jackbarton.co.uk

Hello people. Sorry it’s taken so long.

Firstly this is my second ding-dong with politicians and / or civil servants. I’m not able to publish events from the first meeting although the most senior civil servant present wants to meet me for some career advice and to discuss a move out of the public sector. I was accused of throwing my toys out of my pram. I accused him of insulting the intelligence of every SME owner in the UK. He’s a good guy.

Here comes the craziness.

This evening I attended an event at Portcullis House organised by an incredible charity initiative, SpearHead, part of the Resurgo Trust. Having lost tens of thousands of pounds to a similar project last year I was stubborn enough to want to make this a priority. Contrary to almost everyone else, I like to talk about my charity work. It gives me immense satisfaction seeing young people grow and achieve. Many extremely well-heeled types there tonight. Easy to knock them, but at the end of the day they are taking time out of their lives to help disadvantaged kids. Good on them.

So after a great opening speech from Ambassador Hart, The Right Honourable Stephen Timms comes to the stage. He’s the Shadow Minister of State for Employment. That’s like being the ultimate recruiter and economy starter. We all need jobs, right? Jobs drive the economy and fill the Chancellor’s pot up with magic beans. I don’t see that there’s a more important job, but then again I’m biased. He’s an odd looking chap which shouldn’t go against him (but does for me, sorry), and you may remember the poor guy for being (almost) stabbed to death at his East Ham surgery by a nutter at his surgery in 2010. She’s now doing Life.

So at this event for a charity which has helped countless people into private sector work, he stands up and within seconds says that in his experience THE CHURCH PROVIDES THE BEST PLATFORM TO HELP YOUNG PEOPLE INTO WORK.

The Church. At an event organised by a fantastic social enterprise that for once actually understands the private sector. He smiles knowingly. We are all confused. It was out of left field. He has been saved and wants us to know too. It’s obvious. He steps down. I, for one, am stunned. He is in charge if Labour get in. Young Enterprise – forget it. Careers advisors etc. Nah. Apprenticeship schemes, paid Internship companies. Nope. The Church. The Church is the best bet. He failed to mention how and then stepped down to what I can only describe as 5 seconds of intermittent slow clapping.

For the record, I am not against the Church or any other belief system. People I love (not like) have been affected positively by religion or similar and who am I to judge? If it makes you a better person, I am all for it. But please don’t impose it on millions of people when there are professionals about!

Just to reiterate, this guy is THE SHADOW MINISTER OF STATE FOR EMPLOYMENT. But then I had a thought. Had he done some very last minute prep and gone to www.spearhead.org.uk instead of www.spear-head.org.uk?

Was I in The Thick of It? You decide.

People love to knock an agency recruiter don’t they? Well here are my thoughts on that.

I am proud of the net revenue generation myself and my colleagues generate in the employ of the companies we own. Here’s the kicker for me; our organically grown companies generate over one million pounds per year in taxes alone. That’s an awful lot of nurses, teachers, social workers, carers, service men and women etc.

I recognise that it’s my civic duty to contribute positively to the GDP of the UK. I’m not saying that I can guarantee it, but I’m aware of it and I would hate not to be able to achieve that. My sister is an incredible asset to the NHS at Great Ormond Street as an Occupational Therapist. Frankly she could easily double her money as a contractor but won’t do it. Her fiance is an outstanding and quite inspirational teacher in London. My mother, her mother, two aunts and two other grandparents were also teachers to many kids whilst being advisors and friends to so many people. My mother dedicated the brunt of her career to kids with life shortening disabilities and later severe learning and behavioural disabilities in Croydon and Lambeth. It takes a special kind of person to do that. I can tell you from first hand experience that there is nothing to be gained financially from this. You have to be special. Did I mention that my brother is an absolutely outstanding teacher too? His kids respect him so much despite being at an “awkward” age and as for his results…… hold that A button down and see what happens. He would comfortably be my favourite teacher if I was at school, especially as he’s a fully qualified Director of Cricket too. Legend. His wife works with teenage mums. Even my cousins are the same; youth services (she’s amazing) and Primary School teaching (she’s waaaaaay smarter than me). Oh and let’s throw in a Sea King Rescue Helicopter pilot now re-trained for specialist RAF helicopter missions overseas for good measure.

I see apparently “respected” recruitment commentators (often with no direct experience) on social media channels consistently having a dig at agency recruiters. I get it; there are some inexperienced people out there, and the odd grossly incompetent individual. Here’s the rub. If you’re not bright enough or mature enough to recognise the contribution that the vast, VAST majority of us make to the UK economy and our understanding of the need and pressure in this economic climate to exceed the expectations of our clients, then you don’t deserve to include yourself in this wonderful industry that all began externally with us, the agency recruiter.

So the point I’m finally making is that for a while I felt almost guilty around all these incredible people. They are all so…….you know……….good! I’ve struggled to accept it at times but I’m a commercial animal and always have been, ever since my early teens. On occasion I’ve wished I could do what they do, but you know what, without people like me and the people I work with who generate revenue and therefore taxes there would be fewer jobs for them in the public sector, and they wouldn’t have the chance to have such a positive impact on so many peoples’ lives. Once I realised this everything suddenly made perfect sense to me. What we do as recruitment businesses has a huge impact on society. The more financial movement we generate as a consequence of the upward human mobility we affect, the more money we are putting towards the development of incredible people in our public (and private) services. Not all of it will get to them, I grant you, but don’t let anyone ever, ever put you down. If you didn’t do what you do these wonderful people wouldn’t be able to do these jobs. So be proud. Keep your head up high. You are part of a dynamic, multi-billion pound industry that is an essential part of our wider society.

So thanks Dad, for believing in us all those years ago and giving us the 5k nobody else would to get our businesses off the ground. You knew all along.

Why does nobody mention the recruiter experience?

We had our quarterly do last Friday – we didn’t quite hit the target which meant we all swanned off to Portugal to lap up some much needed vitamin D, but nevertheless did do just about enough to merit a full day out razzing it up the Thames in rib boats, a big fat lunch and more or less 12 hours of drinking in a plethora of London’s drinking holes, all dressed in golf gear.

Whilst admittedly I sneaked off a little bit early, terrifyingly conscious of my 5.30am human alarm clock on Saturday morning, I came away from that day with one overriding thought – I work with a great bunch of people who genuinely enjoy working together, at the companies I started. Complete sense of satisfaction, and despite feeling like I’d been hit by a milk float when I woke up, I managed a big smile.

This got me thinking – these guys work long hours in a pressurised environment to deliver a quality service to clients and candidates. I read stacks of stuff on the candidate experience, the client process and satisfaction levels, but frankly I’ve never really had to focus on that much or even give it much thought, because for me it all starts with who your recruiters are.

Hiring and training a recruiter is an expensive business. Within our business model we don’t expect a successful consultant to break even for the business for 18 months. That’s right. 18 months. I’m talking break even, not get to the point where they’re covering costs. Very rarely are you able to successfully integrate someone from another recruitment firm, so it’s much more likely that you will have to train your own – we’re somewhere around the 85% home grown mark. In my opinion, if you’re a good recruiter it’s extremely rare that you will leave a business. We’ve never lost anyone to a competitor (touch wood!). Why is that?

Working conditions. I truly believe that working at Oyster or Ocean is a unique experience. There are a number of factors that contribute to this.

Firstly, we pay better than anyone else in our market. This is fast-paced, 85% contract contingency recruitment. It’s hard, demanding and the pressure is relentless. Regardless of what any well-meaning observers think, our guys are money motivated. They have to be. We conduct salary surveys and are aware of all the various commission schemes out there. We want to be known for rewarding our guys and girls, so we do. We have monthly commission, quarterly bonuses, holidays abroad, experiences, meals at top restaurants, personalised gifts etc. If you think all the above doesn’t matter, then show me your business that has lasted longer than mine not doing it. They all know that rewards follow success, and success requires quality in all areas, so what’s the problem?

We have a fantastic office right in the heart of the West End. I don’t want to work in a dull part of London with nothing going on, so I don’t expect my staff to either. Of course when you also factor in the opportunity cost of consultants visiting clients and candidates in all four corners of Greater London it’s a sensible decision in any case.

There is a clear career plan from the top to the bottom of the business. It’s in black and white for anyone to see if and when they want to, complete with job descriptions and expectations for each and every level along the way. You do this, this will happen. Simple, but how many companies have this mapped out? Clarity is so important.

We provide excellent resources for the recruiters, their clients and their candidates to work with. We’ve almost all got excellent CRM systems these days and budgets for advertising (I had one 45 word advert per month when I started), but what else can you offer? Online timesheets with cost centre reporting? Online contract documentation system with 80%+ signature stats? New tech such as MyResourcer and TheSocialCV? Their own Twitter job handles, sector focused Facebook Fan Pages, Specialist LinkedIn Groups, even individual websites per division. Analytics packages? Recruitment Training? Parties for contractors? Yes! Research everything you can, have a look at everything that comes on to the market and decide what is best for your business. If someone fails to deliver it cannot be the fault of the company – that’s bad management and even worse economics.

We treat people like adults here. Of course there’s an element of enough rope to hang yourself but there has to be. Nothing is restricted and we don’t have childish and suppressing internal dos and donts. If you want to do well, you will, but the squeaky wheel doesn’t get the attention as is often the case. It’s an old and slightly cheesy saying, but we champion the champions. If you are prepared to work your socks off to succeed you will without doubt get looked after.

We enjoy great communication and a deep rooted company ethos. We don’t knowingly hire bad apples – who does? I’m not saying we haven’t, but they don’t last long. Our people have a natural and inherent sense of what is right and what is wrong, what is ethical and what is not ethical, what is morally the right thing to do and what isn’t. This is the bottom line and it’s this, that with the right training and focus, leads to the candidate and client experience that is widely talked about and sought after.

The recruiters here are the driving force in our business. They are the ones that sweat blood and occasionally even tears to create the revenue necessary for the company to succeed and move forwards. If I’m going to find the time to improve the experience for anyone, it’ll be for them. If *I* do my job properly then everything else will follow.

Oh, and we’re hiring. From entry level upwards.

@jackkbarton

Social Media Executive & Office Administrator role for a busy and ever growing recruitment group comprising of The Ocean Partnership, The Oyster Partnership and JobshopHQ, based in a newly refurbished Central London office.

Location – Glasshouse Street, W1

Salary – £20-22,000 dependent on experience

A fantastic entry level or graduate role for someone interested in Online Marketing and also for an individual who is interested in business development, as you will be working with an excellent team of enthusiastic and entrepreneurial professionals, who are willing to teach you a lot!

No professional experience is required, although some will always be beneficial; we are more interested in intelligence and personality. Ideally you will need to be full of ideas with the desire to learn and develop. You will need to be willing to research new ideas, work independently and proactively.

The Online Marketing side of this role will include:

• Managing of Twitter accounts for two companies. Encouraging engagement with potential or existing clients/ candidates and monitoring RSS feeds and Job feeds.
• Managing of Facebook for two companies, including a number of industry specific Profiles and Fan Pages, posting updates, engaging with potential clients and candidates.
• Managing of LinkedIn Groups, industry specific ones, moderating membership, posting updates and comments and encouraging the consultants to also interact.
• To be available as a source of advice on all things Social Media and to encourage good social media practise within the recruitment team.
• To conduct weekly meetings with the consultants to observe their progress and to advise on new methods for going forward, setting them targets.
• To liaise with the Directors and Managers with regards to new ideas and the progress of the projects.
• To create an Email Marketing campaign with help from the Directors and the Managers.
• Manage and update a WordPress blog for two companies
• Create and manage Facebook and LinkedIn adverts, with help from Directors and Managers.
• To keep up to date statistics about all of the projects, so that progress can be tracked.
• To keep up to date with the latest developments in Social Media and Social Recruiting, in order to keep the business ahead of the game.

The Receptionist/ Administrator side of this role will include:

• Greeting visitors to the office and helping them complete any necessary paperwork or admin.
• Proofing, typing and formatting CVs
• Maintaining two databases, updating information and uploading documents
• Assisting any members of the Office with any administration.
• Being responsible for ordering stationary and other items when required
• Liaising with other companies on behalf of the company with regards to IT, phones and other queries.
• Managing room bookings and a calendar.
• Checking various email inboxes and replying/ forwarding promptly and as required.
• Franking post.
• Running general errands for the Office, e.g. going to the post office.
• Assisting Managers with Monthly Reports using Excel.

The type of person required will have the following qualities

• Good customer service skills, for dealing with visitors.
• Knowledge of all MS Office packages, particularly Word and Excel.
• Interest in Online Marketing, Social Media, the Internet and Business Development.
• Strong writing skills and good written English.
• Knowledge of Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook for business or a desire to learn.
• Organised, able to balance workloads and complete work on time.
• Creative and keen to develop own ideas.
• Ambitious, willing to work hard in order to develop this role.
• Experience using Adobe Photoshop may be beneficial.
• Graphic design skills may also come in handy!

This role is currently around 60% Administration and Receptionist work and 40% Social Media/ Online Marketing Executive. However, the role is still very new, with room for growth and the chance to make the role your own. With enough hard work, enthusiasm and interest, there is potential for this role to become a free standing Social Media/ Online Marketing role within a year or so.

To apply for this role please send a CV and short covering letter to jack.barton@oysterpartnership.com or contact me on twitter – @jackkbarton

NB Due to the overwhelming amount of interest in this role the closing date for applications will be Thursday 19th May at 5.30pm. Thank you.

OK so the title’s a bit misleading but let’s be honest, you’re here now so you might as well read my latest musings.

I’m a relative newcomer to Skype. I wasn’t lucky enough to take a Gap Yah, nor do I have relatives I keep in touch with in far off places. I am however starting to look at international business so I’m experimenting a bit.

I’ve noticed that whilst everyone focusses on tools such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to recruit / source, nobody mentions Skype. Why is this? Here’s a plan. I don’t want to be @MrSkype or anything, but it’s a start.

On 28th March 2011 30 million users were logged in to Skype. That’s a lot of people, and probably puts the number of active users to 180 million. That’s also a lot of people. More than I am able to count. Lord knows how many inactive users there are. There are 845 million accounts, so go figure.

Now as you probably know I’m not currently a recruiter, but if I was then I’d want the ability to contact people privately in order for them to be able to talk freely and openly. Skype enables you to do this, and with an app on the iPhone (and maybe Blackberry?) this won’t just be at home in the evenings and at weekends.

I know that Skype is great for long distance interviewing and a high quality webcam on a stand alone PC is a good idea for any recruitment office, but I’m talking about sourcing here.

So what’s the process?

Firstly, set up your professional (not personal) account with Skype. Fill in all the gaps and add a photo that doesn’t make you look like something out of The Addams Family. Add your LinkedIn profile or blog if you have one, and maybe your Twitter handle if you’re not publicly embarrassed by it.

Next import all of your business contacts from LinkedIn and Twitter. This can be done by exporting all contacts into .csv files from each of the applications and dropping them into a Gmail account. You can then give Skype access to your Gmail account and using the information you have provided, it establishes which of these has a Skype account and contacts them on your behalf to add them as a contact. You need these contacts for credibility.

Clear so far?

So, when you’ve established who you want to speak to, you may want to find out if they have a Skype account. The Skype account may not just give you the ability to speak with them outside of the office, but could give you invaluable profiling information such as accurate location, hobbies and interests, along with dates of birth etc.

In Skype click on Add Contact. You may have a private email address for the person. If you use The Social CV you may well have that person’s gmail address. Even if you just have a name it may well be possible to identify the person you wish to speak to based on the profile you already have – there is excellent public visibility even if you aren’t a direct contact of that person.

Of course they may not accept your invitation but if your profile contains the right information, why not? It’s more socially acceptable than putting a call into their office, even if it does require a bit more groundwork. If they accept you can of course message them, not just call or video call. It strikes me as being an underused sourcing tool.

If you already do this it’d be great to hear from you, and if you try it with some success I’d love to hear about it.

Happy Hunting!

I’m all about myth dispelling. I love it. There is so much nonsense spoken in the social recruiting world by inexperienced social recruiters or by failed recruiters taking a new path. By failed I mean people that have hopped around from company to company without ever having made money. While we’re here, let’s dispel another myth – contingency recruitment IS a sales industry. You are selling jobs to candidates (on behalf of the client – they pay recruiters to do it and they want them to do it) and selling CVs to clients (on behalf of the candidate). If any tree hugging beard-faced pinko Guardian-reading leftie wants to think otherwise, more fool them. God this is cathartic.

Right, back to the point. LinkedIn is not social. It’s business business business. It’s an online, open access information store. Ok ok, there are some comments in the group sections where people have a bit of an inane natter about stuff, but I’m not going on there to tell them about how I went to Auntie Mavis’s funeral on Saturday. It’s all about the business.

So if you’re a recruiter that needs to pay to hear someone to tell you to use LinkedIn – you’re an idiot. If you are surprised that people are recruiting successfully using LinkedIn, you’re an idiot. If you tell me your candidates aren’t there, I tell you to look for your clients, because they are. If you tell me your clients aren’t there, I tell you to look at the events and find some. Oh, and join some relevant groups. That way you’ll be able to contact people directly. That’ll be a grand, thanks.

The point is, I want to know and learn about social recruiting. Let’s exclude LinkedIn from this. Let’s hear about proper social network recruiting. I’m of the generation that had to learn about these things, rather than grow up with them. I want to hear about @irishrecruiter hiring 27 people through twitter. I want to hear about @billboorman arranging hundreds of interview in just one month for Hard Rock Cafe. I want to hear @radicalrecruit bang on about using Facebook to recruit. What about Branch Out? Why haven’t I heard more? Is it going to be crap? Maybe there’s a gap in the market for a @MrBranchOut. And we can do this until @wepassout.

Time to cut the apron strings folks. LinkedIn is old news. Let’s press the eject button and focus on Social Recruiting.

Including LinkedIn stats when talking social recruiting metrics is something Alastair Campbell would be proud of. They hide a myriad of untruths.

Let’s keep those waters clear. Recruiters will spend more on this (and therefore push its progress) if they see that the bullshit has been taken away. They’re not as stupid as you think….

You know what folks, I actually hired someone via a job I posted on Twitter this week. I don’t work for a household brand, so this is possibly news. I think I may be the first person on Twitter to actually do this. Want to know how? Read on.

It’s so bloody obvious when you think about it. Recruitment companies and job boards send jobs out to Twitter, often in very clever ways. I know because I do it. We do it at Oyster and Ocean, and our Jobshop customers do it via our software. We hashtag the living daylights out of the job in the ideal way for them to get found yet still look attractive. The trouble is, I don’t believe that jobseekers generally have got anywhere near realising that they can search for jobs on twitter. I think they will catch up, for sure, but that doesn’t really help the now, does it?

So this was my initial tweet at 9.20 on Monday 28th Feb –

“Calling all grads – I’m looking for a front of house type with good social media skills for @oysterpartners in Soho #graduate #job #london “

Nothing out the ordinary there – not even a link to a job spec which we normally do as a business, but this role was internal and it’s working for me, so I just tweeted it to my network.

MY NETWORK. It’s taken me a while to get to 500 followers. I have to assume that at least some of them are half-interested in what I do. As it happened a few very kind followers re-tweeted it for me as presumably they thought it might be of relevance to some of their flock.

My dirty Northern chum Martin Edmondson ,CEO of the award-winning Yorkshire Graduates took it upon himself to re-tweet the job to his vast network, bless him. Within minutes I’d had a few messages and within a couple of hours I was receiving CVs. And yes for those of you with elephant-like memories I know I tweeted this on 19th Jan.

“I’m close to giving up with using twitter to recruit. Useless, and yes I’ve tried lots of different approaches.Think we all need to wake up.”

I said close to giving up, not giving up. So anyways we shortlisted and arranged interviews. Some via Martin’s network but others suprisingly direct. As of yesterday, the very lovely Jayne Read became our most recent employee. All thanks to Martin telling her to include the use of Twitter in her job search.

So Twitter isn’t the magic bullet, nor is Facebook or LinkedIn. They’re all useless unless you’re able to network. They are just vehicles for your hard work and effort – they don’t replace it. They are modern day Rolodexes (Rolodices?) for those of you that remember how we used to do it. If you don’t take the time (and it does take time) to put that information in yourself then develop and maintain it, you won’t get anywhere.

I’m sure that some of you are sitting there reading this thinking, “Of course it’s about your network Barton, you blithering idiot”, but for me it was a real lightbulb moment. I think sometimes it’s easy to get carried away with promising and potentially groundbreaking new methods whilst forgetting, temporarily, what made you famous. Don’t you?

I Hate CV Databases, and So Should You.

I have never known a Job Board CV database to be of any real use to a recruiter. The opportunity cost of searching through mounds and mounds of often out of date CVs, and finally stumbling across ones that may be of use, only to find that every other agency under the sun has been in touch with them resulting in overwhelmed jobseekers who sadly can’t pick a good agency from a bad one is often overlooked.

As a manager there’s nothing worse than seeing the office quiet and consultants gormlessly ploughing through reams of dross, trying to find the diamond in the rough. We all know it’s an easy way of pretending to be working. Yes I know there are watchdogs you can set, but how many use them properly? Just get on the phone and talk to people!

Frequently at Jobshop HQ we’re asked what our CV databases are like. We run RailJobshop and LondonJobshop as well as licensing the software to others. Our answer is always the same. They’re growing every day and whilst we know that there are a few gems in there due to the fact that the boards are niche, only a small percentage of people that register on our sites are actually happy for their details to go public – currently under 5%. It’s so frustrating to see the behind the scenes average quality of applicant compared to the average quality of database candidate, and it amuses me how many people expect you to have an extensive CV database within a few weeks of launch. This isn’t the late ’90s you know – we’re not allowed to do that stuff anymore, not that it was legal then! In fact I seem to remember Mr Cowling getting awfully cross with Skillsite, but that’s a different story.

I’m sure it makes sense to you reading this, but the greater the number of quality adverts you have on our sites, and I’m guessing any job board, the higher the quality and frequency of jobseeker applying. Much higher. Much much much higher. If you write good advert copy, then you’re going to do even better. Contractors / temps / freelancers do, contrary to opinion, apply for contract jobs. They just have to find you, and you need to make that as easy as possible for them.

My advice would be to replace the time you or your staff spend looking for CVs on databases with time well spent writing quality copy, and getting it out there through as many channels as you can. You may be amazed with the results.

@JackkBarton

RailJobshop and LondonJobshop are integrated with Broadbean and Idibu and are currently free job boards…to advertise contact dan@jobshophq.com

Happy New Year Folks! I hope this year brings you everything you want from it. If you play your cards right, there is no reason why that can’t happen. Here are my tips to running a successful recruitment business in 2011.

1) Pay more attention to your existing clients. Spend time with them and find out what they really want, and make sure you implement it rather than talk about it. You could be surprised by the extra business they may give you.

2) It’s going to be tough. I don’t anticipate much in the way of growth for recruiters aside from banking and IT until the last quarter of the year. There will be emerging markets that will do well, such as renewables and yes, new markets within media! Bankers will be natural energy, finance, IT and fast moving temps.

3) Look at services outside of just placing staff. Can you help in other areas? Payroll? HR? Corporate Finance? Business matchmaking?

4) You are going to need to care more in 2011. Your staff, your candidates, your clients and your competitors are all going to be more aware of what you do and how you do it. This is the way things are going. Transparency is going to be a tough pill to swallow for some of you, but if you are running your business in a morally and ethically correct manner you may even dispel some myths and gain more support from all sides through this. It’s therapy for business and it’s this area that I am most looking forward to opening up to. I have nothing to hide, and with our accounts being audited this year everything is out in the open.

5) Don’t chase bad business under pressure. Stay calm and hold out for quality reciprocal arrangements. The agencies promising clients 10% won’t deliver and you won’t be able to either at that price so hold firm. Quality comes at a price worth paying.

6) Make sure you look into the financial backgrounds of all clients. You may want to take out credit insurance, particularly within the construction industry. It’s expensive so weigh it up.

7) Marketing has changed beyond recognition. Look at what you’re spending and how you’re spending it. Are there ways of getting more out of your existing candidate database rather than chasing new talent?

8 ) Network! Really, it’s not that bad. I’m so disappointed that I took the view that I didn’t really need to do it for so long. Of course you meet some wrong’uns, but I have made more valuable connections in the last year than I did in the previous ten.

9) If you’re in a bit of a hole there are many options available to you – talk to the experts. There’s the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme for one (the old DTI Loan). Did you know that you can borrow up to £1m now? Thought not. Talk to your bank and your accountant.

10) You are good at what you do so build on that. Don’t chase it. Dominate an area or two. There are plenty of recruitment success stories that have evolved from niche markets.

Good luck everyone and have a fantastically successful 2011!

@JackkBarton

It never ceases to amaze me how every SME recruitment business owner bangs on about the need for top recruiters; the back office never gets a mention, despite the fact that without it there is no front office. This post is for you, finance people, the unsung heroes of the recruitment business.

Having worked in mainly a middle and back office function for the majority of my career, I thought I’d pass on some of my tips for a successful and smooth running back office. Without it, you, Mr Recruitment Firm owner, are goosed.

1) If you need a factoring or invoice discounting provider, choose wisely. Like banks though, much depends on your account manager. You need to find someone that is experienced enough to understand the intricacies of a growing business.

2) Pay over the odds for the best staff. You don’t give a second thought to paying your top biller vast amounts of money, so why not reward your key finance people appropriately?

3) Invest in the right systems. Look at online timesheet systems. Look at specialist recruitment payroll and credit control software. Integrate all of it with your accounts package. Automate the process as much as you can.

4) Make sure you have a good credit controller on your side. It’s all very well making money, but it’s no use to you if it’s not in your bank account. Many a ‘profitable’ business has gone to the wall.

5) Why do so many companies insist on sitting their finance teams in a different office, or even in a different building? Communication is key. Consultants will understand the importance of detail much more easily if they have a relationship with the finance team.

6) Get your contractors and their companies on self-bill invoicing agreements! This will save you hours and hours of administration and phone calls. I even hear of consultants writing invoices on behalf of their contractors. What’s that all about? Ever heard of opportunity cost?

7) Use an online contract documentation service. We use Echosign. It’s fantastic for compliance too.

8 ) Involve your back office team in work dos. If they don’t feel part of the business, you can’t expect them to work miracles. The squeaky wheel gets the oil, and it shouldn’t be that way.

9) Make them commercially aware. Incentivise them. Bonus them – especially credit control.

10) Make sure they are supported by an outstanding external accountant. That person needs to be a mentor, a motivator, a supporting arm around the shoulder and the 12th man in your business. They need to exude the kind of confidence that your team will feed off.