mike writes (mainly lowercase)

analog 1 - digital 0

2009-05-26T21:09:00.002+10:00

you wont see me siding with the analoguers much but having just read this post about listening to the cricket on the radio - i am doing just that.

what a beautifully written and timely post it is. in the hustle and bustle and instantaneous reports coming at you in all different directions.

this post conjures up boyhood memories of listening to the cricket on the radio. the gravelly commentary, cutting in and out. hanging on every word from those remarkable storytellers inside the box.

yep, hats off to will for his analog in a digital post indeed

recruiters, help your clients, holster ur pistola's

2009-05-25T08:45:00.004+10:00

that's the thrust of today's recruiter daily piece. and what a timely reminder it is on the recruiters modus operandi. we used to take seriously the title consultant when dealing with clients. but good times have led many of the recruiting fraternity down the fat and lazy order taking quick draw mcgraw fill em and kill em path. well, there's nothing like a spot of GFC to bring the lazy ones unstuck.

so, are you really helping your customers? cause if you ain't, you ain't gonna have that many customers going forward. check out what the folks at egon zehnder have to say on this matter and while you're at it if you haven't already done so, check out the recruiter daily article

now go forth and help folks

watson wyatt hr technology trends 2009 is out now

2009-05-22T08:36:00.002+10:00

well here is something for all you hr technology vendors and hr corporate s alike.

make sure you get your hands on this hr technology report to ensure you are across all the latest and greatest developments in the industry

there is sure to be something in these pages that is of value and at $45 its a great recession busting price

happy reading

unions and venture capitalists stand shoulder to shoulder in teh same trench?

2009-05-21T20:45:00.002+10:00

well its not everyday that you see this happening now is it? and i draw a very tenuous hr thread through it with the two warring teams both fighting for employee entitlements.
the full story can be found over here at unions-venture-capitalists-join-fight-against-employee-share-scheme-crackdown

crazy GFC times sure do make some strange bedfellows

jobvite social recruitment survey

2009-05-21T20:28:00.002+10:00

and the results show (predictably) that social media such as facebook and twitter are the faves nowadays, but also and pleasingly i would think for the folks at 2vouch are that employee referrals are gaining in popularity and cred amongst hr folks

this is a nicely conducted survey and provides some good empirical data for folks to draw from

the full post can be found here at -

Jobvite Social Recruitment Survey: Companies Turn to Employee Referrals, Social Networks for Hiring During Down Economy

redeployment challenges

2009-05-21T20:00:00.003+10:00

just read a good article on the recruiterdaily website re the challenges facing firms with redeployment requirements - help manage redeployment...

and its not just corporate entities either. i read earlier today that the wa state government is also up to its neck in redeployees - some 5,000 in total and counting

methinks its time for some redeployment and case management upskilling - STAT!

google to dip toe into performance management?

2009-05-21T12:18:00.005+10:00

i just read with interest that the google folks are/have developed a performance management algorithm. at first i thought this was gunna be some sort of late april fools joke but it seems fair dinkum. the australian led with the story today - google develops algorithm... and its well worth a read.

so does this mean that google will potentially tack this on as another of their ever expanded free service offerings? if so will it cause some pain in the performance management vendor space? whilst there are plenty of established players with most impressive applications, google does have a habit of developing neat functionality that can be delivered at a low or no cost basis. or will they keep it to themselves and use it as a competitive edge?

and by the way i need to tip my hat for this lead from one of the many folks i follow on twitter - KarenJenkin of SixFigures.com.au fame

one of the great vids i have seen recently

2009-05-15T10:45:00.002+10:00

per kind courtesy of the anthill mob we have a great vid that outlines the great aussie tradition of getting in and having a go or as its otherwise know entrepreneurship - entrepreneurs-can-change-the-world

a must to be shared with all thinking about having a go

Recruiting Through Social Media

2009-05-14T12:19:00.001+10:00

cool title huh?

well i was cruising around the interwebs looking to pull some sites together for my recruitment franchisees and came across this article about social media that may be worth a view by you.

taleo bolsters oz tech team

2009-05-04T08:50:00.002+10:00

how interesting to see this recent appointment at taleo - new senior engineer- the good folks at taleo seem to be getting quite serious in oz. i'm guessing the win of the nsw government account has increased the footprint of oz on their global map. but what i do find interesting is that they are matching the appointment with their talent grid in the cloud approach. could this be the beginning of a whole new offering for the oz hr community?

only time will tell

when redundancies bite u twice

2009-04-30T16:44:00.002+10:00

what an interesting article from human capital magazine - Gunning for talent - poachers on the prowl - identifying a growing problemo for organisations. it appears that if you handle redundancies poorly you get bit twice. once from a disgruntled redundancee and twice from the morale dive associated with it. so when you are thinking that you need to trim a head or two you might want to consider all the potential impacts.

good luck

video killed the radiostar?

2009-04-07T08:49:00.002+10:00

but is it going to help in recruitment? well i just read this snappy blog entry and thought you might find it interesting. another one of the many reviews on the use of video in the recruiting process. i like it because the blog itself looks pretty snazzy and its referencing a decent sized organisation (albeit one that has been in the news for all the wrong reasons of late :))

the use of viral marketing in particular is of interest to me. i think that this is one of the smartest and cost effective ways to get your message tot he masses and if mastered can prove a masterstroke in any campaign

so go do your research and start differentiating yourselves today

MIS says "the boss is bback in charge" - I say, really?

2009-04-06T14:44:00.002+10:00

i just perused this story on the MIS website and whilst on the surface the premise may appear accurate i am not convinced it is correct.

the boss is well served by identifying the very best talent available and nurturing this within the organisation. i cannot see how a glut of resumes suddenly changes this. if anything the bosses job just got a whole lot harder. finding the right talent has gone from using advanced sourcing techniques to using advanced filtering techniques. but the talent is still not that easy to find. the best are still not even looking for another position. so another layer of complexity is added to the process.

does this necessarily put the boss in charge - i don't think so.

what do you think?

job boards should they stay or should they go?

2009-03-26T16:17:00.003+11:00

well, i'm glad you asked.

there is a most interesting discussion happening on geoff jennings blog, that just became marginally more interesting with a comment from yours truly.

so, if you want to have a squiz at what some industry heavyweights (me excluded) have to say you should check it out at geoffjennings.com.

what did i have to say?

read on...

i still believe that the shift away from job boards will be a long drawn out process, if a process at all. consider how long it has taken to get the candidates from the newspapers to the Internet? now most folks i speak to regard me as a freak because i twitter. which is right and wrong. right in that yes, i am freak - fair call and its a cross i bear, but wrong in that expanding social networks are becoming more and more mainstream. bethatasitmay, the shift from jobboards where i can load up a resume and ping it to 50 jobs at the click of a button (or close to) to more labour intensive and cerebrally challenging processes will take time. i’m lazy, the general punter on the street is lazy and status quo rules (not the band).

so i watch with interest more or less form the sidelines. and leave you with something an online expert said to me more than a year ago:

“if the recruitment agencies and the corporates got their shit together they could take down the job boards overnight. problem is, neither of these things will happen.”

prophetic? probably!

the hr game turned on its head

2009-03-26T09:24:00.004+11:00

i have been thinking about this phenomenon for some time now. not that that means this will be a particularly mind blowing, life altering entry, probably quite the opposite - anyhoo...

with many of the preceding years of "candidate scarcity" and job security most players in the hr market were not in any way shape or form positioned for the current climate. a significant amount of hay baling under the shining economic sun was done and many fringe players were able to survive and some achieved moderate profit results. so there is plenty of fat about and plenty of them are now ready to deal. and anyways, i am still not convinced about this phrase "candidate scarcity" as it seems to me that good candidates are always going to be reasonably scarce. so has the game changed that much then?

sure you may think the method of navigating to the good candidates has altered. you may think that you do not have to engage 6 recruitment agencies and put up advertisements on every job board you can find. employer branding and micro career sites might not have the same level of importance to you but the fundamental tenet still remains - attracted and retaining the good candidate.

for mine this still requires an element of more of the same if not an increased focus. your brand still has to be strong, your employer value proposition has to be strong and your employee protection plan has to be strong.

if there are suddenly more candidates that we can select from, if we suddenly have lower staff turnover then we have to be more diligent than ever. our poor and moderate performers are going to hang on like their life depends on it. our top performers are going to require a greater attention to their career progress than ever. this is not a time to relax from an hr perspective. more candidates applying for a job (and seek's numbers today show about 40% more) does not mean it is easier to do your job. in many respects its harder because you have a greater workload and less resources (we know that hr is one of the first casualties of fiscal tightening) meaning you have to be smarter again than when we had too many jobs and not enough candidates.

so where does this leave us hr practitioners then? well, i think its a great time to really bed down some strong long term relationships with your suppliers. everyone is open to ideas. if its tough for you inside the corporate wall, you can be guaranteed its tough for the folks knocking on that wall too. so why not get strategic? draw up a wish list. what does your ideal supplier relationship structure look like? if you need some help or some stimulation as to what is available out there, again there are a few people around who can help you with the thinking process. and again, its a great time to engage an external consultant - remember, they are open to different commercial arrangements too. so once you have your wish list drawn up then act on it. get your specialist/niche recruiters lined up and working with you. demand a higher level of support from your technology providers. get that external consultant in to broaden your thinking on the topic and introduce new ideas and techniques and technology to the mix.

it doesn't have to cost you much. its time for you to be assertive. but you cant be assertive if you don't have your wish list. and you cant have your wish list if you don't fully appreciate whats on offer out there. so do your research, get on twitter, get on your relevant linkedin hr and recruitment groups, subscribe to the many forums, research entities (taleo's is particularly good and does not include too much harsh sales spin) and blogs out there that provide a wealth of information like your recruitment directory, michael spechts ramblings and your online recruitment blogs. not too mention the ones i recommend you follow on this blog.

there is so much out there. and for us hr people, the lovers of information to review, to file and come back to, it is a veritable nirvana.

so get started folks and don't let the naysayers inside the corporate walls drag you down, there has never been a better time to be in the hr game.

go well

well if recruiter daily publish it...

2009-03-10T11:36:00.002+11:00

it must be true.

check out the press we is receiving at the moment.

and don't forget to let your recruitment friends know that there is a bona fide option for them out there.

i am very comfortable aligning myself with wayne and his setup.

going it alone - 3rd party support for our recruitment franchise model

2009-03-09T23:03:00.002+11:00

i am a huge fan of promoting via third party evidence- cold calling has well and truly gone the way of the dinosaur

so in order to promote my new gig in the recruitment franchise business i offer this article for all the potenital franchisees to have a look at the following link:

http://www.onrec.com/newsstories/24209.asp

a brief intro:

"Starting your own business could be the most regarding experience of your life says Dimopoulos. However, there are many challenges you need to get ready for both financially, and more importantly, emotionally, before you embark on your journey. For many of us, it is a road of no return as we give up our high-paying careers in pursuit of a dream."

once you are ready to talk then please get in touch as the system my ceo has in place is second to none.

weird name - impressive results - mr ted

2009-03-09T22:50:00.002+11:00

well i never much thought their name was that clever but the folks at mr ted are really turning it on. in an era of slowdown for just about every software vendor the chaps at mr ted are announcing record profits.

the article starts off:

"Cost-cutting companies in 2008 swarmed to recruiting software leader MrTed, resulting in a sharp increase in both sales and profits for the award-winning provider of talent management solutions. For the year, MrTed grew sales by 35%, while profits follow with 30% year-over-year. "

you can check the entire article here

will australias ats vendors sing a similar tune?

warning - self promotion about a new gig :-)

2009-03-09T21:40:00.004+11:00

Media release

On behalf of Recruitment Vision, I am very pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Mike Hawkins to the position of Franchise Sales & Development Manager for our group.” Wayne Slack - RV Managing Director

“This appointment is seem as an integral aspect of the next phase of our business evolution and in support of our ongoing franchisee and market growth expectations. “ Slack stated

Mike has extensive industry experience gained within senior recruitment roles in both blue collar and executive recruitment (both with Adecco and Dunhill – now Robert Walters) followed by a stint at a State Managers role for a large Australian owned national company.

More recently, Mike was the guy who drove BigRedSky to be the fastest growing Australian provider of e-Recruitment systems.

Mike is a person who also has many years of senior general business and sales management experience over a variety of roles, within a number of specific service industries, in particular with business planning and development roles.

“In these current economic conditions many recruiters must be considering the benefits of working for themselves and we see Mike’s appointment as the best way to articulate to these people our brands overall benefits and it’s future direction, thereby ensuring each recruiter can make the most informed choice for his or her future, going forward.” Slack said.

Mike can be contacted on mikeh@rvision.com.au.

Check them out here: www.rvision.com.au

social recruiting - easy does it

2009-03-04T09:31:00.003+11:00

just read this post and think it provides a nice balance to the gung ho "use social networks at all costs" fraternity.

essentially jared is asking a question - not stating a point of view and it is worth considering folks before you dive into the great unknown.

i still suggest you enter the waters, just at your pace and preferably with a well informed social media person/strategy by your side.

human resources magazine and crossing the line

2009-03-03T20:14:00.003+11:00

i'll start by saying i am a big fan of the human resources magazine, especially craig donaldson and the crew of journo's. i do however have an issue with a direction they have taken for the last 12 months or so.

anyone who subscribes to their fine magazine (print or online ) probably also gets their email updates and notifications too. all cool there and great as an hr professional to keep updated on industry trends/gossip. so keep that side, good - its really good and as hr'ers, we hoard this stuff and use it when we need it.

the "dark side" that has emerged every so not very subtly is the blatant advertising emails that have been pushed out over the past 12 months. i understand that they probably pick up a cool $5 -10k per email blast but it really devalues the brand. consider the audience. managers, directors and supervisory levels. as a vendor even i find it offensive. and i am not easily offended!!

so weigh up the $10k of advertising with the brand impact? u don't have to be galileo to work this through. having worked with hr professionals the one thing they hate above all else is being sold to. give them the information sure, when they ask for it or in a proper context. but i fancy that the ongoing advertising direct email blasts are hurting the hr mag brand and putting the advertised product in the "consider as a last resort" category!

now, i'll temper my rant with the fact that other email blasts probably work quite well. consider the recruiter daily crew. aimed fairly and squarely at recruitment consultants. these guys are a different beast (and i say that with the deepest respect as i too have a foot in this camp) completely. they want to have the information to hand and consume the information in a totally different manner.

so, that's my rant, feeling a tad sam kekovich to be honest.

now where did i put the cerapax?

hr futures conference wrap

2009-03-03T11:16:00.002+11:00

well folks after regaining some composure i am here to tell that you that an event took place last week that all related to hr couldn't afford to miss. michael specht's inaugural hr futures conference blazed away for a full day on all things social recruiting and quite frankly my pen just wasn't up top the challenge of grabbing all the relevant points. the calibre of speakers was top notch and spanned recruiters, corporate hr, technologists and all those in between. it was illuminating and stimulating regardless of where you sit in this spectrum. i for one like to try to sit across the spectrum so may have been an easy target.

from the open keynote by stephen collins regaling us with all things ted, to the closing panel discussions that continued in a less formal way through to the early hours of the mornings ;) we were deluged with data. so if you would like some more detail on what was discussed there are presentations across on slideshare and michael's site will also offer some assistance.

next time folks - be sure to get in quick as this well priced and well structured conference is a must attend.

my first pitch for social media in 2009

2009-02-19T21:36:00.002+11:00

hey folks

i just read this article on onrec.com re the different applications of social media in recruitment. its not half bad and at the very least will give you some thought stimulation.

opening paragraph:

For a recruiter, the phenomenon of social media and Web 2.0 seem too good to be true. All those passive (and active) candidates out there, sitting ducks for a clever subliminal marketing campaign… But how to engage with them effectively is proving more tricky than some once thought. In fact, using social media could turn out to be a real Pandora’s box if not used with caution. Pioneers in this area have kindly offered their opinions on how recruiters should get to grips with these new ventures.

well worth a look folks - click here for the entire article

happy reading

recruitment agencies in trouble?

2009-02-19T15:03:00.002+11:00

now its no newsflash that the economic downturn has hurt business service providers. some recruitment agencies will be particularly hard hit. however the niche, value adding agencies out there that have always strived to provide true consultancy services to their clients will no doubt increase their market share. they may not see gargantuan profit increase, but rest assured that as the economic wheel turns, they will be the main beneficiaries. as the wheel turns they will witness stellar growth.

so if you are a recruiter that falls in to the latter then congratulations and enjoy the ride for the next 2 years. if not, you want to be reviewing your business strategy now or there will be no ride for you. we are not talking rocket science here either. understand who your customer is and what they need. determine if you are best placed to deliver this service, if not, find out who is and how you can benefit from the service delivery. there are plenty of vendors out there that are in need of partnering and reselling outlets.

so get out there and make it happen, or just get out of this industry.

if you still don't see the urgency here is a quote from an article reviewing talent2 performance :

"unprecedented full stop in the jobs market in 2008"

for the full article click here

look forward to your thoughts

must attend event coming up real soon!

2009-02-16T09:58:00.001+11:00

i hope the New Year is treating you well and all the doom and gloom of the economy is not dragging you down too much.

on the note of the economic credit crunch crisis i am sure that you are all being afflicted by the curse of the shrinking HR budget, no?

as a gesture of goodwill and to keep you safe in the knowledge that your friend Mike is always trying to look after you, I have conjured up something special.

one of my HR colleagues - Michael Specht is running a full day HR seminar in 2 weeks time - 26th Feb to be exact. Its chock a block full of great speakers and is guaranteed to fill you to overflowing with great hints tips and thought bubbles. Whilst Mr Specht has already provided the seminar at a very reasonable $400 for the entire day, I have managed to convince him that the first ten people that take up his seminar offer will receive a 30%discount. Yep, another $120 off the price. So have a look at what’s on offer by clicking on this link -

http://hrfutures.inspecht.com.au

or just type the address straight into your web browser.

to take advantage of this special offer you will need to use the coupon code:

INHR-MH

let me know what you think and i look forward to seeing you there

hallelujah

2008-12-03T05:56:00.003+11:00

well its about time that one of the big ceo's has come to terms with failure. fords ceo has recently stated that he will work for $1 per year if his company has to take a govt handout. on top of this he will cancel all management bonuses!! now i am still not in favour of the govt propping up private enterprise folks but this guy is at least showing some levels of remorse. so maybe we make an exception and let this one through?

the full story can be found here

so do we grant him his wish?

(hat tip to @caseywright)

on performing

2008-11-30T18:44:00.002+11:00

i recall one of my first sales managers favourite sayings - "a sale fixes everything". and extrapolating this further, performing at our peak will fix everything too. you see it everyday when someone pushes themselves and invariably achieves. they are inextricably linked.

and to subject matter closer to my heart we witnessed a breakthrough innings by australia's wicketkeeper-under-siege - brad haddin. today he strode to the crease with australian in a spot of bother and strode from the pitch with a new reputation following his 169 runs in super quick time. yep, the newspapers will be blazing his name again but not baying for his blood as much as pleading for a sound bite. fickle yep, human, absolutely.

so when you are next under the pump, back yourself, its your only way out. you cannot expect someone to bail you out all the time and the feeling of satisfaction off your own efforts is priceless... cue the mastercard advert ;)

go well

china hiring?

2008-11-30T18:37:00.002+11:00

well according to this more than useful article from frank mulligan - perhaps not. as an economy that we look towards, this brief on where china is at with the recruitment is most interesting.

Frank muses:

"Only one year ago the talk was all about the War for Talent in China, but in the not so distant future some HR staffers will be expected to deal with the consequences of slow or negative internal growth, and this is something few of them have ever had to do in the past."

Frank's full article can be found here.

What does this mean for the rest of us then?

Your comments please...

taking the plunge in dark times

2008-11-26T21:53:00.002+11:00

i love it when things become uncertain. it scares me but it also means things are changing. having read plenty about this economic crisis over the past few months now i see two camps forming. the hunker down and keep the powder dry till this whole saga blows over; and the roll up the sleeves and get stuck in camps. it is the later that i gravitate towards. these are the guys that are rapidly increasing their market share. willing to sacrifice some short term security for a significant mid to long term gain. as someone who witnessed and benefited from the madness of the perth property market a few years back i can safely say that to make quantum leaps one needs two vital ingredients - uncertainty and guts. simple.

so i see the likes of careerone still pushing hard with their marketing, i see vodaphone expanding their advertising and a our little shop in hawthorn is still growing month on month. why? its a cliche but we are all adopting the - best defence is a strong offence policy and reaping the rewards.

i speak to guys who are sitting and waiting and are comfortable and understand the opportunity they are forgoing. that's fine too. as long as people measure the outcomes of both options. what worries me is that the knee jerk reaction of many businesses to cut and hope that they see it through without fully appreciating the mid term implications. to those guys i suggest you include moderate growth for the next few years because you can be guaranteed that your competition is going to move ahead significantly. as times improve you will find yourself spending far more on marketing in an attempt to claw back some of the gains of the more aggressive players.

so be careful when playing with knives out there folks - someone may get hurt ;)

as for me, i am in a constant state of running and have adopted a no knife policy for fear of falling and doing some real damage.

and so it goes...

history made

2008-11-07T23:14:00.002+11:00

history in the making frame by frame - check out obama's ride to the presidency on the day of the election - http://flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom/sets/72157608716313371/

and a final word on talent pools

2008-11-07T08:11:00.004+11:00

this article appears today on the recruiter daily website and i couldn't agree with it more. if we wish to be truly professional in our recruiting we must get serious about using our talent pools. be they excel, access or ats. you cannot simply afford to continue the knee jerk reaction to recruitment agency usage when you may very well have the right person in your database. spend some time to set it up properly and then spend some more time mining it. once you have perfected these steps lets have a chat about candidate data mining outside your talent pool.

Internal recruiters, it's time to talent pool
07 November 2008 6:56am
Recruiters in organisations with hiring freezes should be focused on building talent pools for when the economy turns, according to an internal recruitment advisor.

the full article can be found here

sign of the times - update

2008-10-22T21:47:00.003+11:00

just received an upbeat email from the good folks at broadbean. as you imagine the talk is all very positive about the acquisition. one line that caught my attention in the press release was this one:

"The Bean is buzzing with excitement and we’re all looking forward to winning more awards for providing such a super service to our much loved clients."

winning more awards?? how many awards does one have to put themselves in? surely the important aspects of a business are long term viability through good management and providing value to shareholders?

maybe i don't understand, but it did strike me as odd.

you can read the full press release here

SIGN OF THE TIMES?

2008-10-20T21:24:00.003+11:00

interesting to see this acquisition take place with the current financial meltdown backdrop. onrec.com report that the number 2 and reportedly (admittedly, from them) rapidly growing multi job posting service broadbean have been snaffled up.

operating in a tough market with a serious giant of a competitor in the guys form equest led by mr malone, competing in this vertical would never be easy. spread of service is critical and i sense that in the end broadbean just struggled to make an impression. last time i spoke to mr malone he was talking 2000+ global boards and growing with some interesting country specific value add services too.

a brief snippet of the story:

Associated Northcliffe Digital (AND), the digital consumer division of DMGT, today announces the acquisition of Broadbean Technology, Europe's leading provider of online job advert distribution and response tracking solutions for the recruitment industry.

the entire story can be picked up here.

does this have any consequences for brett and the team at job adder? from all reports probably not as both job adder and postjobsonce services seem to be going from strength to strength servicing the recruitment industry. lets face it, apart from the server based fasttrack software and the lads from turborecruit, the recruitment agencies are poorly serviced from an ats perspective.

a more pertinent question is, will the larger media organisations start casting the net for potential acquisitions now that there are plenty of bargains around and for all the financial meltdown they still have plenty of cash to splash - if recent executive pay and bonus information counts for anything...

keen to hear your thoughts

one resume to rule them all?

2008-10-17T13:54:00.002+11:00

just picked this up hot off the press from the good folk at thetalentbuzz.com

iresume has a simple proposition of a centrally stored resume.

it poses a few questions too...

is a candidate going to be interested in storing one resume centrally and using it for multiple applications across the board? i am not sure. it will most likely come down to the demographic thang again. the y'ers will probably like the efficiency and speed and hang the non specific nature of the process

the x'ers and beyond may be a wee bit more circumspect in my opinion - looking for a more tailored and customised application.

i for one like the website - simple and clean - surely half the battle won??

it sure will be interesting to c how it goes as we have quite a few retail based clients focusing energy and resources on the y'ers so this might just be worth a look

based out of atlanta in the US of A these guys are clearly making a play that integrates social networking and recruitment - anybody having a go is surely worth more than a cursory glance?

the whole story can be found here

you can head straight to iresume here

any ideas folks??

clickajob?

2008-10-16T23:21:00.002+11:00

now i'll be the first to say that i am always interested in early adopters. organisations going down the path less travelled in the whole candidate attraction and recruitment thang.

here is one job board i have not seen before and to me its a touch busy... well, perhaps more than a touch

anyways i found them when reading an article about what pizza hut in the uk are up to in regard to their attraction and recruitment of the gen y laddies and laddesses due to some of our customers being in the same arena.

so what i found where 2 interesting things really:

1. pizza hut are re-branding themselves to pasta hut - yep its true

and

2. they are using this crazy busy job board to find the gen y'ers

the full story can be found here

the clickajob site can be found here

and i am going to bed asking the question - y?

recruitment stealth episode 2 the farce continues...

2008-10-16T15:21:00.004+11:00

why cant they understand the ramifications? as a parent a high priority learning to impart is the whole actions and consequences feedback loop. now if my 3 kids get it and the youngest being 7, i cant understand how the defense dept still don't get the significance of their tmp outsourcing arrangement.

here is the guts of the Crikey snippet from today's edition:

ASIO must be getting at least some clue from reading the recent Crikey article on how pathetically bad and insecure its current recruitment process is as its website has changed the email address for applications to analyst@tmpworldwide.com.au. Prior to the Crikey article appearing it wasintelligence@tmpworldwide.com.au. TMP, a private recruitment company and a foreign one at that, will still have a record of all candidates which must clearly mean the identity of all new ASIO intelligence operatives will be know to TMP and to its foreign parent. It boggles the mind that for an organisation that is into the cloak and dagger stuff as much as ASIO seems to have no clue on how to be secure. Is it asking too much for ASIO to follow some basic security? I was thinking of actually applying as the role seemed quite interesting and worthwhile, but given they don't seem to know the basics of security, I can't be bothered. Not a very effective recruitment tool, is it.

social networking in attraction strategy?

2008-10-14T22:17:00.001+11:00

another report from onrec.com regarding the use of social networks in recruiting candidates:

More Than One-in-Four Employers in the UK Use or Plan to Use Social Networking Sites to Screen Job Candidates, CareerBuilder.co.uk Survey Finds

Fifteen Per cent of Employers Use Social Networking Sites to Recruit Candidates or Plan to by the End of the Year

read the whole story here

do you take a lunch break?

2008-10-13T21:02:00.003+11:00

interesting survey done recently in the uk amongst the HR community.

the article from onrec.com starts off very interestingly. the full article can be found here:

Over a third of all HR staff eat lunch at their desk, finds new survey
13/10/2008

Gadgets powered by Google
10 October 2008: Another lonely lunch at your desk? Fed up with the same overpriced sandwiches from the local supermarket? Tempted by a lunch of leftovers? You’re not alone, according to a new survey from international development charity ActionAid.

The survey, commissioned ahead of ActionAid’s ‘Child Poverty Day’ on Friday 17 October, found that almost four in ten of those working in HR eat lunch at their desk and don’t take a break.

Ironically, those most responsible for staff welfare are the most likely to eat at their desk out of all the industries surveyed. Most sectors followed the national trend of one in five, while in some industries including engineering and finance, only one in six claimed to eat whilst chained to the desk.

careerone keep running

2008-10-13T16:56:00.003+11:00

the guys at careerone have certainly had their runners on for the past year or so now. they seem to be spending big on marketing and trying to innovate with their product offering. i guess that spray from rupert a little while back is seeing some results. and you cant deny that they are becoming a default second option to job posters from the corporate hr world nowadays.

whilst the majority of users tend to default to SEEK still we are seeing some traction from careerone

check out what they are up to now:

CareerOne.com.au Personality Profiler powered by CMyPeople has been launched. Profiler is a free five minute online assessment based on the Humm-Wadsworth Temperament Scale. On completion, users are given a summary report of their personality style, matched to the skilled and professional occupations that suit them best.

recruitment stealth?

2008-10-13T14:07:00.002+11:00

another excellent point made by the troops at crikey

this time the defence department outsourcing the application response process to tmp - now i have nothing against the folks at tmp but you gotta wonder about the security of the applications don't you?

another instance of not thinking the outcomes through perhaps??

full comment here:

"ASIO is advertising for intelligence officers, but to apply, you have to email a recruitment company for an application form (intelligence@tmpworldwide.com.au.) You can see this on the following page. But how good can ASIO's security be if a private company (and a foreign one at that) will have the name of every applicant? TMP may not necessarily know who is successful with their application to become an intelligence officer, but they will have a complete list of applicants and so if anybody later on ever wants to find if someone is a ASIO intelligence officer or works for ASIO they can just see if their name is on the applicant list. Seeing as TMP is a foreign company, how safe can it be giving them a list of all ASIO job applicants? You'd think ASIO would be handling that in-house. Their own website says:
Please note: All applications for employment with ASIO are handled in the strictest confidence. It is essential that you DO NOT discuss your application with others as doing so may adversely affect your application.
But they still outsource the recruiting of Australia's spy agency to a foreign company --- that doesn't seem very good security to me."

blueday2008

2008-10-09T23:45:00.002+11:00

one of the more important days of the year for us to reflect. i am sure that most of us have been touched by

mental health . some closer than others no doubt. i will always remember my uncle coming to town. generally having

had too much to drink, generally off his medication. but us as kids not really understanding the illness he suffered.

i guess in some respects it was not really the type of thing that was spoken about. was there an element of embarrassment?

possibly. fear? probably. not to mention the element of surprise.

he was a genuinely nice guy, highly capable, could sell ice to the Eskimos type of guy. just really struggled with his

illness. as a kid i recall taking him back to one of the many institutions he was in and out of. it was a pretty

sombre affair. as my uncle hopped out of the car a lady decided to hop in. she started touching my head and was

very nice and clearly happy to be in the car. me and my brother were in the car so as two young lads do, we started

giggling, so did she. the episode was probably only a few minutes but seemed much longer. i remember wondering

why these people acted "differently" and why they were kept away from the general public.

i am very glad that today we are able to communicate far more openly and honestly about mental health. it can only

be of benefit to all of us.

may we all rejoice tomorrow in this most important day and ask ourselves: is there anything i can do to help?

death of newspapers - this is gettin serious

2008-10-08T16:13:00.002+11:00

this article was just too important not to reproduce, another gem from the good folks at crikey.com.au

"Kohler: Newspapers are the new vinyl
Alan Kohler writes:

Fearing for the death of newspapers is a bit like fearing for the death of vinyl records or, now, CDs in the face of Blu-ray disks.
That might seem like sacrilege from a lifetime print journalist and the former editor of two newspapers, and I don’t want to downplay the emotional attachment of many people to the romance of newspapers, including my friend and business partner, Eric Beecher, and my friend and former colleague on The Age, Michael Gawenda.
But really, newspapers are just vehicles to disseminate journalism and the advertising needed to pay for that journalism, they are not the journalism itself. LPs used to be the way we listened to music until a better way came along. There are still vinyl tragics who still think LPs are the best way to listen to music, but not enough to make it worthwhile for anyone to make them.
In fact newspapers are a very poor way to send or receive the written word, or any sort of information for that matter. 150 years ago they were the height of new technology but now they are archaic, and in decline for good reason. They are limited in size, they only come once a day, they’re dirty, they use enormous energy and resources both in their production and delivery, and they cost a lot.
They have two advantages (I can’t think of any more): they are very portable and ink on paper is easier on the eye than screens.
I think it is obvious that now that the website has been invented, the disadvantages of newspapers become more obvious to the customers and vastly outweigh the advantages, just as the clunky disadvantages of the VCR came to outweigh its advantages as soon as the DVD was invented.
As someone who has managed both a journalism website and newspapers, I can tell you that the former is by far the best way to distribute journalism, apart from the portability thing perhaps, although my thin laptop is as portable as any newspaper. Websites contain more stuff, they are instant, they don’t require fossil fuels to deliver them (or not much anyway) and they’re cheap to produce.
That cheapness means that the production of journalism has been hugely democratised: no longer do you need a lot of capital to go into business producing and disseminating journalism. In fact there are thousands of single-person "newspapers" now, called blogs, and huge variety of other sizes.
The big problem is the mass business model. Newspaper proprietors over the years have used the protection of high barriers to entry to gouge super profits from their customers and build even more capital with which to defend their turf.
This has paid for some pretty good journalism, mixed in with a lot of rubbish designed to further the vested interests of advertisers and proprietors, or simply to fill up the space between the ads with PR material. Overall, the "rivers of gold" allowed newspapers companies to employ more journalists than they needed -- and still need.
Now a new business model for delivering journalism to customers needs to be found.
Eric and Michael are castigating Fairfax for just going the slash and burn route and not using more imagination. But I think they both agree that however imaginative Fairfax is, the company will have to employ fewer journalists in future than it does now -- that this is not a matter of choice, just a matter of how to get there.
When vinyl records gave way to CDs the record companies made more money because the cost of production was lower and they were able to charge more for the product because it sounded better.
That is not happening in the transition from newspapers to websites, even though websites are better and cheaper than newspapers. The cost of production falls dramatically, it’s true, but the price -- cover price and advertising rates -- falls even more -- to zero in the case of cover price. Margins are squeezed. A lower cost model is required.
Trying to "save" newspapers -- that is, distributing journalism on dirty, inefficient, archaic and expensive slabs of paper -- is not the answer. The customers now want to pay less for the product, so we have to make it for less. It’s as simple as that.
Send your tips to boss@crikey.com.au, submit them anonymously here or SMS tips and photos to 0427 TIP OFF."

the power of defeat

2008-10-01T13:22:00.003+10:00

clearly on reviewing the time lapse since my last entry i am not dealing very well with the end of the afl season. specifically that it ended a week earlier than it should have for the mighty doggies...

anyway, having derived some assistance from counselling and the rest from whiskey i am back

the main reason for this entry was to let all your hr and recruitment people out there that there is some col free stuff available over here - http://www.teamleaders.com.au/thankyou_free.htm

or here http://www.teamleaders.com.au/free.htm

happy reading

into the spirit

2008-09-05T14:38:00.001+10:00

look forward to seeing all you crazy western bulldogs supporters at the "G" tonite

if i can coordinate my entire family to be there the rest of you have no excuse

carn the doggies!!!

crazy times indeed

2008-09-05T14:26:00.002+10:00

first i am told that virgin mobile is actually part of optus - reasonably weird, but then this today from the fin review about vodaphone getting in on the crazy johns action - crazy indeed

do i hear telstra taking out three?

how about woollies taking out the iga group?

when will this stop?

and more importantly, what does the continuing consolidation mean fro us - the mug punters??

louis coutts says dont play it safe

2008-09-01T16:31:00.004+10:00

i like what louis coutts has to say in this blog entry. to sum it up he is catiouning us against going for the metronomic recruitment process. to look beyond the facade and dig deep. take a risk. in this "quality candidate scarce market" surely louis' point of view is worth more than a brief review??

i especially like these comments from louis:

"What makes the difference in an organisation is having smart people. They might not be your conventional tick-a-box, predictable and reliable company person who knows the rules and plays by them. They might unsettle some people and come up with ideas that are against the conventional wisdom."

read louis' entire blog entry here

treat em fairly they say

2008-08-18T07:47:00.002+10:00

well it seems pretty obvious and commonsensicle but itwire felt that it was more than newsworthy to publish this story about employees performance being linked with their perception of being treated fairly at work.
the fact that these studies still exist is quite frankly astounding. in this day and age of candidate scarcity and higher enlightenment, employees still appear to be n the receiving end of the employers stock whip - or at least perceive this to be the case.
i wonder whether a mild adjustment in attitude and perspective from both camps would solve most of this perceived issues???

disclosure - the author is both an employee and an employer at this point in time :)

what do you think?

in defense of twitter

2008-08-11T09:40:00.002+10:00

a recent question in linkedin questioning the relevance of twitter got this response from me:

Quite frankly I find Twitter to be one of the best communication and knowledge tools available. Where else can you tap into a collective consciousness of many? Both professionally and personally i continue to be astounded as to the benefits that come form this tool. I would update regularly each hour. Less so on the weekend. Using both computer and mobile devices to stay plugged in. Interestingly, your comment about teens keeping in touch may not be that accurate. I have a few nices who are huge facebook users but cannot see the benefits to twitter. In discussions with my fellow "tweeters" the consensus seems to be 23 - 40 year olds are the heaviest users.
Sure it takes some time to get your head around how the twitterverse operates, but personally, and professionally i cannot recommend it enough.

hilarity on a saturday night

2008-08-09T23:22:00.002+10:00

cant take any credit for this list other than the fact that i found it out there...

50 things i wish i could tell me younger self - click here

solid gold form 1 - 50

enjoy

tmp issues relecting recruitment industry in general?

2008-08-09T12:55:00.002+10:00

the guys from shortlist brought us news of downsizing at TMP (full article produced below) - one of Australia's Tier 1 Recruitment Advertising Agency. This announcement comes after Adcorp (one of TMP's competitors) posted impressive profit results not so long ago.
So the question is, are TMP losing business to Adcorp or are the TMP woes reflecting a sluggish recruitment market in general. Is this a portent of things to come??

My sense is that TMP have struggled since being taken out by the new owner a few years back and have never been able to aggressively reposition themselves. They have become sluggish and are now paying the price. Adcorp and HMA Blaze to a lesser extent appear to have circled TMP and gone in for the kill.

having said all that, you cant help but feel that the slowdown in recruitment has contributed to this as well

any other ideas??

Shortlist Article:

TMP downsizing
Employment marketing and branding company TMP Worldwide is understood to have announced a round of layoffs this week.

Insiders say 17 people will leave the company's various offices around Australia after a number of key account losses.

TMP chief executive Alex Walker and head of agency Todd August did not respond to Shortlist's requests for comment today.

one last one

2008-08-08T00:33:00.002+10:00

who says kharma does not exist??

after being most impressed by what the parramatta city council and seek have done with their site - newworkcity - i did the obligatory prize draw entry for an ipod shuffle

and won it

how special

it now sits on the x trainer and keeps me occupied while i sweat it out

kharma

task completion

2008-08-08T00:19:00.001+10:00

if outlook tasks or other task managers are not working for you here is a brutally simple one - nowdothis - not sure if its for me, but u cant fault the user interface

interesting

communication

2008-08-07T22:52:00.003+10:00

so you are writing a letter that is explaining something that was beyond your control - but completely incapacitated you. you need it but you cant control. you love it and its full of mystical grandeur, but it lets you down. sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly.

what is it?

not your parents....

but

the internet, or more specifically in our case today, the internet service provider...

working on the right words to convey equal parts sorrow and shared frustration. hope i get the message across properly

reaching out

2008-08-07T19:39:00.003+10:00

i cannot stress enough how much support is out there. there being the clouds and those interacting in that space. we have recently stumbled upon (through another cloud app) what we think is going to be an excellent site for customer interaction. its free, funky and pretty straight forward. its risky, but so far the rewards far exceed the risks. and what they hey, we are an internet based web 2.0 company so we should be pushing the boundaries - shirley??

the site i refer to is get satisfaction

look us up - bigredsky limited

go well

classic case of picking the wrong person

2008-07-24T15:01:00.002+10:00

how jetstar would love to have their time over again with this one, another cracker from crikey.com.au:

Jetstar: they lied and they stole my money

Barrister Peter Faris QC writes:

This week I booked a domestic flight on JetStar. My scheduled flight time was 8.35am. Thirty minutes before that is 8.05am.

I arrived at JetStar (Tullamarine) at 8.03am, failed to get the automatic machine to work and then showed my electronic ticket to the JetStar assistant who said that I had to get in the queue.

There were about 20 people ahead of me in the queue and by the time I got to the counter it was a couple of minutes after 8.05. I was told that my ticket had been forfeited, sold to someone else and that there was no room on the flight, that is, the flight was closed.

As I had forfeited my ticket I received no refund and JetStar were able to charge twice for the same seat.

I protested. I was told that this was my fault because I had not checked-in (presumably, completed the computerized check-in process) before 8.05am. I was told to read the Conditions. Well, I have now read them.

Condition 8.1 states: "For flights departing from a domestic terminal, check in will close 30 minutes before scheduled departure and for flights departing from an international terminal, 60 minutes before scheduled departure. You will not be able to check-in after these Check-In Deadlines. Arrival after these Check-In Deadlines may result in you forfeiting the entire fare paid." Condition 8.3 states: "If you arrive late at check-in or the boarding gate (see 8.1), you will forfeit your Booking and no refund will be paid".

Both these conditions require the customer not to "arrive" late. Arrive where? We are not told. I infer that, at least, it is an arrival if you are in the queue. Well, I had arrived before the deadline. I was in the queue when the deadline ticked over. They had no right to forfeit my ticket until they had ascertained that I was not in the queue. This could have been done by an announcement or a query of the people in the queue.

JetStar have their computer set to close the flight at the deadline time. In my case, the computer did that and then allocated the tickets to standby passengers so by the time I had reached the desk there were no tickets left.

In fact (and law) they were wrong. I had "arrived" and was entitled to be checked-in.

My view is that it is sufficient to arrive in the vicinity of the check in counter and that JetStar, before it forfeits the tickets, must make an announcement calling for the persons who have not checked in.

JetStar's treatment of me was disgraceful. No doubt they do this as a matter of practice to many other customers. They lied to me about their own Conditions, they illegally forfeited my ticket and they stole my money.

The moral of the story is: never fly JetStar.

hat tip to fairfax

2008-07-24T13:50:00.002+10:00

when the independent news outlet crikey.com.au plug another media player, they are doing something special

crikey today reports that fairfax is one of the better placed newspapers globally to deal with the shift from print to online. crikey's plaudits are set out below - seems like new zealanders are really making things happen for big australian brands - first you have david kirk of all black rugby union fame steering fairfax thru what must have appeared exceedingly murky waters a few years back to emerge in their current robust state - now we have robbie deans taking the wallabies to international competitiveness (although this weekend will be an excellent litmus test) - all i want to know is when we will be electing a new zealander for PM?
seems like there is a subtle shift of power to the land of the long white cloud... could this be retribution for trevor chappell and his underarmedness?

Further evidence just to hand of the publishing miracle that is Australia's Fairfax group, a newspaper stable immune from the cruel realities besetting their peers across the newspaper printing globe. Bloomberg reports today on a US news icon in trouble:
New York Times Co., the third- largest US newspaper publisher, said second-quarter profit declined 5.5 percent as job cuts and price increases failed to make up for plunging print advertising sales. Chief Executive Officer Janet Robinson said today that the company is accelerating cost-cutting efforts in the face of a slumping US economy and will exceed a target for $230 million in annual savings by the end of 2009. Robinson also said the New York Times newspaper will raise its weekday newsstand price by 25 cents to $1.50 starting Aug. 18.
June ad sales tumbled 16 percent, the most in at least two years, mirroring the slide reported last week by Gannett Co, the largest US newspaper company. The publishers were hit by a steeper drop in national ads, coupled with a continued decline in classifieds as marketers moved to the Internet.
"I doubt whether you'll see any improvement at all this year,'' said John Morton, a newspaper industry analyst in Silver Spring, Maryland. The drop in June is "about in line with what other companies are reporting.''
Readers and employees of Fairfax must be grateful for the wise and diligent stewardship of the Fairfax executive and board, a group cannily steering a course calculated to insulate Fairfax from the market trends that are slowly killing the world's great newspapers. As CEO David Kirk puts it: "We are past that here. We know how to do our newspapers well and we know how to do the internet well, and we can put them together to deliver a fantastic 24-hour news product.”
Phew.

more social networking false starts

2008-07-22T21:47:00.003+10:00

craig donaldson from human resources magazine has put out a cracker of an article on the experience so far with some companies. however the more obvious one being linkedin seems to be traveling well in general. personally i find linkedin to be an amazing treasure trove of information. in my day to day travels i would access this vast database 20 - 40 times referencing certain people and organisations. as a recruiter i can see that the opportunities are endless - whether internal or external to an organisation. all it takes is time to get started. if you need a starting point why not look me up at linkedin and i would be happy to help you out - hope my picture doesn't scare you off....

craig's complete article can be find here

as always i am all ears to your thoughts about this

go well

fin review gets into the talent game now

2008-07-22T10:55:00.002+10:00

when the nations premier financial rag starts banging on about the talent shortage now and the deepening crisis into the future - its worth considering your responses within each individual business

apparently our uni's are not getting the enrollments that we need to fill the gaps that we perceive to be a reality in the future

speculation but worthy of some form of action plan methinks

check out the entire article here

more social networking

2008-07-20T21:28:00.002+10:00

had my first experience at catching up with an old school friend thru facebook
now i will be the first to admit that i would never attend a reunion of any of the schools i attended - the therapy is working slowly, thank you for asking :)

however there is always a handful of people that were super cool to hang out with (mainly outside the class that you were both just kicked out of of course) and one of those (in the my schooling sense) found me on facebook.
so, that's pretty cool

and that's about it

hope he doesn't turn out to be an axe wielding homicidal maniac - that would dampen my social networking enthusiasm a bit :/

go well

PT just started looking loads better

2008-07-20T21:26:00.001+10:00

check out this headline from the Fin Review, yowsahs, i might go into the car parking game instead of the hr game!!

Sydney parking costs more than NY

18 Jul 2008 | The Australian Financial Review | Matthew Cranston

Parking your car in the CBDs of Sydney, Brisbane or Perth is more expensive than in New York, according to a global survey.

website is now up for the shop

2008-07-09T22:08:00.002+10:00

after months and i mean many months of agonising over the look and feel, we have boldly (with mild doses of trepidation) launched our new website
the shop is a niche retail and education outlet specialising in patchwork and quilting and is the oldest of its kind in victoria, australia
we are absolutely thrilled to now have a real presence in cyberspace and would love to hear any feedback - good, bad or ugly

more social networking at work...

2008-07-09T19:05:00.001+10:00

another great advance for the argument in favour of social networking usage at work from the good folk at shortlist

Survey reveals growing acceptance of social networking sites at work
A survey of managers has found that more than a quarter are now embracing the use of social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace in the workplace.

In a survey of 375 professionals by Konica Minolta, as part of its Innovation: Mind the Gap research series, 27% of managers believed the sites had a role to play.

Managers under 40 years of age were more likely to support the use of social networking by staff, at 33%, than those over 40 (16%).

show me the money!!

2008-07-09T11:10:00.002+10:00

more proof of the growth in importance of human resources to the corporate world with hudson reporting hrgm and directors are now clocking between $180 - $400K in annual salaries - great news and not before time
what is equally interesting is that hr departments are finally getting more say in budgeting and allocation of budgets
many hr professionals that i meet with today have observed a softening of the approach towards hr spending and not just in recruitment agency usage
indeed this morning at a mycareer breakfast seminar the keynote speaker robert mcgovern of jobfox and careerbuilder fame expressed that each hr department should maintain an experimental component of the hr budgets to, well, experiment with different attraction, recruitment and retention programs - now the cynical may say that rob is feathering his own nest and that by me making this entry so am i but the truth is experimentation and innovation go hand in hand
one must take well researched gambles to ensure that the organisation stays ahead of the curve

so, you now are being paid better than ever you can start experimenting with different techniques, one of which should of course be the purchase of the bigredsky applicant tracking system :)

go well

social network unplugged

2008-07-08T17:03:00.002+10:00

after reading a shortlist article about an application that searches across multiple social networks my interest was piqued
when i decided to have a look, the system was down
not a good look
i feel for the good folk at spokeo and hope that it is up soon
when it comes back up it might be worth you investigating it further for your recruitment function

Social networking search site launches
"Friend-finding" website Spokeo is targeting recruiters with a search service which canvasses the spectrum of networking sites for specific candidate information.

Spokeo uses an email address entered by the searcher to collect information from more than 40 social networking sites, including Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn.

It was launched in 2006 as a service for individuals to keep track of their friends, but its creators have this week launched a second version of the site, called Spokeo/hr as a commercial tool for recruiters.

The information available through the searches is already publicly available by default, Spokeo points out in its privacy terms, but the Spokeo process makes it much faster and simpler to gather.

continuing the advertised jobs theme...

2008-07-08T14:52:00.003+10:00

interesting article in crikey.com.au today about the weakening in the job market. whilst they are having a crack at the major news outlets for bypassing this story, the stats are very interesting and demonstrate that things are cooling in the recruitment market
have you got your plans ready to take on this changing landscape?

article continues below:

Newspapers are missing the story in falling job ads
8 July 2008 Glenn Dyer writes:
Once more Australian newspapers have ignored a major story about the way their own businesses are travelling. Job advertising has plunged as the economy has slowed and the major newspaper companies, Fairfax and News Ltd, have forgotten to tell this business story as they busily snipe at each other, bag TV and radio and trawl over the debris in the stockmarket.
According to figures from the ANZ Bank, newspaper job ads have fallen 22% from December to last month. Overall jobs ads are off 4.3%, thanks to the smaller 2.8% fall in internet job ads.
The ANZ Bank said yesterday that job ads again fell in June both online and in major newspapers. Newspaper job ads were almost 18% lower last month than in June 2007. And figures for the Fairfax metro and national papers show a miserable month in June.
The ANZ said the total number of jobs advertised in major metropolitan newspapers and on the internet fell by a seasonally adjusted 3.0% in June to a weekly average of 262,705 per week. That was after a 1.7% decrease in May. The total number of advertisements in June was 6.2% higher than 12 months ago.
In December the ANZ reported that the total number of jobs advertised in major metropolitan newspapers and on the internet jumped 7.1% in December to a weekly average of 274,653 per week. "This represents the strongest monthly increase since May 2007. The total number of advertisements in December was 31% higher than December 2006.
Job ads started fading from February. The ANZ said that the number of job advertisements in major metropolitan newspapers fell 3.5% in June to an average of 16,593 per week.
"This followed a 13.5% decrease in May. Newspaper advertisements are now 17.9% lower than in June 2007."
This contrasts to the experience last December when, according to the ANZ job ads in metropolitan newspapers increased 3.9% to an average of 21,292 per week, to be up 3.9% on December 2006.
In June, the ANZ said the fall in newspaper job advertisements "was driven by decreases in Victoria (-6.8%), the ACT (-5.7%), Queensland (-5.6%), New South Wales (-4.1%), and the Northern Territory (-2.3%). In contrast, South Australia (+1.0%), Western Australia (+0.3%) and Tasmania (+16.6%) bucked the trend."
In December it was a different story, the ANZ reporting that job ads increased in NSW by 7.7%; Tasmania (8.8%); the Northern Territory (8.2%); the Australian Capital Territory (6.3%); South Australia (5.3%); Victoria (2.3%) and Western Australia (1.2%). Queensland bucked the nationwide trend with a small decline (-0.9%).
And in analysis sent to its clients this morning, Goldman Sachs JBWere said "Fairfax's metro mastheads ended the 2008 financial year on a soft note.
"While the total average page count remained relatively resilient (May up 3%, June flat), it was increased editorial and display advertising that masked the c.12% decline in classified pages over the May-June period.
"Total average page volumes by masthead across May-June, were: flat at the SMH; down 3-4% at The Age; and up 8% at The AFR. In classifieds, the average weekly count across all mastheads showed a drop of 6% (on pcp) in May, followed by a notable 17% decline in June. The key point area of concern was the softening in May-June employment page volumes at the metros (SMH -20%; The Age -11%).
"While this was slightly offset in May by more robust real estate volumes in May (SMH flat, The Age +9%), this was not the case in June (SMH - 3%, The Age +3%). At the AFR, pages of classified display ads were flat on pcp in May, but down 25% in June with flat real estate volumes offset by ongoing weakness in employment."
In contrast to the 22% slide in newspaper job ads since December, the number of internet job advertisements fell by 2.9% in June to average 246,112 per week. That compares to December when they surged 7.4% to 253,361 per week. That's a fall of 7249 jobs, or 2.8%.
Send your tips to boss@crikey.com.au, submit them anonymously here or SMS tips and photos to 0427 TIP OFF.

Want to read some more?

Crikey is Australia's leading independent online news service, and publishes a cracking edition every weekday covering politics, business, media and much more.

Register now, and we'll send you the full Crikey edition for the next 3 weeks.

Check out www.crikey.com.au for independent, questioning and quirky news and commentary.

Copyright © 2008 Private Media Partners. All rights reserved

hr job listings

2008-07-08T13:36:00.002+10:00

just in case you are not aware of it this site - www.jobsinhr.com.au runs a daily email service of hr advertised jobs
its a great resource if you are keen to stay abreast of all happenings in the hr space
kinda useful to if you want to benchmark your team and/or yourself against the industry

hope this is of use to y'all

happy hr'ing

a good weeks worth

2008-07-04T17:04:00.002+10:00

isn't it just great when you can look back on a week of racing around like a near madman appearing to have very little direction - only to find that at the end of the week you have ticked off many action items that had been harassing you along with many more that raised their head during the week?
now with my son practicing his golf putting in the office and acting like he is on a driving range - methinks its time to call a week
hope you all have a great and restful weekend
ciao

co-operation

2008-07-03T17:53:00.003+10:00

something that we all learnt to spell in countless hours of sesame street seems to be lost on our illustrious political leaders. just when you thought you might be safe to get back into the water my esteemed premier brumby decides to buck the system - excuse the pun, saw the opportunity and went for it. it appears that victoria are holding out for a better deal or torrential rain. i was wondering what the state cabinet was doing out on the steps of parliament house this morning in their american indian outfits dancing in a circle - but now it is crystal clear...
cmon guys, remember the old chestnut - drastic times calling for similar measures? check the ego at the door and avoid the dust bowl epidemic that we are rapidly streaming (insert pun 2 apology here) towards...

disclaimer: this author owns 3 children and has a vested interest in the future.

more oz rpo news

2008-07-03T17:43:00.003+10:00

looks like hudson are trying to beef up their rpo standing in the community according to the good folk at shortlist today
having spoken to a number of people in the industry about rpo the jury appears well and truly split on the long term viability of this offering in the australian market.
it will be most interesting to see how each of the main players: hrx, talent2, alexander mann, futurestep, hudson and some of the more niche players like liam and co at the rpo group get on as the economy tightens and candidate scarcity becomes well less scarce.

what shortlist had to say today:

Hudson hosts event for RPO clientsHudson's managed services clients will
gather in Sydney today to discuss current trends in recruitment process
outsourcing.Hudson Managed Services executive general manager Kimberley Hubble
said the Ideas Summit would be a chance for clients to discuss issues like
workforce planning, employer branding and on-boarding."We expect the day will be
full of open and frank discussion and as a result provide participants with a
number of different perspectives on the issues that are most pressing on their
HR agendas."She said clients attending the conference - which Hudson planned to
hold annually - included Johnson & Johnson, Sensis, Medibank, Perpetual,
Bank of Queensland, Sanofi-Aventis and Merck

hiring plans weaken amongst corporate australia

2008-07-02T15:33:00.003+10:00

another pearl from shortlist today reflecting a tightening of the labour market in australia, this time hudson are weighing into the debate
this report matches up with a recruitment agency benchmark that has shown successive quarters of perm recruitment contraction
so now both sides of the recruiting world are aligning in the contracting recruitment market

just putting the bigredsky story forward - our statistics show incredible growth year on year for the last 2 financial years in new customers, new vacancies created and job board hits. however we also show a much smaller increase in the number of applications received. it will be interesting to watch the first 2 quarters of this financial year for the new trends amongst our fine customer group

so, what are your intentions moving forward?

i would love to hear from you

the shortlist article is set out below:

Hiring confidence has shrunk for the second quarter in a row, according to the Hudson Employment Expectations report.

The national survey of around 7,300 hiring managers found that the number planning to increase their headcount in the next three months had fallen 2.9 percentage points to 40.8%.

The number of respondents planning to cut staff rose 0.8pp to 6.6%, and the number expecting no change grew 2.1pp to 52.6%, bringing the net positive hiring effect down to 34.2%.

There were few surprises regarding the states and sectors which remained the most confident, with employers in Western Australia and those in the mining and construction sectors reporting the strongest hiring intentions.

A net 52.8% of WA employers planned to hire more staff in the next quarter, up 4.2pp. Net hiring intentions in ACT, while low at 30%, were up 5.2pp - the State's first rise in sentiment in 12 months.

Hudson Australia managing director Gary Lazzarotto said confidence in WA had rebounded after a drop in the previous quarter, buoyed by major roading, health and utilities projects.

In New South Wales confidence fell to its lowest level in more than a year, down 4.8pp to 32.8%, while in Victoria it was also down 7.4pp to a net 28.3%. Queensland hiring plans grew 1.2pp to a net 42.2%, and in South Australia they dropped 4.2pp to 42.8%.

Despite dropping 3.7 percentage points, construction, property and engineering employers still posted the highest confidence levels, with a net 53.4% planning to hire more staff.

In contrast, employment expectations in the utilities sector fell dramatically, down 16.1pp to an 18-month low of 25%, while the retail sector dropped 12.1pp to 28.3%.

Lazzarotto said the drop in expected utilities hiring was primarily a result of ongoing uncertainty in NSW around the potential privatisation of the electricity sector.

Optimism in the professional services sector also fell, down 7.8pp to a net 44.5%, while financial services declined 6.2pp to 28.8%. The telecoms industry fell 9.9pp to 33.9%, while Government employment expectations remained largely stable, down 1.6pp to 25.9%.

Industries in which hiring plans grew for the quarter included mining (up 3.4pp to 45.8%), education (up 2.9pp to 40%) and IT (up 1.1pp to 44.7%). Non-profit and private health employers also increased their hiring plans.

even the big internet guys have 404's

2008-07-02T11:14:00.001+10:00

have been trying to check in online with qantas for the last 4 hours now and keep getting a 404 error. whilst this has been a pain it is kinda comforting to know that internet sites with squillions spent on them fall over too. must remember this next time someone has a crack at us :)

telstra embraces SaaS

2008-07-02T09:53:00.002+10:00

great to see telstra moving with the times and getting in on the next big thing, a mere 9 years after bigredsky adopted this platform for application delivery, kudos to those innovators back in the late 90s
if you or anyone ever needed confirmation that SaaS is no flash in the pan just take in these research results from the good folk at forrester:

The SaaS market in Australia and NZ is expected to grow at a rate of 65 per cent annually according to research group Forrester, and will be worth $506 million by 2010. Ms Shiff said Telstra's plan was to help foster and be part of that growth.

love this stuff coming through and not such a bad number to be associated with either. now that SaaS is coming out of the closet to full acceptance in the business community we at bigredsky wait with interest to watch our other major pioneering masterstroke - the adoption of the open source linux platform to continue to gain mainstream acceptance

enough of my rant about technology given the thin ice that i skate on on this area...

working from home

2008-07-01T21:25:00.002+10:00

many years ago i was nicknamed half day hawko due to my habits of rarely attending the office - what no-one appreciated, not even myself was that i was an early adopter of the whole working from home thang
the fact that i may have been severely hungover was merely a coincidence
anyways this working from home trend seems to have split the jury with another article citing the benefits
now we wait expectedly for the next anti the whole thing article to be published
the simple facts are it works for some and not for others - no great shocks - its human to be different and that is our greatest hr managerial challenge
so the next time you have an employee that expresses an interest in this brave new world - check 'em out and let out some rope for them - they will quickly find their level - or you will
i've been at it for 20 years and its never failed me yet - flexibility is the key and will always be
happy level finding

dial an rpo - just like pizza hut!

2008-07-01T15:22:00.002+10:00

here's an interesting spin on the new fad(??) of rpo services.
don't have a need for an all year long inhouse recruitment team?
no problems.
dial an inhouse recruitment team is now here... well the article is below...

is an ad hoc usage going to work? can an rpo organisation get inside your culture and understand you from the inside out on this basis??
would love to hear what you think

shortlist breaks another new hr development:

IT recruitment specialist offers "RPO when you need it"
Recently-launched IT recruitment company Technology Generation has come up with a new take on RPO, where it on-hires a recruitment consultant for a set period to its clients.

Technology Generation founder Owen Bleakley said about 70% of the company's work so far was consulting with HR departments in order to help them improve their recruitment function and train their staff in "how to recruit like an agency".

Bleakley, a former senior Greythorn and TRA consultant, said one offering which was gaining traction with clients was Technology Generation's "consultant for hire" scheme.

"For a fixed price across a month, one or more consultants will go into a business and hire any number of staff for a fixed price.

"It's essentially like having an RPO, but only while you need it," Bleakley said.

"If you look at the statistics most companies do 70% of their hires within a three-month period of the year, so the need to have an RPO for a 12-month period isn't always there."

Bleakley said Technology Generation currently had five consultants and was working with about ten consulting clients.

the recycle principle in hr

2008-07-01T15:08:00.003+10:00

recently we moved house - to our horror we realised we had been significantly downgraded in our rubbish bin size (like halved in size). when you have 3 growing kids this is as close as it gets to a full scale tragedy. so after realising from the local authority that we would not be receiving a larger bin (as they are "trying to encourage less wastage") we had to take action.
the result?
6 weeks later and we are not even filling this smaller rubbish bin. with the purchase of a compost bin and better use of the recycle principle in general we are now model reduced wastage citizens. how can we apply this to our day to day human resources dilemmas? maybe the answer is not so much recruit more and argue for increased recruitment agency budgets. maybe we can use the same recycle principle here too...

get more with what you have already got seems to be what successfactors are driving at here:

a brief snippet of their white paper is set out below - why not download the entire white paper here?

Finding 1: 67% of companies with stronger financial performance cover
all managers and some levels below with the performance
management system. Only 28% of the weaker performers do.

Finding 2: 44%of the stronger performers have almost 100%aligned goals
at the managerial level. None of the weaker performers do.

Finding 3: 38% of the strong performers have a succession planning
program in place. 0% of the weaker performers do.

In today’s hyper-competitive business
environment, companies must maintain
the highest level of performance in order
to succeed and win.

Roadmap to Success: Driving Bottom-Line Results with People Performance Enterprise Insight Series All rights reserved. 2 Source: Berggren,

and a light note to end on

2008-06-30T21:56:00.002+10:00

one of my favourite authors of all time has made it on igoogle with this gem that perhaps strikes closer to home than i would like to admit:

"He attacked everything in life with a mix of extraordinary genius and naive incompetence, and it was often difficult to tell which was which."
- Douglas Adams

mr adams r.i.p.

should equest be concerned?

2008-06-30T21:52:00.003+10:00

more from the UK as a new multi jobsite ad posting service gains some traction by signing voyager software as a new user - see the whole story here
fly by night or the real thing? only time will tell, but they sure have some stiff competition from the lads at equest who have been around since adam was a boy

can the recruitment agency cold calling???

2008-06-30T21:49:00.002+10:00

here is something interesting fresh out of the UK - a website brokering potential preferred supplier agreements - could this result in a reduction of cold calling and message leaving and returning??

have a read and let me know what you think?

recruitment fees

2008-06-26T10:33:00.003+10:00

an interesting article from the good folk at shortlist re recruitment fees and how ceo's are more than happy to pay them:

Most CEOs are aware of the value of talent in today's skills-short market and are prepared to pay fair recruitment fees, but that message isn't always getting through to their finance and HR departments, according to Adecco Australia CEO Ray Roe.

Speaking at the recent RCSA Consultant Conference in Sydney, Roe said he frequently had CEOs tell him "Ray, I don't care about the price, I need people".

so there you go, your ceo's are happy to pay the fees so just go do it, sort of....

having said that, one of my engineering firms disclosed a huge recruitment agency budget that they operate with so there must be some truth in mr. roe's statement above

i guess it just comes down to the individual ceo

social networking update update

2008-06-25T22:16:00.002+10:00

ok
to show that i can be balanced about this topic i proffer the following:

in a recent meeting with a fast growing travel agency we discussed amongst many things - attraction strategies. the topic of social networks was raised, especially facebook
the view of the hr team was that although they could attract some of their potential staff from this mechanism in their view the costs outweighed the benefits
they are very protective of their brand
they are not convinced that the whole facebook phenomena is for them
they do understand that many companies are taking the plunge
but hey, its just not for them right now
will that change - possibly, we are keeping an open mind

fair enough

a well thought through process and hats off to all organisations that hire hr staff that have the courage to take a stand instead of simply going with the flow...

nice to see the calibre of hr operators continuing to rise in line with their position within the organisation

social networking update

2008-06-25T20:54:00.002+10:00

and from the good folk at shortlist.net.au - trust me it's $200 well spent and they even give you a 30 day trial period - you cant go wrong...

so more news on the social networking fad from shortlist:

Social networking sites are still growing in popularity as a recruitment tool, according to senior recruiters at today's RCSA business breakfast.

Talent2 national retail practice manager Geoff Whytcross told the breakfast that social networking sites were a much cheaper alternative for sourcing candidates than traditional advertising - but it was important to choose the right medium.

Talent2 was focusing its efforts on developing a strong presence on LinkedIn, he said, because "it's not about social activities, it's really more about people being able to network more".

Xpand IT NSW director Rhys Hughes said all new Xpand consultants went through a day-long training course on internet search skills, and the company had profiles on Facebook and MySpace as well as a clip on Youtube.

However, networking sites should be approached with caution, he said.

"LinkedIn is the one we all know and use, but I think you want to be careful about who you link to.

"We all have an individual brand so publicly you're stating, 'These are the people that I'm happy to have represent me.'"

phraseology = confusiology??

2008-06-25T20:52:00.001+10:00

i like this article too from the hr magazine people and not just because of its pythonesque reference:

HR jabberwocky

Could someone please tell me the difference between talent management and
human capital management? People come into the corporate world talking
like normal people and within a month, a week if they're quick learners,
they are bereft of simple English. Conferences, speeches and meetings, are
awash with trite terminology, each new phrase more convoluted than the
last. And who is more imaginative and colourful than the HR folk.

check out the full story here

the bearer of good news

2008-06-25T20:50:00.003+10:00

great news for all my human resources friends out there - you guys are in for pay increases
check out this article from hr magazine here
something to look forward to - possibly a good point of leverage for that end of year bonus??

social networks and recruiting

2008-06-24T10:06:00.002+10:00

ok, i admit to being a fan of most things online especially the social network phenomena so its not fair or reasonable for me to comment on how it might be used in our world of hr and recruitment so, over to another hc magazine article featuring deakins law firm survey results on the matter.

SEEK tinkering...

2008-06-24T09:41:00.003+10:00

everybody is getting into this online recruitment thang...

Parramatta City Council has partnered with Seek to launch a new web portal that will assist job seekers in the area. Welcome to Your New Work City will build detailed profiles of key industries, companies and recruitment agencies that exist within Parramatta.

this one is probably worth keeping an eye on as seek rarely get involved unless it is going to work

also, this could herald the beginning of the emergence of geographical job baords in australia (highly prevalent in the US of A) - a tough gig to get off the ground unless you are well funded or control loads of web traffic - both boxes appear to be ticked here

employer of choice?

2008-06-24T09:30:00.001+10:00

nice post from hc magazine

"Best employers: To be the best - June 2008

Hewitt has been taking the pulse of businesses for over 60 years. Its Best Employer list has become the definitive guide to who's leading the pack in terms of people policies. Human Capital talks to Hewitt Associates' David Brown

The key to Hewitt's pre-eminence in the employee research space has been its commitment to understanding the linkages between employee behaviour and business outcomes. By undertaking extensive research and partnering with leading academic institutions and external judging panels, the organisation has for the past 15 years led the field in the now-crowded HR consulting space via its signature annual Best Employer list

read the rest of the article here

retention, recruitment, referrals what's the priority

2008-06-19T20:18:00.002+10:00

in my travels i find this discussion continuing to gather momentum. the decision to direct resources to hr functions. do we beef up our recruitment team so that we can meet demand by bringing more candidates into the company? do we beef up our employee relations and talent management teams to retain and develop our current employees. do we engage our current employees to act in a recruitment role by embarking on an employee referral plan? why not do them all?
put your hand up and ask for help from the experts in each of these fields. its actually not as hard as it sounds. most "c" level execs nowadays are well aware of the impact poor employee management processes are having and if they're not (and they certainly should be) you can point them to a number of articles citing the costs of turnover and recruitment. google any of these terms and you will be overwhelmed with the information.
the most important aspect is to get some perspective form outside the company. engage a consultant who has the runs on the board in this area and that you feel completely comfortable with. pour out where the company is at, what you would like to achieve and the consultant will help you finish off the picture.
what ever you decide, make sure you do something for no company can afford to be left behind now.

candidate, candidate, where for art thou candidate?

2008-06-04T21:33:00.002+10:00

many different ways to skin a cat - we've all been told it and we all acknowledge it. so is anyone trying attracting candidates through anything outside of the traditional recruitment advertising forums?
you've all heard of facebook and the jury is certainly divided on its place in recruiting. regardless of which side of the jury you sit on its better to be informed than not so check out some more information here

let me know what you think

so many apps so little time

2008-06-03T08:12:00.002+10:00

do you ever get the feeling that the exponential expansion of the universe of web based/mobile based apps is going to do your head in?
just as i sign up for 1 expense tracking app over the web another is thrust in my face through the twitter network
what does this all mean?
one thing's for sure - we need to stay focused otherwise nothing will ever get finished
happy hunting

ouch

2008-06-02T17:45:00.002+10:00

now this has gotta hurt - i have lost a few deals in my time but i sure wouldn't want to be the sales manager trying to plug this hole:

Adcorp signs three-year deal with WA government
Listed recruitment advertising agency Adcorp has won its second major state government contract in six months.

Adcorp announced to the ASX today that it had secured the Western Australian government's non-campaign advertising contract ,which includes all recruitment advertising.

The business was previously held by Perth company Marketforce Express and covers recruitment advertising, public announcements and other non-campaign marketing for all WA government departments and authorities, as well as local government authorities and publicly owned non-profit organisations - around 800 users in all.

The contract is for a three-year period from August 1, with one potential extension of two years.

from shortlist news, another great font of hr based news

thought for the day

2008-05-29T21:55:00.003+10:00

"when you are at the end of your rope - tie a knot and hang on"

my auntie, god rest her soul would leave me with this chestnut on most of my rants about life and not fair and all my normal angst ridden ramblings

she spent over 50 years in a convent and whilst i am no religious man she always got my vote for demonstrating convictions and commitment - what a great lady hope to catch up with her again...

hope this helps

good source of hr info

2008-05-29T21:51:00.001+10:00

i like what these guys are up to
plenty of ideas and techniques churn out of their website and mailing list
well worth subscribing to keep the information pouring in on all things hr:
check them out here

over yonder in the US of A

2008-05-29T21:43:00.002+10:00

plenty of good stuff is streaming out of the states at the moment and a publication that i have followed since 2004 is still going strong. check out their latest efforts here

large volume recruiting

2008-05-29T21:39:00.002+10:00

anybody looking to motivate 1000's of gen y to hang around at their workplace - check out how kfc are going about it:
yum way

talent talent talent

2008-05-29T21:36:00.001+10:00

we see this word everywhere nowadays - anyone would think that it is integral to taking a breath - another recent article worth a quick squiz:
talent hr mag

2008-05-29T21:29:00.001+10:00

the guys at zoom have got part of their next newsletter organised and this article looks great. for anyone in hr that wants to get a better understanding of who they are recruiting and how to approach them better:
zoom newsletter

enjoy

clients, users, forums

2008-05-23T17:24:00.003+10:00

today we held an informal function with some of our clients all using our recruitment software in varying degrees.
the overwhelming feedback was not make the product better - an incredibly refreshing perspective, but a plea to help them sell back to their stakeholders and decision makers the benefits of understanding how to use the system better
the shift in human resources over the past 5 years has been quite drastic
more hr professionals becoming commercially savvy with realistic expectations and the schutzpah to back themselves when they uncover a better way and implement this regardless of the change management required knowing that this will be catered for during the implementation
it was an invigorating moment to watch our users interact with each other and virtually take the session in the direction they wanted - the ideas generated from this session resulted in the swapping of phone numbers and promises of "i will call you to discuss this further" echoing in my ears - it certainly is a great time to be working in HR and i salute all those who are plying their trade in this industry

the working week

2008-05-16T17:21:00.000+10:00

as a week of highs and lows and everything in between draws to a close i reflect on where we are. lots of meetings, plenty of graft and a good slice of luck have all played their part in delivering a great outcome for the business and for me personally. but what was it really?
for the last 9 months i have changed tack considerably from a singularly aggressive push approach to business and have allowed a more inclusive whats in it for all us approach and shock horror, its more fun and works considerably better! who would have thought that it would only take 7 years of the relaxing and meditative influence of tai chi to claim me as another convert. but yes folks its true and i am happy to report it.
so here's another example of the power of us versus me. and you know what - it really does feel great to have others phone you to thank you for the lead that resulted in a big deal.
for anyone who is interested in what this tai chi gig is about, check out this site: http://celestialtaichi.com/
its good stuff and i am living proof, just let yourself go with it...

Is it a war for talent or a challenge to improve people strategy?

2008-04-09T14:01:00.000+10:00

My challenge to corporate Australia is not to adopt a war like mentality, for war as we know is good for nothing (thank you to - Frankie goes to Hollywood). Surely we do not go to work each day in a bid to wage war? Surely we go to work each day to execute our daily tasks to achieve our required outcomes. The call is not then for war but to perform smarter. Improve our approach through asking yourself what is required, what are my resources, how are other organisations doing it, are there vendors out there who can help (insert rapidly flashing BigRedSky logo here for subliminal advertising), what other resources are available to me?

Improve your approach to people strategy – how can I use the resources at my disposal internally – my people, to assist me in the delivery of an enhanced people strategy? In turn will this engagement with my employees and colleagues result in a better retention of staff? You can be guaranteed that it will result in new ideas and considerations that aren’t even on the table. Use what is all around you, bend with the challenges and open your eyes to the possibilities close by.

If in the end you have to wage war, always wage it with a fist in a glove.

taking time

2008-04-06T20:48:00.001+10:00

after dropping my dear wife Kylie to her quilt show today - the third day in a row and covering her birthday yesterday to boot, i arrived home with plenty to get done.
moving house in 3 weeks, reports to finalise (not to mention start) that need to be in motion this week, to do list to update and re -prioritise and our 3 kids to look after!!
after organising lunch it became patently clear that the kids were not up for dad retiring to the computer to get things moving and after a brief moment of rage (mainly contained internally!) i did the unthinkable and closed the notebook....
after 4 hours straight with the kids watching them ride bikes, sitting and talking, assisting in tree climbing techniques and contesting a hard fought game of "keepers off" we were totally shagged but the feel good vibe had returned for all of us.
on mum arriving home their was no hissy fits and clamouring for her attention, just happy kids that were happy to see mum but equally cool with giving her some space to unwind.
simple stuff this parenting, so simple that its really easy to complicate it by pushing too hard.
good lesson today for us all
enjoy time, take time and happiness will come
maybe i can use this approach in other areas too - maybe we all can?

now, where is that to do list?

until next time...

go well