Business Blog

It may still be tough out there, but it gives us a nice warm glow all over to know that we came out on top of a poll set up by Alastair Blair on his site The Potent Mix which asked the question “which is the most professional agency“.

When the poll was released I was slightly surprised to see us listed in the mix with most of the big players in the sector. We were by far and away the smallest agency, but it is perhaps because of that very fact that we did so well. When the results came out last week I was absolutely delighted to see the final list which not only put us on top… but showed that we were winners by a country mile. 

It’s a real accolade to the people here. We’ve always been open and above all honest with the media which pays huge dividends in all our dealings with them  – and I’m not just talking about an invite from the Guardian to Royal Birkdale either, although that is very nice thank you Helen!

Anyway, for those that wish to see the results click on http://thepotentmix.co.uk/page001.html

And finally a big thank you to all that voted for us… see you down the One Tun soon!





Now it may seem rather hypocritical of me to write this on a blog, but I’m suffering from an acute case of advice-a-phobia from too many opinions expressed over the social blogosphere.

Maybe there are too many industry folk with too much time on their hands? Or perhaps my brain is just too small to accommodate all this information? Or perhaps every other agency really does employ at least a dozen social networking experts? But it seems that the world and his virtual wife spend most of their time trying persuade us that they may know what the recruitment sector of the future is going to look like or that they have this social networking stuff cracked.

There are, of course, a number of very useful sites, blogs and newsletters that are worth the effort (The Buzz from careersiteadvisor is a very good window onto a number of useful posts) but one recent, deliberately provocative, posting on RI5 last month has shown exactly how much time people seem to spend now ‘talking the talk’, rather than dare I say – doing the job they’re paid to do.

It’s not the article that I take issue with. I’m sure Graham knew he’d provoke a debate. It’s the fact that it resulted in more band wagon jumping than in the days of the great Apache tribes. I’m delighted that so many people are so keen to share the secret of future business success, but so many conflicting opinions do rather showcase the industry’s insecurities rather than our confidence in the market.

And sadly I’m sure that it’s an accurate barometer of where we are as an industry at the moment. But perhaps if the doyens of the industry spent more time talking to their clients and simply responding to their needs, rather than scratching their itch for personal PR by lecturing to their peers, or donning the deerstalker to play Sherlock Holmes and go searching for clues in the great blogosphere – maybe we’d be somewhat closer to harnessing this bucking bronco of an industry.

Come to think of it, what are you doing reading this? Get on with some real work.

Here we go again. It seems that every time the Army picks up a recruitment award, the knives come out (and knives are rubbish against an army).

On Wednesday we were at the CIPD awards in London. We had two nominations; the Audit Commission for best website and Gift Fundraising for best campaign. We were delighted to have been nominated and knew we were up against the Army in both categories. It was no surprise when the Army won.

Inevitably this has created something of a debate on RI5. The argument roughly being that the Army has a multi-milllion pound budget, so it’s not a level playing field. The agency that won is a commercial agency, not ‘one of our own’. Boo hoo.

But at least someone cares. I’m not sure if I do.

My overriding feeling from the night was that our ‘traditional’ awards ceremonies have had their day. An awards process that predominantly recognises ‘creativity’ is bound to be subjective, yet we increasingly work in a totally measurable industry. As well as the basic requirement to get the right bum on the right seat we’re increasingly able to measure improvements in attrition levels, brand engagement etc etc.
Yet the best supported category, by a country mile, was the ‘press ad’ category. Is this because (as some have suggested) ‘press is not dead’? Or is it because the criteria used to judge these awards has its roots in this form of advertising, despite attempts to change. ‘Press’ is therefore still the easiest category to enter.

Our supping on Wednesday night should have felt like a bumper toast to new and innovative recruitment advertising. As we surveyed the numerous press entries it felt instead like a forlorn toast to ‘absent friends’.

And that’s a footie analogy, not a reference to Friday nights down the One Tun.
At the beginning of May we came runner up in the monthly RI5 awards for the website we designed and built for the Audit Commission. Very nice words said about it too.

And this month again we were the width of post away from scoring with Gift Fundraising’s new site.

The good news is we have a great campaign and microsite just gone live for Brookes Bell that might just make it third time lucky in July.

Good article recently posted on RI5 about the long-term problems associated with the current response volumes. It supports the argument for using an agency like WDAD to minimise quantity and maximise quality.

Recruiters should think very carefully before signing up for cheap deals using mass posting technology and aggretators. It takes minutes to post a job to multiple sites and years to repair a damaged brand.  

How poor recruitment practices can damage employer brands – Ri5.

Whilst doing a bit of PC spring cleaning I came across this list. It originates from OnlineMediaExperts (OME). We fully endorse their wise words. And even though job boards are not the only on-line game in town these days, it is still relevant and worth a reminder.

The overall point is that by investing that little bit extra in using a reputable third party to manage postings, a company or organisation can massively improve their ROI from their on-line budget. With more companies than ever offering multiple postings at knock down rates (see point 4), it’s possibly even more relevant now than when first written.

1. Writing ‘creative’ job titles

Remember that keywords are what count online, so go for the most obvious description going, otherwise you will appear way down the search results pages. Online, people are impatient and they skim read. So job titles need to be clear, intuitive and instantly understandable. This is not the time to get creative. If it’s a sales manager you’re looking for, don’t title the job ‘Business Development Co-ordinator’. There’s plenty of room to embellish the role and screen out unqualified applicants in the body copy. A good advertising agency will provide an off-line and on-line version of the ad when copywriting.

2. Loading jobs and leaving them there

To maximise your online investment, you’ll need to actively manage your campaign once it’s live. Most job boards allow you access to a back office so you can edit your vacancies. Use this to enhance adverts that aren’t performing, to subtly alter requirements if you’re not getting the right quality response and to delete jobs that are no longer live. If you can’t find time to do this, let someone else take the strain.

3. Using the same format across all sites

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking one size fits all. Monster’s search engine is different from fish4jobs’, which is different again from Jobsite’s. Find out how they differ and modify your adverts accordingly. It costs you nothing and will dramatically improve your results.

4. Falling for free trials

Online recruitment has matured. The best jobsites are well-established, wellmarketed, profitable enterprises. Very few of them offer free trials any more – despite the current market – because they don’t need to. If you follow the free trial trail, you will probably be left with the ugly duckling sites that are unlikely ever to turn into swans. Plus free trials do actually come at a price: set-up costs, internal resourcing and time spent
sifting irrelevant response. If you really want to save money, invest in understanding which sites work for your organisation and maximising your investment with them.

5. Not asking for proof

Anyone can set up a website. So what independent verification are the sites you use offering you? Is it ABCe, Noras or simply the salesperson’s wishful thinking? Good sites have audits and good clients demand this – how else are you supposed to properly profile the relevance of a site to align with your
requirements? Best practice in this area, looks at specific response stats rather than audience profiles

6. Reviewing rather than recruiting

Online recruitment is complex and moving so fast that it’s easy to get bogged down in reviewing your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) strategy, applicant tracking, online application and job posting processes, discussing a website redesign and much more. While all these processes are incredibly important, don’t let them get in the way of you getting on and actually migrating your recruitment activity online. By simply placing more vacancies online, you can drastically reduce your recruitment advertising costs and your reliance on costly recruitment consultancies. The basic USP of job boards is not at all complex: they are just a better and more efficient way to access the people you want to recruit, so get on and do it now.
What’s great about recruiting online is that it does not need to be daunting, incur huge expense or time. New things can be tested on a controlled level with minimum fuss. These tests will generate specific results that you can evaluate. As long as they make pleasant reading, you can simply keep stepping things up a gear.

7. Not matching the application to the applicant

Internet media is all about being able to access information swiftly and – in the case of online job hunting –being able to apply for a job with ease. If you don’t offer certain kinds of candidates this, they will quickly move on to something else. However, for clients, it’s all about finding a balance between screening out unqualified applicants and maximising response levels. The key is to match your application process to your applicant. Possibly it’s fair enough to ask a senior recruit to fill out a thirty minute online application
whereas, for a call centre vacancy you’d do better to give the applicant a short form, ask for an emailed CV or give a hotline number. Sounds straightforward but many organisations don’t find it so.

8. Not measuring, not tracking

Internet media can give you all the information you could ever want (plus loads you don’t) about the performance of your campaign. Make sure the relevant stats are followed through at your end. Out of the response you received, how many went through to interview, how many were hired. How does this cost per hire compare to recruitment via national, trade, local press or recruitment consultancies.

9. Believing Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is the answer

SEM should be used in conjunction with a well-presented, well-written careers website and natural search. Instead it’s often a sporadic activity dictated by budget availability. Then, when budget runs out, candidate awareness of your jobs dies with it. Always get expert advice in this area to avoid getting ripped off, a decent search engine marketer will never present SEM as a cure-all.

10. Waiting to be found by the right candidates

There are lots of ways to actively increase awareness of your online campaigns, rather than passively waiting to be found by candidates. Push email techniques is one good way to get your message and vacancies in front of your relevant audience directly. A well-designed html email will enable you to build your employer brand, boost response and get you straight onto a jobseeker’s desktop rather than relying on them finding you.

WDAD is 15 years old this year and we have asked Caireen Kennedy-Smith, the agency’s Production Manager and longest serving team member, to put mouse to mouse mat and recall some of her memories from years gone by.

Do let her know what you think …

…but don’t call her Kes.

(The full version of these posting will eventually find its way into our ‘About’ section on the right).

1996 – 1997
The blame all falls on my big sister. In an attempt to get me out of her flat she pointed out an advert for “Office Junior in Advertising Agency” in Midweek magazine (remember, the freebie one that came out along with Ms London and 9-5). A phone call, from one Samantha Ward came a week later, and included the conversation where she told me I was too over-educated for the role. But I won the day, with the argument that I could be as stupid as she wanted for the right money.

An interview at Ward Payne Communications followed – in a little office in Farringdon – where the hell is Farringdon?! Then it seemed like the hellish end of the city, no good for shopping and building sites everywhere (not much has changed, except the names of the bars, but at least I now know that Farringdon is the easiest place to get to from anywhere else in London!). The interview consisted of a spelling test (separate, not seperate) and apologies for their art director using the boardroom as the smoking room – yes it was that long ago.

So there I was, team member number 5 in a titchy office with a hotel room fridge, a kettle, no email, internet or mobile. But as happy as Larry – even if everyone did refer to me as Kez!

After the initiation ceremonies of media parties (a blur), client introductions (scary) and Moscow Mules (ask Sam) life at the office fell into a steady pace. The Office Junior tag lasted only as long as it took for Ray to find out I could write 20 fifty-word insurance ads in one day and for Sam to find out that I could work the Amipro PC system better than most! New faces joined, as well as new machinery in the form of our first Mac! And as the PC “wiz”, I was given the task of coming to terms with something called ISDN – the end of faxed proofs! Our first Studio Manager, Dave Hanson, soon followed with a second Mac and there my true vocation started to emerge. Typing the 50 odd insurance ads directly into the waiting housestyle seemed to save time. Helen, the second of Sam’s graduate trainees, typed and left. I, however, wanted to know, “how do I change that?”, “how can I do this?”. Dave, flattered that anyone would find typesetting fun answered my questions and kept on answering them until soon I was handling clients by day and 50% of the typesetting by – well also by day, but you get my meaning!

Christmas Conferences
1996: 2 nights in Brighton (all is revealed, again ask Sam. Or Ray)
1997: Antwerp Hilton (late night and lots of Rubens)

At a time when agencies are scrapping for every penny of revenue it did, at first, seem rather galling to be asked to pay for the ‘previledge’ of submitting a tender for the opportunity to pitch for an account, as happened this week with Birmingham City University. Having participated on literally hundreds of tenders and pitches, I’d say the average process costs agencies at least £2500 in ‘time spent’. And that’s before you add any freelance costs, travel etc. Having said that, it could be said that £150 in comparison is a relatively small amount – and if it discourages the world and his wife from submitting a tender they have no chance of winning, then maybe it’s a good thing?
Last year we went to a pitch pre-brief for an account that we’d previously come a ‘close second’ on. There were over 100 different companies interested in submitting a bid. Looking at the names in the room, I’d say 90% had a cat in hell’s chance of getting to the next stage and were merely taking a punt. What that does for the remaining 10% of us (I modestly suggest we had a chance) is to clog up the process and make it hard for the client to see the wood from the trees. The value of the account? £47k in billings / £6k pa in revenue!
Very occassionally we hear of an enlightened client who recognises what it costs an agency, particular at pitch stage, and offers to pay expenses (this has happened to me once in 24 years). They also recognise that by pitch stage the agency is likely to be giving them some pretty valuable strategic insight into their employer brand. So how about keeping the small(ish) upfront charge for tenders, on the basis that the revenue raised goes to reimburse agencies selected to pitch? Having come a ‘close second’ on our last 4 tender submissions, I really like that idea!

… is a dangerous thing, especially with social networking, as I’ve just discovered to my cost. Last week I linked up our corporate facebook page and tweets with my Linkedin profile.
So far so good.
This week one of the company’s internal facebook content providers gets all creative and starts posting ‘off piste’ – and develops some kind of keyboard stutter along the way.
The result …the same message on the corporate facebook site NINE TIMES. And that in turn means nine identical tweets, nine identical tweet updates on our blog and nine identical updates to all my Linkedin contacts. BIG lesson learnt.
A) Playing around on postings is too tempting for people to resist so …
B) Don’t give administrator access to your social network pages to anyone, especially senior managers, unless …
C) YOU’VE TRAINED THE BUGGERS UP