Posted in Candidates, career advice, Charity Work, Clients, Jobseeker Advice

9^th November 2011

Senior hiring executives have been sharing their thoughts with Delyth Evans, CEO of our charity partner, ‘Dress for Success’ as to what makes a great candidate.

It seems that the received wisdom amongst those in the hiring hot seat is that it’s your attitude and enthusiasm in an interview that can transform you from a ‘maybe’ to a ‘must-hire’.

It’s a viewpoint which our own experience in PR recruitment supports. Having the mindset for success is the most important foundation for success in any job and clients who recognise this are rewarded with a better hire than those who simply focus on skill sets, experience or, even worse, more subjective reasons.

Here are some other things that we, recruiting companies and clients look for at interview (you may be surprised).

What’s Hot

• Employers and recruiters, generally speaking, don’t judge people solely on their CV, firstly because the CV may be embellished or skewed but also because two sides of A4 aren’t a true reflection of a candidates’ overall ability.

• Many employers only focus on the first half of a CV, so make sure that your personal and career history is given priority and compels the reader to want to know more.

• A candidate’s age is far less important than their attitude and outlook on life.

• Candidates who have taken a career break, most commonly taking time out to raise a family, aren’t precluded from the hiring process – far from it.  The important thing is that the candidate can relate transferable skills learned during this time to the job role in question, such as organisational skills, time-keeping and budgeting for example.

What’s Not

• Attitude may be all important, but make sure it’s the right kind. A negative attitude, even a hint of one, has only one outcome – ‘one strike and you’re out!’ regardless of skill set or experience.

• A candidate who goes to interview without knowing what the job entails or what the company does will not succeed. Do your research!

• Senior candidates who have fixed or set ideas.  Being able to demonstrate flexibility, team spirit and a desire to continue professional growth even at the highest levels will always be more appealing to clients than those who think they ‘know it all’ already.

• Senior level professionals who forget they need to ‘sell’ themselves and demonstrate their value as they’re used to their advice being taken and not questioned

• Employers rightly expect the candidate to be motivated to get that particular job. A candidate who indicates that their motivation is solely financial is not going to be successful. “I just want a job, I don’t really care what it is” will never win interviewing hearts over, either!

Posted in Candidates, career advice, Charity Work, Clients, General News, Jobseeker Advice

Posted on 13th October 2011

As champions of best practice, we like to give credit where credit is due. Given the government’s desire to create the ‘Big Society’ and with less than a year to go before the Olympics, we wondered just how engaged the PR industry is with volunteering – a central tenet of corporate social responsibility.

The benefits of volunteering – to society and to the forward-thinking companies who put their money-where-their-mouth-is are manifold.

Christian Marroni, Head of Global Media Relations at the legal firm, Freshfields,  says: “Our CSR programmes have shown to provide our people with job satisfaction, motivation and a real sense of achievement.”

Whilst Freshfields CSR activities include helping developing countries tackle issues such as poverty, child mortality and climate change by providing pro bono advice and work to Save the Children and Oxfam for example, closer to home the firm’s investment programme of 50,000 hours of collective community and pro bono work – in which an impressive 39% of staff have been involved – has, in Christian’s own words, made ‘tremendous differences’ to the causes the firm supports.

“Since 2001, our ‘Ready for Work’ programme has provided 180 homeless clients with work placements at the firm, 45% of whom have gone on to gain full time employment, 15 of them at Freshfields itself.”

It’s clear that for Freshfields, their CSR programme is a win-win, for the beneficiaries and for their own employees’ continuing professional development.

“Such activities are a good way to met colleagues and can help develop skills such as adaptability, communication and leadership,” he says.

The award-winning boutique PR company, Threepipe, provides another shining example of a company embracing the benefits of volunteering, allowing every member of staff two extra days a year to devote to their cause of choice. As part of their vision to become the best place to work in the industry, the company signed up to LeapCR, an innovative online volunteering platform which helps and encourages all staff to find fundraising and volunteering activities they would like to support.

Alishia Chitolie, junior account executive says, “I think it’s great that Threepipe encourages us to get involved in volunteering, and I especially love the fact that we’re allowed extra time off work to make it happen. I think it sends a message that they care about their staff and about helping to give something back to the community, and it’s really rewarding for the team members to get involved.”

We also know from our own experience at The Works just how mutually rewarding volunteering can be. Since 2010, we’ve been involved with ‘Dress for Success’, a rapidly growing charity which works to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, interview training and a network of support and career development tools to help women thrive. Our consultants volunteer to conduct interview training sessions and provide practical career advice on helping them get back on the career ladder.

Sarah Leembruggen, the Work’s co-founder, says: “We come back buzzing from our days at Dress for Success and when we are told that the woman we have trained have secured a job, partly thanks to our training, you can’t help but smile.  We have made a real difference in someone’s future.”

Posted in Candidates, Charity Work, Clients, General News

Looking back over 2010 and there’s been several things (not all work related) that we’ve been particularly proud of:

Significantly expanding our in-house client list, working with prestigious companies including Sainsbury’s, John Lewis, ITN, Waitrose, CB Richard Ellis, Baker Tilley, Ernst & Young and PA Consulting, amongst others.

Recruiting several more first class consultants and welcoming back Sarah Barnes, who chose to rejoin us after going travelling and is now doing a storming job heading up executive hires.

The Works baby (OK, we can’t claim full responsibility, but we’re thrilled all the same)

The Works engagement (again, not entirely our doing but we’re suckers for romance. And champagne.)

Sponsoring the CIPR’s corporate and finance events.

Being sought out as industry commentators on key recruitment trends by PR Week, GorkanaPR and PRmoment, for example.

Continuing our love affair with all things chocolate. It’s a hard job, but someone’s got to do it…

Moving offices to accommodate our expanding team– and hanging all our pictures straight.

Handling a 400% rise in candidate applications earlier in the year, and another huge rise in August.

But perhaps most of all, it’s been our involvement with the Dress for Success not-for-profit charity which has given us the most satisfaction.

For those of you unfamiliar with the charity, Dress for Success works to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, interview training and a network of support and career development tools to help women thrive. Worthy beneficiaries come from a wide range of backgrounds including graduates, asylum-seekers, returning mothers to those recovering from illness or marital breakdowns.

As recruitment consultants, we felt that our experience could be of particular benefit to those women the charity seeks to help. In the past couple of months, we’ve been running interview training and seen first hand the great work they do. Lost confidence and low self-esteem as much as a lack of appropriate interview / on-the-job clothing seems to be the largest hurdle to overcome, so we’ve been trying to get women back on their professional feet by allowing them to recognise their self worth and potential, distil their life and work experience into a work-friendly package and overall, ‘sell themselves’ to an employer.

“It’s wonderful to see them go out smiling”, said Sarah returning to the office after an interview training session.

As well as continuing our commitment to interview training and support in 2011 (all our consultants are willing volunteers), we also need your help.

Because the charity relies solely on private support, we’re undertaking an on-going clothing and accessories drive to ensure that they always have the means to dress the deserving women they work so hard to help. So, if you have any ‘interview-worthy’ clothes, shoes, bags or jewellery which you would like to donate, perhaps after a New Year spring clean or following an ill-fitting or poorly chosen Christmas gift, we would be more than happy to pass these on for you. Just bring them into our office at: 52-54 Brook Street, London, W1K 5DS.