The Dignity Of Work

Often when I introduce my company, I’ve been asked, “Do you mean human resources?” Actually. Not. Fundamentally, there is a philosophical difference in the 2 concepts, thus a huge difference in the type of services and solutions. Without getting too technical, conceptually, the difference lies in the word “capital” and “resources”. While we may think … Continue reading »

My journey to start my own company in France is an incredible adventure. Though it’s not directly related to recruitment matters dedicated for this blog, I hope it can help to provide a perspective for companies aiming to start operations in another country. As a non-european foreigner in France, it took me 18 months before … Continue reading »

As companies grow, a natural evolution is expansion in different geographies and/or business lines. For recruitment companies, this can also be governed with changes in the way people work and how companies engage people. In the 50s, we see a build up of temporary work, in the 80s, outsourcing became a new cost reduction trend … Continue reading »

Talk about coding and it provokes all kinds of emotions from recruitment consultants to knowledge professionals. The purist will argue that knowledge cannot be coded. On the other hand, coding is the only way to find things in a database. Let’s consider the most important asset other than the consultants themselves in the recruitment industry … Continue reading »

Coming from Asia and working in Europe, I’ve had the occasional discussions where companies look to expand in the east. Most of them are companies doing well in UK with a portfolio of international clients also looking to expand in Asia. Some are opportunistic especially when the recruitment market in Europe has slowed and others … Continue reading »

It is incredible how quickly a company can fall. Currently, I am reading “Too big to fail” by Andrew Ross Sorkin. As I flip through the pages that document the incredible downfall of big financial institutions, the stories of such downfall is not limited to the financial industry. For a recruitment company, the rise and … Continue reading »

I’ve been asked several times, “how can we specialize when we are (5, 10, 15) people in the company?” It’s a catch 22 situation. In recent days, specialization is no longer an accessory in marketing communication of recruitment firms. It has become a harsh reality. Let’s face it, if a company is willing to pay … Continue reading »

On Friday, 10/2/2012, Spain has announced several labour reforms approved by the cabinet. Spain’s unemployment stands at 23% and 50% for those under 25 year olds. The policies were mainly targeted to make firing cheaper for companies. In an attempt to reduce cost of firing, these include: Reducing from 45 days per year of work … Continue reading »

Google has recently changed its privacy policy. Instead of different policies for different products and in different countries, it has created a single policy. For a recruitment company that maintains a candidate database, privacy policy is also a key consideration. Typically, a recruitment company has to have approval of a candidate before they can use … Continue reading »

Often, when the term knowledge management is mentioned, the next part of the conversation is followed either by “what do you mean?” or “do you mean the data base system?”. The mistake will be to spend time trying to explain it. Too often, explaining about knowledge management only end up labelling it ultimately as a … Continue reading »

No business is foreign to metrics or key performance indicators. For the recruitment profession, this is integral to avoid month end shock or quarter end nasty surprises. More importantly, it is to provide a line of sight for management in a service industry where delivery is not as predictable as the manufacturing of goods. It … Continue reading »

I had a flash thought the other day that recruitment is a dying profession. Or maybe it is not the profession but the professionals themselves. I have a doubt.The world has gone through many changes. From the industrial revolution to the technological revolution, these changes have affected all industries including the recruitment industry. Recruitment started … Continue reading »

A friend exclaimed one day, why do the French need all these meetings? For which I respond, why are the Americans so agreeable? I used to say, generalisation is the basis of all jokes. So it is with much tongue in cheek and humour that I use the following examples to explain cultural differences. In … Continue reading »

There is no need to gasp, there is no need to frown, there is no need to point fingers. Because modern day slavery exist and is rampant in modern economies. There is no controversy, except irresponsibility. I refer back to Dan Rivers’ report on CNN which is part of the modern day slavery series of … Continue reading »