What makes Hays a great place for me to work?

Hays Ireland are endorsed by the Great Place to Work Institute as a 'Best Workplace 2013', so I thought I’d let you know what makes Hays a great place for me to work.

I've just passed the sixth anniversary of my first day in Hays. Do most people remember the date when they started a job?  Up until then, I wouldn't have had a notion of the dates I started in other companies, but I guess I subconsciously knew this one would be special.

Six years is a long time to stay in a company in today’s culture. Up until that last week in September 2007, the longest I had spent in one job was two years. For a number of reasons, including freelancing, I was like the ‘Littlest Hobo’, turning up somewhere for a while, then moving on. I worked in a wide variety of marketing roles in all sorts of companies and was fortunate to have only one bad experience. However, I had a good feeling about Hays from the moment the consultant rang me about my application.

Even my two interviews, with the MD and another director, were enjoyable experiences. And I must add this was not something I usually felt in interviews. On my first day, throughout my first week and through what I call ‘the full bedding in period’ (six months), everyone was really friendly and supportive. I was waiting for the catch - the horrible department or the nasty colleagues who had been putting on smiley faces because I was new – it didn't come.

I’m lucky, in that I really enjoy what I do as a career. In Hays, I got a chance to put all my skills to the test, which was great. I also have a boss, the MD, who really values marketing as a function and values my input, to the point I was invited to join the senior management team a few years ago. Couple this with the friendly, supportive staff and you have an environment where I was looking forward to get back to work after my honeymoon. And that is in no way a reflection on the relationship with my lovely wife!

As I mentioned before, I've worked in a lot of companies and one thing I've learned over the years is that the salespeople are always the kings and queens of the company, as they bring home the bacon. In my view sales is completely complimented by marketing, but I’m pragmatic enough to know which one most companies prioritise.

To be honest, my biggest fear when I was deciding on whether to join Hays, was working in a company comprising 80% sales staff. I had worked with sales people before and my friends and family had told me some interesting stories from their own companies about these brash, rude, ego types. That’s not my experience with Hays. Maybe it’s because it’s their mission to find the right person to transform an organisation and the right job to change someone’s life, that our sales people are incredibly warm and friendly, whether juniors just learning the ropes, or directors with over a decade in the job.

But yet they are still sales people, which means they need a certain environment to thrive – targets and rewards. I've always understood this, which is why I never had an issue organising prizes for incentives schemes that included exotic safaris and the US Open tennis final in New York. The way I looked on it was, if I wanted those types of prizes, I’d need to do that type of job.

Nonetheless, other non-sales staff had a different view, some felt as though they were inferior members of the company. When the task was set by my MD to analyse this view and how we could rectify it, I put my hand up for the project team.

So a team of marketing, finance and administration staff set about devising a survey to understand the needs of people who worked outside the sales function and began the journey to rectify it.

For just over a year now, we have been running the ‘Hays Ireland Ladders Programme’. Devised for all non-sales staff, it is a scheme for recognition and reward. It is available for all members of the company to say thanks to someone in HR, administration, finance, facilities or marketing, who has went above and beyond the call of duty to help them out.

It comprises a Ladder of three Steps. It starts with the process of making a nomination. For example, I can nominate a member of any team, including my own. The proposal is then reviewed by a non-biased party for suitability. Upon approval, the nominee receives a mail informing them they have a Step on the Ladder, the mail includes why the nominator thinks that person deserves a Step and the nominee’s manager is cced on the mail.

On Step 2 of the Ladder, the process above is replicated, but the recipient gets a treat of their choosing, worth up to €25. On Step 3 of the Ladder, there is the added bonus of a luxury meal with other staff members and entry into one of the incentive scheme draws, in this case, a glamorous trip to Paris for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe horse-race. After Step 3, it reverts back to Step 1, where you start building for your second ticket into the draw.

There was much excitement when the six names were pulled from the tombola in June and since then I have been beavering away, organising the trip. Then one of the lucky winners had to pull out at the last minute, so we got the opportunity to draw a new name.

This is where it gets a bit awkward. I am eligible for the Ladders Programme and was fortunate enough to get three nominations that were approved. However, with my involvement on the organisational side of the Ladders Programme and the prize, I didn't feel right putting my name into the hat.

And sure wouldn't you know, my name got pulled out of the blooming hat! I felt incredibly uncomfortable with it all, but that was eased by the fantastic support of people throughout the company. It would have been easy to shout ‘fix’ but they cheered my name and sent me congratulations - staff across the company, from junior to senior. And that to me is what makes Hays a great place to work!

Anyone have any tips for Sunday??                                                                                                  Tweet

Stephen Flanagan
Senior Marketing Manager

Ireland

HAYS Recruiting experts worldwide
16 Fitzwilliam Street Upper
Dublin 2

T: +353 1 619 0580
F: +353 1 670 4738　
E: stephen.flanagan@hays.com

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Hays is the Official Recruitment Partner of Manchester City Football Club.

Hays Ireland is proud to be endorsed by the Great Place to Work Institute as a 'Best Workplace 2013'. Click here for more.

Career Zoo goes wild!

It’s been a couple of weeks since the third and most successful Career Zoo, the job fair for professionals. It was amazing! Firstly, the standard of the companies who participated rose considerably, check them here. A full range of industries were represented – healthcare, IT, telecoms, pharmaceutical, finance, manufacturing, management consultancy and retail. And there was an excellent choice of education establishments.

A big draw was the skills conversion courses offering new career opportunities for professionals. In just 6-12 months these courses allow individuals to retrain, free of charge, into a growth sector like software development, cloud computing or pharmaceuticals. I think these courses would offer a fantastic opportunity for those who are coming from the toughest industries like construction, architecture and engineering. Interestingly, we just did our own survey on skills conversion in the IT sector, which produced very good news for jobseekers (IT Skills Conversion Survey Results)

With such a stellar line up it was no surprise that the attendees went through the roof. It’s estimated over 10,000 people turned up over the two days. To be honest it felt like all 10,000 were there on the Saturday. There was a queue from the Mansion House all the way down Dawson Street late into the afternoon! I felt bad for the people who had to queue, but for health and safety reasons the staff at the Mansion House needed to manage the numbers. I hope that everyone got some value at the event after patiently waiting. Our stand was completely packed with a wide range of professional s offering their CVs and asking for advice. It fact it took a week just to get through the hundreds of CVs we received and contact the applicants.

The Career Clinic we hosted on behalf of Career Zoo was again a huge success and the walk-in slots were snapped up within the first hour on both days. I personally dealt with five, very talented individuals who welcomed the advice on their CVs, interview preparation and career strategy. However, I was surprised at how some of the attendees prepared for Career Zoo. It’s not very often you get a chance to have a face-to-face conversation with a potential employer before application. It’s a fabulous opportunity for people to make an impression and let all the great employers attending know that they should seriously consider them for a job. Nonetheless, it was only a minority who dressed formally. In fact there was one gentlemen with “Who’s your daddy” emblazoned across a t-shirt. You could argue it’s perfectly fine in the IT sector to dress casually to meet potential employers who might want to interview you, but I personally would have erred on the cautionary side and dressed conservatively.

In addition, it was quite common to meet people who did not bring CVs or who had ran out of copies. It seemed strange to me, that people would be content to queue for 20 minutes to get into the event, but not have carried out prior preparation. There can’t be too many events that gather companies of that calibre into one room wanting to hire people. I received CVs with addresses scribbled out on them, some missing numbers and one even missing a name! You can be sure, that the attendees who did their homework beforehand – researched the companies attending and the jobs available, produced well prepared and tailored CVs, dressed for a proper interview, tried to make an impression on the employers attending – would have been the first to get a call, or might even have secured an interview on the spot.

Overall, I think most people - exhibitors and attendees- got some real value out of the event and I believe there have already been hires. Credit to the organisers who have been able to build a bigger and better event than they had previously. Here’s looking forward to the next Career Zoo!

Stephen is responsible for the marketing and communications for Hays Ireland including the website, PR and social media. He is a member of the Marketing Institute of Ireland and is passionate about the development of marketing through new technologies.

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E: stephen.flanagan@hays.com

P: 01 8972481
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Job creation in the cloud

Cloud computing is a hot topic at the moment. The media suggest it will be integral to the whole IT industry in the future but what does this mean for job creation in Ireland?

Over the last few months I’ve read a number of articles and reports and attended a number of industry events on cloud computing. Since I recruit in the IT sector, I want to know – How many jobs will cloud computing create in Ireland? What type of jobs? And how do we train our current and future workforce for them?

Globally, cloud computing is still in its infancy.  We have cloud based organisations and talent based in Ireland and there is an opportunity for us to be global leaders in the cloud. The recent Goodbody report, concludes that by 2014 cloud computing sales by Irish firms could reach €9.5 billion per annum and provide 8,600 jobs as current IT activities migrate to the cloud, with a further 2,000 jobs being created in SME’s in the supply chain.

Alan Cooney from EMC recently spoke on their company’s journey into the private cloud. Alan shared his view on the roles that will still be important as we immerse ourselves into the cloud, these include: Systems, Storage, Backup and Recovery, Data Center Networks and Security. However there will be a large number of new positions to serve the Virtual Infrastructure Management and Virtual Infrastructure Architecture areas, these will include: Cloud Architect, Cloud Administrator, Capacity Planner and IT Automation Engineer.

So, in the next three years over 8,000 jobs will be created, including roles that don’t even exist at the moment. How do we make sure that we have the people to fill these new roles? We have over 440,000 people on the live register, many of whom are educated to degree level, but are out of work due to the downturn in their chosen sector. What about a government initiative to re-train out-of-work engineers and other professionals for IT jobs?

 I recently heard a pre-dinner speech from Gerard Kilcommins, President of the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland which summed up how the future generation should be thinking- “It is all about education and encouraging the next generation to pursue degrees that lead in to the jobs of the future and in turn give Ireland a future in this exciting area.”

Equally important is the upskilling of the current IT professionals. Are they considering how they will transition their experience and training to enhance their own potential in this evolving process? They would need to, or they may get left behind.

The challenge of retraining Ireland

A couple of weeks ago I spent a weekend at the Career Zoo event at the Mansion House in Dublin, giving career advice to a broad range of qualified people as part of the Career Clinic which was ran by Hays. We were absolutely inundated with requests for appointments from graduates, people currently in work and those who had lost their jobs due to the economic down turn.

The event was a real eye opener for me, as I normally only deal with the corporate market - which is pretty robust. It made me realise that there are a lot of people out there who are desperate to work, but have been failed by institutions like FAS who aren’t offering adequate career advice. For example, a PHD graduate I met was told to go and do a bookkeeping course!

In many cases these qualified individuals just didn’t know where to start. The first question that most of them asked me was– “Where are the jobs at the moment?”

The answer is that we are seeing skills shortages in IT, financial services and jobs within the multinational companies that require a second language – in particular, French, German, Dutch or any of the Nordic languages.

The next question a lot of people asked was how they can get into these sectors, when all of their experience is in Engineering, Architecture, Law or Construction? Or how do they get a career leaving college now? Most of them are very despondent as they see the transition into a new profession too big a hurdle.

Engineers, Solicitors and Architects are certainly intelligent people, with transferable skills and if they can’t find work in Ireland they will leave the country. So what’s the solution? I believe the next government needs to invest in these professionals and provide training for the sectors where the future looks bright. I don’t know how we can implement it, that’s a job for our leaders. But I do know it needs done and urgently.

For the graduates, there is a genuine shortage of jobs resulting in a surplus of educated people on the market. Most organisations didn’t run a graduate scheme in 2009 or they took graduates in reduced volumes to previous years. So they need to make themselves more employable - look at the sectors where there are skills shortages and study a related degree or masters. There needs to be a real push on learning a second European language. In fact it should be given the prominence in schools that Irish is given as it will significantly increase long term job opportunities and make Ireland an even smarter economy. Third level students who study courses with an internship should try and do this in a foreign speaking environment and apply their language as soon as they leave college.

We currently have a high unemployment rate of 13.6%, however we also have skills shortages in a lot of areas. We need to be able to retrain our experienced, highly skilled people so that they can thrive in Ireland as opposed to overseas and we need to create a mechanism to make this happen. Finally, we need to review the career advice for secondary and tertiary level students so they are better equipped to find work in the next decade.

A career in recruitment for grads - how to get from 300 to 8!

We recently participated in the graduate careers day in the Smurfit Business School. I really enjoyed having a chance to chat with the students about their career hopes and expectations. The main reason we were at Smurfit was to talk to students interested in a career in recruitment and to tell them all about our grad programme and what Hays has to offer. We had six grads start with us recently and three of them had completed master’s degrees in Smurfit. We thought we might get a head start on next summer’s grad intake.

The day was a great success. There were four of us in attendance from Hays. Myself, our marketing exec Caroline Kelly, business manager Sean O’Kane and trainee consultant (Smurfit Graduate Siobhain Smyth). I’m certainly glad there were the four, because there was a lot of attention around our stand and it wasn’t because of free sweets! We were providing something a lot more useful: advice on CV preparation, interview preparation tips and sharing our market knowledge. The advice went down a storm.

It was fantastic to meet so many young people with lots of potential and enthusiasm and for me the best thing about the day was getting a chance to speak to the students about a career in recruitment. I started with Hays over ten years ago and love the excitement and challenge of the industry. For some it was the first time they’d considered recruitment as a career and for many after speaking with us they realised that it was a career that ticked all the right boxes for them: best-in-industry training, excellent career development opportunities, a world leader in our field in 25 countries. But most importantly the role of a recruitment consultant is one that truly gives you a fantastic well rounded grounding in business.

Our grad programme this year has already been a great triumph. We had six talented trainees start with us in August and they are doing fantastically well. Right now we are in the process of selecting another eight ambitious individuals to begin their career with us in January 2011. We’ve had an amazing response, hundreds of cvs and I’ve personally spoken with nearly 100 of these individuals. So what can you do to improve your chances of going from one of 300 applicants to being one of the final 8? What will make you stand out?

Top Tips

• Always know what you’re applying for. I found that some people I spoke with weren’t quite sure of what it was they’d applied for – obviously not good! So don’t blast your cv around to any job that has “grad” in the title.
• Make sure your cv is relevant for the job and of high quality and supply a cover letter for every job, it really makes a difference.
• Don’t assume. Do your research on the job. Too many people I spoke with thought that recruitment was solely a HR job and hadn’t properly researched and considered all the other aspects to the role.
• Enthusiasm: You need to convince us that you are committed to the job as a career and are excited about it, enthusiasm goes a long way.