Are You a Diligent Data Steward?

ITCRA’s most recent Business Knowledge webinar discussed the importance of data quality and the role every business has in taking responsibility for stewardship of data collection, management, de-identification and ultimately destruction. This webinar was oversubscribed which is indicative of how important this topic has become as it overlaps many areas of business for recruiters and their clients.

We all do it – we keep that file, that business card, that piece of paper, note, phone detail because it may just be the next lead, the person we need to contact or details we want to share with someone else. But, how many of us have a serious approach to the information cycle of creation-distribution-deletion and when do we implement it?

I spent the last 10 days in Singapore at The Global Recruiter Asia Pac Summit, then in meetings and finally on holiday and, along the way I collected countless emails, business cards, phone contacts and other personal details as part of the whole “networking” and “connection process” that goes with such a trip.

Do I need them all? Probably not. Will I follow up with each of them to say thanks for the meeting? Yes! So what do I do with these personal details long term and what is my process for managing the “information cycle” at a personal as well as a business level?

These questions impact ITCRA as well as Julie Mills, as I have, through ITCRA’s records, commenced the information cycle of creation-distribution-deletion that impacts every piece of personal information I include in the database and on the contacts list.

So if you missed the webinar but want a detailed overview of key points you need to consider to be a business that takes data stewardship seriously, then read this discussion from Dianne Gibert from SEC Consulting and ensure you have your processes in place. Read more here

Adapting like the AFL

As we recover from the ‘festival of the boot’ as Roy & HG so aptly named it, I reflected on how football has adapted to remain relevant against constant disruption. This challenge is now facing the ICT recruitment industry if you believe everything you hear at Conferences and read in any recruitment media.

In the 1950’s football (then VFL) didn’t have to compete with various other codes of sports, let alone the gamut of entertainment we are now offered through our various screens.

Now, as AFL, it has adapted to increased competition from other sports (namely soccer) and the way their market consumes their product by embracing the online world and growing their territory.

The ICT contracting and recruitment market has undergone a seismic shift in the last decade. No longer are we just competing against like-minded contracting & recruitment companies and in-house teams, we are now competing with our clients, contractors and candidates.

Here’s what we’re facing:

• Clients can more easily source candidates thanks to greater candidate information, which is now available through online social networks (ie. LinkedIn)
• Clients, candidates and contractors are meeting on online marketplaces. New online freelance marketplaces such as Freelancer and Elance are connecting contractors directly to employers. Likewise, work can now be ‘amortised’ through a number of platforms so that is can be distributed to a pool of unconnected workers. The approach is similar to crowdsourcing specific tasks. Amazon Mechanical Turk is a good example of this.
• Even organisations that were once a client have become a competitor, as seen by KPMG’s recently launched Marketplace offering in which they offer their own staff for short-term contracts (less than 10 days).

Our sector is at the centre of this and we are already positioned to respond rather than become obsolete as others have done (eg Kodak)

Play to your strengths

Firstly, as any good coach would say we must understand our strengths and what differentiates us from (online) competitors. This is our knowledge, trust and reputation built on deep client and candidate relationships. Could you trust the work of someone you only sourced online without any other review?

Geoff Slade reiterated this point recently in an interview with Shortlist where he stated that the industry hasn’t done a very good job at getting our customers to understand our value, and more importantly the cost of getting the recruitment process wrong.

In response to a recent survey for QLD Procurement, Members in Queensland put the need to “understand the value proposition” at the top of the list of what should be our key advocacy positioning.

During a panel session at the Global Recruiter AsiaPac Summit in Singapore last week, the focus of the questions to the client representatives and procurement managers from the audience was strong on the value proposition of working with recruitment partners and what it means to their business to work with a recruiter. Needless to say, the discussion became very heated!

Use the data

Secondly, like all the top coaches who have data on all their players and competitors, we must use the technology developments and data available to stay ahead. As a sector, we have a better insight to the market demands, candidate skill sets and client needs.

Understand your return on investment (RoI)

Thirdly, understanding your financial and human capital RoI is vital, just like the end of footy season trade period, we need to know what is working for us at every level of the business and decide what needs to be redeployed, re-engaged or rejuvenated. The clever allocation of effort and resources will mean that contracting and recruitment companies understanding of what levers to pull to operate as sustainably as possible and be there when business demands are at their peak.

The ICT and white collar professional recruitment sector will always be in a position to hold the “Business Premiership Cup” aloft as they remain agile in an ever-changing marketplace and respond to disruption with engagement and commitment and, just like the AFL, the sector will remain a winner.

Regulation, is it control we need, or consistency?

In the past few weeks I have had my attention drawn once again to the notion of recruitment standards, professionalism, licencing and regulation in general.

It is like a perpetual spinning top that whirrs into a blur of noise, eases into a steady rhythm and then, with just the slightest of nudges, starts up again at a dizzying speed.

So, what’s started the latest spinning?

As always, bad behaviour in any market sector attracts a lot of attention and, in contracting and recruitment, this can get quite emotive, and rightly so, as “work rights” are such a fundamental tenet of our society. Poorly treated workers are not acceptable under any employment arrangement.

Also, as a de-regulated sector we are always open to some suggestion of regulation, even from within. People fear what they don’t feel they can control and quite often, the presence of regulation even if it is rarely enacted, creates comfort.

So back to the spinning….

First, there has been a renewed push to introduce licencing of labour hire (read on hire, contracting, any form of non- direct employment) by the unions and the Victorian Government but wait, there has also been a push to remove licencing regimes in SA and WA  and….there is also an audit process underway to target unlicensed operators in the ACT.

The WA Government called for submissions into a proposal to create negative licensing for the sector i.e. the licence you have when you don’t have a licence, while SA Government Procurement stated in their recent RFT, that having a licence in that state was not needed as the licence didn’t apply. QLD Procurement, in its recent ITO, actually asked for evidence of a licence when Employment Agent licencing has not existed there for almost ten years!

The RCSA accelerated the spinning with the release of the Proposed Employment Services Industry Code and here is where the feedback gets interesting.

Are you confused yet?

ITCRA Members were asked to respond to the recommendations in ESIC as part of the consultation process and, in doing so, revealed an interesting dichotomy that the Board will be considering over the coming months.

The Members had little support for any of the licensing regimes in place, (no surprises there) other than to suggest they did provide a point of difference between recruiters and professional services, and lists if you need to know who is who, although even that is now open to interpretation if SA is an example.

The general consensus was that the combination of current legislation SHOULD be sufficient to regulate the sector and more effort should be spent on ensuring that the sector connects with regulators to ensure breaches are reported and addressed.

The most interesting commentary was that the professional standard of recruitment professionals is a real issue in any discussion on mandatory Codes and/or regulation. The feedback suggests that there is a need for greater commitment to the training of “recruitment professionals” at every level of the company and perhaps, before the sector discusses any mandatory guidelines we should look to the expectations and behaviours inside the businesses of the Member companies.

Added to this strong statement was a message of the need for consistency and uniformity of practice across the sector so that it behaves as a profession. This means recognition of consultants as professionals – a recognised program of qualifications with mandatory review and renewal (ITCRA Certified doesn’t go far enough! but it is a start). Clients and candidates will then have a badge to recognise standards of practice, similar to a CPA.

There were a number of comments that suggested that, what the sector should be looking for is a Quality Standard or “Mark” that provides a statement with respect to the levels of service expectation and a framework for acceptable performance and compliance. The RCSA Service Delivery Standard and ITCRA’s Business Diagnostic address this, according to many comments.

It seems ITCRA Members feel a combination of business and individual standards, externally monitored and accredited, would be a good starting point.

So, who is going to lead the way by investing in such a model so we can profile an accredited Standard, to clients and candidates? Let’s think about an “upsell” rather than a big stick – Members suggested it so come on ITCRA let’s do it?