obvious to blame the recession and the subsequent decline in recruitment opportunities in my market. It felt obvious to say that the intensifying credit crunch meant that many companies were less willing to spend money on what they perceived to be very expensive recruitment agency fees and this meant that I wouldn’t be able to make the money I needed to make; it felt obvious to say that if companies were making redundancies in large numbers, what chance would my recruitment business stand? It was a no-brainer, surely?   

 However, hindsight has taught me to think differently about it and looking back I have learned from the experience. The recession did play a very significant part in the slow down in my business – but what I have since learned is that it played a significant part only in the sense that I let it happen…because I didn’t have the experience to deal with the changes in the economy; and what this tells me is that my limited business experience was exposed by the recession in a way it may not have been had I set out my stall in a slightly different way from the beginning. At the time my instincts were telling me to:

• Cut staff costs by making redundancies
• Cut as many other overheads as possible
• Work harder and make more cold calls
• Negotiate discounts everywhere
• Spend money redesigning my logo and getting a new website
• Attend more networking events (but only if they were free)

 I know now that some of the steps I took to try to safeguard my business were on the right lines, but wrongly applied; whereas others just smacked of desperation. I was absolutely right to closely monitor my cash flow – which I did with a passion, but almost to the point where I was reluctant to spend any money; and I was absolutely right to think about my brand and how I was marketing my services – which I did, but got it wrong and actually wasted money in the process; and of course I was absolutely right to work harder – which I did, but worked harder doing more of the things that weren’t working in the first place!

So I had a rough idea about what I should have been concentrating on, but not enough of an idea to get it right at the time. Without going into too much boring detail, here are some of the lessons that were hammered home to me by the recession:           

•  Build a strong brand with a clear and consistent message – this would have enabled me to create a reason why candidates and clients should have been working with me exclusively, rather than with my competitors, thus differentiating myself in an over-crowded market place – there are various tools and techniques available to achieve this, which I didn’t maximise at the time…
• Take a strategic approach to market diversification – strategically diversifying into stronger and emerging markets would have enabled me to spread the risk, whilst being careful not to appear to be diluting my value within any given market sector; whereas my approach to diversification wasn’t as measured as it should have been – unfortunately, I followed the crowd and panic pushed me here, there and everywhere…   
• Take the time to ensure that my clients really understood and perceived the value of my services – this would have helped maintain good business levels, despite the fact that many clients were also being very careful with their own cash – but as I lost faith in the market, I struggled to find a way of communicating the true value of my services…
• Think about ways of being more innovative – again, this would have helped to differentiate my services in an over-crowded market; but rather than keep it simple, I spent too much time trying to be too clever (and hence why I struggled with the point above) – I realised too late that ‘innovative’ does not need to mean ‘ground-breaking’…

So that was my first business experience and I’ve learned a lot, thanks to the recession.  

Here’s to my next one…

It went something like this: spend days cold calling for vacancies (or if I was lucky enough, a previous client would phone up or email a vacancy); I would then hastily write a quick advert using a standard format (used by the vast majority of recruiters); post the advert on one or more jobsites at quite considerable cost; sit back and wait for candidates to notice the advert and hope that they were interested enough to apply; notice half an hour later that the same vacancy had been posted by half a dozen other recruiters; hope against hope that the better candidates would send their CV to me rather than one – or all – of the others; a few days later wonder why my inbox was still empty or had been bombarded with unsuitable CVs, or CVs of candidates who had already applied via one of the many other agencies working on the vacancy; if I was lucky enough to get the better candidates first, I would then email the client with a covering note saying ‘please find attached….’, and sit back again and wait whilst they selected their preferred candidate(s) from my short list.

What is wrong with this approach is that it is (i) untargeted (ii) reactive (iii) largely ineffective (iv) very expensive (v) not very rewarding as a career. Thankfully I was then introduced to the good practice of selling retained recruitment projects, rather than fighting for scraps at the contingency end of the market; and this helped to eliminate many of the woes associated with the better candidates being lost to the many other agencies working on the vacancy at the same time. But what it didn’t necessarily eliminate was the problem of attracting the better candidates, the cream of the market, in the first place – it would be perfectly normal to introduce four or five ‘suitable’ candidates to a client and sell their skills and knowledge in a way that would convince the client to interview and recruit one of them. The biggest issue, therefore, turned out not to be whether I had managed to secure the vacancy exclusively; rather, the biggest issue was that I still hadn’t found the right way to tap into the network of the industry’s top performing individuals, motivate them to work with me as a consultant, and think about applying for this particular opportunity.

So what does this have to do with the ideas contained in David Meerman Scott’s book? One of the ideas I have taken from his book is that businesses need to think about developing a marketing strategy using various social media tools and techniques that ultimately position the business as a thought leader – primarily through publishing content that specifically targets its niche market (and various buyer personas therein).

As far as recruitment consultants are concerned, what I would take from this is that the hard work has already started in earnest long before working on a retained project with a client – it requires consultants to be continually working to demonstrate their knowledge and expertise within the market sectors in which their preferred candidates are working through publishing content on the web that appeals to their specialist interests. And this idea can be unpacked further to say that rather than waiting until a vacancy comes in and then going out and trying to hit it lucky by posting an advert on a generic job site, recruiters should be continually working away on building their personal brand and creating their image as experts in their sector. Some of the ways in which this could be achieved include:

• Define your niche market sector and carefully think about the different types of candidate you want to attract and what specific interests they may have
• Attract the best performers in your sector by publishing content on an ongoing basis (blogs, videos, podcasts, news articles, etc) to appeal to their specialist interests, thereby demonstrating your expertise in their sector and professionalism in recruitment and selection
• Be more interactive and engage directly with your candidates through social media sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin, to answer specific questions of interest and at the same time infuse your consultancy with the personality it may otherwise lack as a faceless agency
• Build a personal profile and create a brand that the top performers want to be associated with
• Pull them into the recruitment process and motivate them to take action by offering compelling and exclusive opportunities, rather than advertising ‘just another vacancy’ shared by every other agency
• Gain automatic referrals as a result of your expertise and professionalism and thereby begin to tap in to the massive passive candidate market that is out of reach of most other consultants who waste much of their time and company profit working the contingency market  

In summary, attracting the best performers in the industry is the lifeblood of recruitment and many recruiters (including me) have made the mistake of using ineffective and very expensive processes to do this; ultimately it was always bound to fail as a strategy – even if, by chance, on the odd occasion, it happened to work. Elements of a better process would therefore include:

• Identify and define your niche market, including the personalities and interests of the top performing candidates that you want to attract
• Develop a powerful social media strategy to demonstrate your expertise, and hence find and attract the best performers in the industry from the outset, rather than play the reactive game played by the majority of recruiters
• Develop an approach to selling retained recruitment projects so that you can offer your top performers a compelling and exclusive opportunity – a reason why they, their colleagues, and their wider network, have to come to you to secure their next move

Scotland has been a leader in the European Oil & Gas industry for the past 40 years and is also currently at the forefront of our rapidly developing energy industry, including Power Generation & Transmission, Renewable Energy and Clean Technologies. On a global scale, Aberdeen compares to Houston in Texas as a centre of excellence for upstream Oil & Gas expertise.

Around 39 billion barrels of oil and gas have been produced in the past 40 years and it is estimated that there is another 25 billion left, so the industry should remain strong for many years to come. The industry in Scotland provides employment for over 190,000 skilled people and boasts employers such as BP Amoco, Chevron, Shell, Marathon Oil, Exxon Mobil and Subsea 7.

Scotland’s strengths in the Oil & Gas industry include:

• Subsea engineering
• Drilling, down-hole and well technology
• Production and process management
• Education and training
• Research and development

Oil & Gas Decommissioning

During the next two decades, a major decommissioning programme will begin, as the industry begins the process of closing down and removing many of the off shore installations that have been in operation throughout the past 40 years or so. There are around 284 installations and 940 wells to be decommissioned during the next decade, including large installations with concrete substructures and steel platforms, and some smaller ones, the majority of which will need to be completely removed from the seabed and dismantled on shore. 

Key activities are likely to include: jacket removal; topside removal; wells plugging and abandonment. It is expected that somewhere in the region of £27 Billion will be spent on decommissioning during the next 40 years, and around £9 Billion over the next decade, with this decade’s activity and spend peaking between 2015 and 2017. 

Decommissioning will generate new training and employment opportunities as it throws up a whole range of new challenges, including technical; financial; legal; environmental, health and safety. However, the decommissioning sector in its infancy – there is limited decommissioning knowledge and experience in Scotland and therefore this will need to be addressed in order to meet the requirements of the industry in the coming years.

Whilst some of these skills may be delivered directly by Scotland, starting with up-skilling and cross training many of the highly skilled individuals in the industry at it currently stands, many more of the skills may need to be sourced and brought in from various overseas locations. Either way, it looks like a massive challenge and I think it will present a massive opportunity for Universities and Colleges, private training providers and specialist search and selection recruiters. It may also generate opportunities for many SME’s and self-employed contractors to enter the market as legal, financial, or health and safety consultants to the larger companies. Some of the key skills likely to be in demand include:

• Project Management
• Contracts Management
• Procurement & Logistics Professionals
• Environmental, Health & Safety Management
• Project & Cost Accountants
• Risk Assessors