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recruitment

Does the truth matter anymore?

Last Modified: January 18, 2020

Does the truth matter? Businessman with pinocchio nose

Does the truth matter? Mark Twain once wrote “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.” That’s a fine attitude for a fiction writer, but for most of us who work, run businesses, or are in public life, it has generally been considered that being “economical with the truth” is not […]

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Filed Under: leadership, recruitment Tagged With: interviews, values

The truth about “great” interview questions

Last Modified: January 7, 2020

Great interview questions - Why written on paper

There’s a lot of nonsense spoken, and written, about interview questions. A recent LinkedIn post about how “great” the “sell me this pen” question is, had accumulated 36,513 likes and more than 2500 comments at the time of writing this. Of course, it’s not a great interview question – unless you want to hire someone to […]

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Filed Under: recruitment Tagged With: interviews

Are your interview questions a strength or a weakness?

Last Modified: April 19, 2017

interview strengths and weaknesses

One of the most used interview questions is “What are your stengths?” This is closely followed, of course, by the inevitable, pointless, question about weaknesses. These stock questions reveal little about candidates, who are mostly well-rehearsed and trot out equally stock answers… How many times have you heard that your candidate is “a perfectionist” or […]

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Filed Under: recruitment Tagged With: derailers, Hogan, interviews

First interviews: 6 tips for the perfect match

Last Modified: May 3, 2017

valentine's day perfect match

It’s Valentine’s Day and there’s no rest at bfpeople towers as we continue our work in finding leaders and developing talent – creating more perfect relationships in the workplace. The path to the perfect long-term hire, like the path to true love, is rarely easy going and it’s often said that the first interview is like […]

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Filed Under: recruitment Tagged With: interviews

Are your candidates committing CV fraud?

Last Modified: January 23, 2020

CV fraud - image of candidate with a mask

There is a lot of CV fraud around… Tonight, the BBC Apprentice show has its infamous Interview round where candidates are grilled about their career history and business plans. Audiences delight in the fiction exposed in the candidates’ CVs and their boastful brags being shot to pieces as the candidates squirm and try to explain […]

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Filed Under: recruitment Tagged With: CV

How do we plug the creative skills gap?

Last Modified: July 18, 2020

skills gap

Matt Hancock, the government minister responsible for the creative industries, spoke recently (read his full speech here) about how important the sector is to Britain’s future. He promised ongoing commitment to the industry and this is good news, of course. But his speech comes at a time when skills are diminishing and good people are […]

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Filed Under: development, leadership, recruitment

Spending your recruitment budget wisely

Last Modified: November 28, 2020

spend your budget wisely

“Do you use Powerpoint?” “Yes. I do.” “Great. Because this job really needs an advanced knowledge of Powerpoint to design and make presentations to staff and the board. Um… Er… How are you on Employment Law?” It was at this point that I splashed my coffee in the lounge of a well-known Business Centre just […]

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Filed Under: recruitment Tagged With: interviews

Recruiting a full sales team

Last Modified: December 5, 2019

recruiting sales team

A B2B supplier of high value, capital goods asked us for support in recruiting a team of sales people for a specific project. The business was launching a new range and needed to rapidly increase awareness and achieve penetration in its target market. We were asked to suppor the compnay in recruiting a full sales […]

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Filed Under: case study, recruitment

Why is it so hard to recruit good candidates?

Last Modified: May 16, 2017

recruiting sales team

Despite the economic uncertainty, some notable business failures in the industry and the vast increase in candidate registrations on CV database websites, many organizations find it difficult to attract and recruit good candidates. This is nothing new.  Companies have always had to compete for the best, but there was a time, when I started as […]

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Filed Under: recruitment

Creating a talent pool

Last Modified: December 5, 2019

talent pool

The one where we created a talent pool of staff to build capacity A UK university had an ongoing requirement for high quality administration staff for the various faculties and departments across the large organisation. It found it was advertising for the same types of skills in the local press every week with considerable duplication – there […]

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Filed Under: assessment, case study, recruitment

Are you “untouchable” at work

Last Modified: September 3, 2017

jose mourinho - untouchable

Jose Mourinho has said today that none of the Chelsea football team should think they have a permanent place in his team selection, saying “At this moment I don’t have untouchables.” Mourinho has been talking about “untouchables” for at least 9 years: in December 2006 he said: ‘Claude Makelele is untouchable because of the way […]

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Filed Under: leadership, recruitment

A tight recruitment brief

Last Modified: December 5, 2019

recruiting for your business

When a client needed specific skills in their new appointment. A high profile Business to Consumer service organisation was recruiting a Director of Communications and Customer Services into a “lion’s den” of an appointment. The company was making the headlines for all the wrong reasons, there were significant industrial relations issues and customer satisfaction was […]

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Filed Under: assessment, case study, recruitment

Recruitment Lessons from the Scottish Referendum

Last Modified: December 6, 2019

recruitment lessons from the referendum

In 48 hours or so, I (and around 4 million others) will cast our vote in the Scottish Independence Referendum. A simple “Yes” or “No” stating whether we believe Scotland should be an independent country. I make binary, Yes or No decisions every day. Many are important – my decision whether to reject or shortlist someone […]

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Filed Under: recruitment, views & opinions

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