The Interim Option

April 30th, 2012

The Interim Option

There is no doubt that the recession has hit everyone hard.  Companies have been forced to close, reduced their workforce or have had to enforce recruitment/pay freezes.  Many skilled people are finding themselves unemployed for the first time in years and struggling to make ends meet.  A newly advertised marketing vacancy often brings in over 100 applications making competition for each marketing job tougher than ever.  It’s a difficult time for everyone, but enough of the doom and gloom!  We are pleased to say, there is a way – a solution for both companies and marketing professionals – that offers an alternative option for the resourcing of a marketing team using interim marketers.

For companies, using interim marketing staff for your marketing department is an ideal solution in the current economic climate.  It may be that you just have a project that you need short term additional help with.  You may just want to recruit someone for your marketing team without a big commitment to help you manage your budget.  Interim resourcing is also a good way to ‘try before you buy’.  With tight budgets, it’s less of a risk to recruit interim marketing staff so you can see how they work before you commit to a permanent contract. Whatever your needs, if you’re looking for someone to work in your marketing department (at whatever level), then using interim staff is an ideal solution. 

For marketing professionals looking for work, competition is massive for each and every new role.  Working as interim marketing staff is an ideal way to get in front of companies and show them what you can do.  It’s another way to get your foot through the door.  It also offers flexibility if you have your sights set on a different role somewhere else, but need to work in the meantime – without a big or long term commitment.

Give Headliners a call if your company’s looking to increase the marketing workforce on an interim / temporary basis.  You can reach us by email via client@headlinersgroup.com or speak to one of our senior consultants on telephone: 01189 123 100 (Thames Valley & Home Counties) or 0207 100 5477 (London).  We look forward to hearing from you.

www.headlinersgroup.com

Posted in Interim Marketing | No Comments »

Always look on the bright side of life…

April 24th, 2012

Always look on the bright side of life…

 (Now try not to have that song in your head all day long!) 

“Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort” Franklin D. Roosevelt

There’s been so much doom and gloom about lately, but we believe 2012 is an exciting and positive year in the United Kingdom.  The sun came out nice and early in March for a while, we’re proudly hosting the Olympics, there’s the Queens Diamond Jubilee (with a bonus bank holiday on 5th June) and to top it all off, Engelbert Humperdinck is our Eurovision entry, so what’s not to celebrate!?

So, we thought a positive, happy and upbeat blog would be in order. 

Now, work may get you down from time to time, but there’s no excuse not to be happy!  Here are some ways to find happiness there too:

  1. Make yourself the baker – spread happiness by baking cakes / biscuits and taking them into the office.  Always a welcome idea in the Headliners’ office!  (See point 6 as well if you are going to do this!)
  2. Play Corporate Bingo.  Write down a list of, say, 10 things that you expect to happen in a day at the office (good or bad).  This could be ‘Bob’ wearing another brown shirt, your boss saying a corporate lingo phrase…  As they happen, cross them off your ‘Bingo’ card! (Just don’t shout out ‘Bingo’ if you get them all – people may think you’re strange!)
  3. Get everyone together and do something positive by arranging a sponsored event for charity.  It’s always nice to do something good for others – makes you feel good and makes someone else happy – win, win.
  4. Decorate your desk and brighten it up (if you are allowed to of course!)
  5. Have something booked in the diary to look forward to after you finish a long hard day at work – meeting up with friends, meal out, the gym or the cinema for example.
  6. Get off the bus a stop early or cycle into work to get that extra happiness boost from a bit of exercise – or go for a walk at lunch time.  (Helps if you choose to make the most of point 1 above!)

Now for some facts about happiness:

  1. It takes more energy to frown than to smile this may be because there are 37 muscles necessary to frown and 22 to smile.
  2. Awkward Moments, Cats and Babies are the leading cause of smiles.
  3. The chances of winning the lottery can be greater than being struck by lighting. Lottery players might be delighted to hear that 44 people die each year due to lighting.
  4. A good mood has a distinct smell.  (No more waiting to see what mood someone is in then apparently!)
  5. Much as we may dig our heels in against it, doing exercise has been proved to boost your happiness.
  6. Denmark is reported to be the happiest nation in the world (then Malta, Switzerland, Iceland, Ireland and Canada)
  7. Having 100-200 belly laughs a day is the equivalent of a high impact workout, burning off up to 500 calories.
  8. Having a pet can reduce stress – increasing health and happiness.
  9. Happiness is contagious – You can ‘catch’ happiness by seeing people smiling or laughing for example.  Here’s how to be happy about a job rejection letter by the way:

 www.youtube.com/embed/RP4abiHdQpc – simple pleasures!

 10. Watching animals may result in a few laughs and a feeling of unexpected happiness:

www.youtube.com/embed/SuhMtBHc5Z0

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=IytNBm8WA1c

Enjoy.

Posted in Interim Marketing, News and Views, Recruitment | No Comments »

Christmas Pudding Recipe

December 8th, 2011

Christmas isn’t that far away now and we’d like to share our Christmas Pudding recipe with you.  As the saying goes…”The proof of the pudding is in the eating”, so we challenge you to try it and let us know what you think!

Christmas Pudding Recipe

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ingredients:

12 cups (metric: years) – experience in marketing recruitment
1 cup of already satisfied clients
1kg of dedicated and specialist marketing recruitment consultants
A selection of interim and permanent contracts*
1/2 tsp flexibility
A pinch of knowledge and enthusiasm
100g chocolate (we like chocolate, what can we say – and it is Christmas!)
A partridge in a pear tree (optional)

(*Variations: CRM, e-CRM and direct marketing, Marketing communications, including brand management & internal comms, Online marketing, web/content management & digital/new media, Product marketing, category & product management, Strategy, planning & market development/analysis, Event management, Public/media/analyst relations.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Preparation Method:

Take the dedicated and specialist marketing recruitment consultants and mix with the experience in marketing recruitment.  Combine with already satisfied clients and add a selection of interim and permanent contracts (other variations include: Marketing directors, managers, executives).  Once these ingredients have all been thoroughly mixed together, dance around the kitchen to Christmas music singing into the wooden spoon, add the flexibility, knowledge and enthusiasm.

Serve and call 01189 123 100 (Thames Valley and Home Counties) or 0207 100 5477 (London) and talk to us about the marketing vacancy you are recruiting for.  Eat the chocolate.  Decorate with the partridge in the pear tree (optional).

Tags: , ,
Posted in News and Views | 1 Comment »

How to have the perfect relationship with your Recruitment Agency

November 22nd, 2011

So, you’re job hunting and you’ve decided to use a recruitment agency to help you find your next job.  Everyone obviously hopes for the ideal scenario – which is demonstrated in this simple formula:

(Candidate + Consultant) + Job + Interview + Job Offer = Happy Candidate + Happy Consultant

Surprisingly, things don’t always follow this pattern and it often boils down to the success of the relationship formed between the recruitment agent and the candidate.  We are sure you’ve often pondered how you could have a perfect relationship with your Recruitment Agency.  Well, now you can!

Any relationship is about balance, respect, trust and equality.

  1. Everyone needs to work together.  See it as a partnership, with everyone having the same ultimate goal in mind.
  2. Don’t just sign up with an agency, then assume you’ve handed over all responsibility to them to find you a job.  You need to work with them to help them find you a job.
  3. Once you’ve decided to use a recruitment agency, make sure you choose an appropriate agency for the type of work you are looking for.  There is no point sending out your CV en masse to agencies – an IT specialist agency isn’t going to have the marketing job you are looking for.  Have a look at the jobs as well as their clients and work out whether they are the right agency for you.  You shouldn’t spread yourself too wide with agencies either. Keep the number of agencies you register with to a sensible number.
  4. If you’re applying for a job online, try to apply for jobs you really want and are actually qualified or experienced enough to do.  It is a waste of your time, (and the recruitment agency’s time) to submit an application for a job you’re not able to do.
  5. Once you’ve applied, don’t keep ringing the agency every five minutes.  It’s perfectly acceptable to give them a call to check they have received your CV, but they will contact you when there is news to tell you – they’ll be as pleased as you are.
  6. If you are selected for an interview, make sure you go – or advise your consultant in plenty of time if you are unable to attend (or have changed your mind)!
  7. Once you’ve been to your interview, it’s always nice to give your recruitment consultant a call to let them know how you got on.  They’ve helped you get to interview, so it’s only fair for you to share the experience with them!
  8. Be honest with your recruitment agent throughough the process.  If you don’t like the sound of the job, let them know.  If you’ve got other irons in the fire, tell them.  If you get offered an interview and have doubts or change your mind, be upfront.  Everyone is working together.
  9. If you do get offered the job, keep your agent updated on how you are getting on.  It can sometimes be like reading a book and not having the last page and you never find out how the story ends.
  10. Send chocolates – they always go down well!  (No ulterior motive here of course, but if you insist on sending them to us, then we feel it’s only right to eat them!)

And there you have it.  The key to a successful working relationship with your Recruitment Consultant!

Headliners have a great track record of good relationships.  You don’t have to take our word for it though.  Check out the various quotes on our website to see what others have said about us.

Follow Headliners on Twitter

Tags:
Posted in News and Views, Recruitment | No Comments »

20 Things Candidates Hate

November 7th, 2011

They say there is a fine line between love and hate, so having the best possible Consultant-Candidate working relationship is definitely the way forward.  To help out, here are some of the things that drive candidates crazy:

  1. False adverts or adverts for expired jobs
  2. Not having their phone calls returned
  3. Being treated as a CV rather than a person
  4. Not getting feedback
  5. Having to chase for updates
  6. Having a consultant who doesn’t know their client well enough
  7. Having a consultant who isn’t listening to what they are looking for
  8. Receiving emails about jobs that aren’t relevant or suitable for what they are looking for (see 7 above)
  9. Not being honest
  10. Not hearing from the consultant again once the job has been offered
  11. Not being given information about the length interview (parking charges, other plans, returning to work)
  12. Being put forward to make up numbers rather than because it’s their ideal job
  13. Not being given information about who they are meeting for interview
  14. Asking why do you want this job when they’ve been headhunted
  15. Long drawn out interview processes with little feedback along the way
  16. Not being advised in advance that the interviewer will be late
  17. Seeing jobs on a job board they think they should be put forward for and not getting called
  18. People mis-reading their CV
  19. Not being advised of the dress code – turning up in a suit on their first day and everyone else is in jeans
  20. Not getting feedback (already mentioned, but it really is a big pet hate!)

By the way, we feel your pain, we hear your needs and we aim to please!  Here at Headliners, we will always try our very best to make sure we don’t do any of the things candidates hate, but there is, just maybe, an random and rare odd occasion where we aren’t perfect.  An occasion where we accidentally falter from perfection – please excuse if we do.  We are only human after all!

So, now we are all well on the way to a harmonious working relationship!

Good Luck!

Follow Headliners on Twitter

Tags: ,
Posted in Interim Marketing, News and Views | No Comments »

« Older Entries