The problem of being low paid and self employed – but the universal lesson that doesn’t mean anyone has to be unemployed in the economic down turn

I recently gave advice to a husband of a friend’s friend, who as a Polish economic migrant to the UK had found himself unemployed.

The gentleman was an eminently hard worker, who for the past five years had worked as a self-employed body repair technician at an East London garage, specialised in repairs to that superb Eastern European brand – and probably better to drive in an economic downturn than the Bentley’s they derive many of their parts from – Skoda. In fact, so impressed was his boss with his work, when his brother decided to come to the UK the boss employed him as well. Last summer, the boss took on an a 16year old English apprentice, and my friends husband has been training him up.

When the downturn came, my friends husband was the most skilled worker, so you would have thought he would have survived any downturn. No, he was first out of the door with 2weeks notice: the apprentice he trained is half as good but cheaper on minimum wage due to his age. The concern of my friend was that her friend is pregnant, and due to give birth in December, so could I help find him a job?

Firstly can I state up front, I don’t let Ajiri deal with minimum wage work as I find that many employers don’t treat their workers well at that wage level. A low wage level tends to translate into a low respect for their employees, and you hence also see low levels of work place environment, poor health and safety and many other problems. Often the employers will tell you that the reason that it all looks so grotty is because of the way the workers treat the place, but personally I think standards come from the management and flow down to the employees, and not visa versa. However, I got into recruitment because I like people, and getting people to find their feet in the work place and reach their goals is satisfying whatever the wage level, so I agreed to a phone call.

Firstly, the guy was bright and enthusiastic – employers love that, and he had an easy to get along with personality: they adore that. Secondly, he loved what he did, but had a long term goal to get into truck/HGV driving – I translated that as liking the transport sector. And thirdly, he wanted to stay in the UK for a period. However, on the downside, although he is legal (Poland is an EU state, so there are no need for entry/employment visa’s etc), and he is paying his UK taxes, he still had no UK driving license. Also, on checking his National Insurance (health and unemployment insurance), although it was all up to date, as he had worked for his employer full time for three years, the employer had not when the legislation changed added his contributions. Further, the employer was now giving him two weeks notice, when he needed to give him at least 30days.

My friend’s husband didn’t want to hassle his employer on the NI contributions or notice period, as his own brother was still working at the establishment. So we just focused on the “what next” question.

What all people need to look at when faced with such a situation, is to answer the question: What are my transportable skills? This question is easier answered if you have a certificate for some training, which as most self-employed people need to fund themselves they don’t. Hence although my friends husband was an excellent body repair technician, he didn’t have a certificate or qualification or registration with a professional body to verify any of this. Secondly, the lack of a UK driving license restricted his UK employment prospects – most employers want a photo ID for identity, and if you are a foreign national some UK paperwork to prove you are resident and won’t walk out next week.

After our first phone call, I did some checking at jobsites for work (note – I always love the online jobsite stat’s for hits, but many in my experience are just browsing: employers, recruiters and employees to check markets. The question is conversion ratio); and found without surprise that no qualifications and no UK driving license meant he was looking at minimum wage again at best, possibly as a drivers mate (ie – a health and safety load lugger). I immediately texted him back, and gave him the address of the nearest DVLA centre in London, and told him to get down their ASAP and get a UK driving license. Apparently this was quite easy for a Polish national, but ring them if in doubt – always very helpful people, but then most of them are Welsh!

In our second telephone conversation, we talked about why driving? In my view, he still seemed very committed to the sector, which was both good (employers love enthusiasm), and bad (so I had to find him a role in transport). I had done some research, and suggested a role in bus driving:

• It's like trucking, but in often prettier looking but just as macho vehicles
• It doesn’t involve long distances away from home
• The working environment is much cleaner, and involves people over constant listening to cheese radio stations
• As the employers are subject to a higher level of regulation, they are generally more respectful of their employees
• And if you don’t like it, as a formal qualification it is fairly easy to convert from a bus/PSV to a truck/HGV license

Best of all, because of the credit crunch, there is a so great a shortage of bus drivers out in the work place at present – people can’t afford to run cars, so take the bus instead – the employers are paying people to take the qualification, as long as you stay in employment for three years: you would have to pay for your won HGV training in full. Transport for London even at present have a scheme which focuses on finding and training more women bus drivers.

So, we are now two weeks later, and my friend’s husband just rang me to tell me about his first day of training to be a bus driver – and he’s over the moon with happiness!

All people are responsible for their own career management, and particularly the self-employed. Always think about what you are putting on your CV whatever work you do, and how transportable those skills are – qualifications make them more transportable to other employers. Secondly, if you do find yourself unemployed, think about how those transportable skills could be deployed in other markets – sales in real estate is a transportable skill for sales in many other sectors.

Good Luck!

What is your view on the video resume?

Michael, a recruiter asks: What is your view on video resumes? We might implement this on our site in the near future. Seems to be a nifty way to get a feel for a candidate. Also a way for candidates to showcase their people skills in a relaxed environment.

In answer:
Putting aside the legal exclusion issues, I think a simple focus on the human and process element is a better focus to answer this question. For instance:

- Do all your candidates look like super models, or Brad Pitt replica's?
- Do they all look good on a camera lens? There is a difference....
- Do they know how to perform on video, which picks up and magnifies the smallest issues? You may not have noticed that twitch until now...
- Are they being interviewed by Katie Curic/David Frost, and can your chosen interviewer build up on screen rapport with all candidates? Even Sir David can't do that...
- Are they being shot by "the next Steven Speilberg?"
- Are you using edited or unedited versions?

All of this, even if the boxes are ticked, means that the candidates generally become more nervous (what "relaxed environment" - ?), and doing a video resume takes some pre-planning: its not just turn up and go.

If you also think about the process, then I think the video resume as the first stop/replacement of the traditional piece of paper falls down in non-entertainment/arts based vocations. The first question any client has is: does the candidate have the basic skills? That can be answered in less than a page of A4 and hence read twice in 1min or less; where as dragging through a 20min video resume multiplies the process by at least 20fold - time is money.

Is there a role for the video resume? Yes, in entertainment and arts fields, as it has always been. Is there a role for the video resume in the wider recruitment world? Possibly in some fields, where the pre-planning costs and training of the candidate can be consumed in the eventual recruitment fee's generated. It can become a second-check savings tool where the basic skills check on paper can be further developed into a character-fit check on video, before the candidate is physically met and interviewed.

But as a generic recruitment tool? I have always thought of YouTube as an alternate entertainment channel, not really a recruiting world benchmark - as this example by Aleksey Vayner shows. If you watch most of the so called video resumes over there, I am not sure much as though there are some great candidates that you would because of their performances employ many of them.

Good Luck!

Remember, even in the credit crunch, there are still Births, Deaths, Marriages – and SEX!

It’s tough times now, and it is going to be even tougher times ahead in 2009 – I think we are close enough now for me to be able to write that. Many people are losing their jobs, and those who are unemployed can’t find jobs – so what hope is there?

Last week, there was a lot of bad economic data either side of the Atlantic, even after Barack Obama became President elect:

• Car sales down a record 26% to a 20 year low. The big three are hurting, and GM has said it will run out of cash in early 2009
• House sales down a further 20%, effectively now down 48% in the UK from just two years ago
• Retail sales down 12%
• Unemployment at five year highs, and heading higher

But please note – although the figures are DOWN, they are not ZERO. Why is this? Let’s take a simple scenario:

Young man on a rare night out that he can afford meets a young lady, takes her back to his place and ….. nine months later, after getting married and buying a family car, they welcome a child. His apartment now won’t suit their needs, and nor will hers, so they need a house. Houses require mortgages, and after doing a deal with both fathers on a 20% deposit, he needs a better job to pay for it while she will do some part-time work from home for the next 12months – or perhaps she employs a nanny? The house needs decorating…

One thing that is always constant, whether we like it or not, is the fact we are time-limited biological life forms on this earth. You can check this out by reading your local BDM column – it might be shrinking a bit now in the M section, but B and D are still at pretty much the same level they were last year.

These life forms are also emotional, made up of complex calculations and mixtures of chemicals which play a huge part in the micro-second calculations we each make to stay alive on this planet – including the answer to the immortal question of time, life and the universe of “do you want fries with that?”

This is because every one of them needs energy, and hence has to eat, drink, sleep – you can check this one out at the local supermarket: I still see people buying food. And every so often, because no man can be an island from his fellow man – and certainly no lady can resist the odd bit of male company, accepting that shirt doesn’t match his trousers – we all need to get merry with a few other people out there.

And every so often, when people on the odd occasion make a single mistake, they need new cars. And even if they don’t know they need a new one, the old one is also time limited through a form chemical interaction between iron and oxygen which is as old as the earth itself.

So, why are the economic figures not zero? Because life carries on – check BDM, check the supermarket, check that the sun goes up and down, and the moon comes out: life carries on.

So if life carries on, are people still being hired – Ah, YES! Why – do I have to explain BDM again? And now your question is – and how do I make myself one of those people?

Honestly, its simple – and here’s the answer: realise who you are, what your skills are, what you like and could do even if it means doing something different from what you are doing now; and then get a PLAN and IMPLENT IT.

If you have a plan and a goal, and the gumption to stick to it, something inside you picks up and wham – you ace the interview. If you don’t have a plan or know what you want to do, then you need the world’s largest economic boom to stand a chance of being employed at all.

And the amazing thing is – you don’t need to be great to get employed right now, just focused and resultantly enthusiastic; about the job, and the employer:

• If you just did 15minutes of investigation of the employer you are about to apply for a job to, your chances of getting the job would rise by 25%
• If you rang to enquire about the job before applying, your chances would rise by 50%
• And if you re-read the night before just the stuff you printed off of the computer before the day of the interview, and prepared six questions about the employer and the job, your chances of getting the job would rise by 100%.

You have just trebled your chance of getting employed, and all it took was an economic down turn to learn how to do.

Still, even now that I have told you that, I bet there’s a 66% chance you won’t change and hence do it. I know that, because I do read the BDM column and I am still interviewing candidates on a weekly basis – and both tell me that probable outcome.

So, stop reading and take some action – life is still going on, people are still getting hired.

Good Luck!

Sunday Thoughts: "English is widely spoken, but not widely understood"

I saw this quote recently, and smiled!

When I ran the largest call centre design team for a large UK based TelCo, we always trained our guys to design systems around the customer experience, and data collection for the client (it amuses me when I think about it, that nominally those are two great principles around which to design a website). In designing customer experience, we always insisted on a lot of input to the agent selection process - my best client took this to another step, and really challenged the team asking us to design the building: he went on to start what is now the UK's second largest outsource call handling service on the same principles. When we designed solutions, we always thought about customer flow and volumes - and always thought about language. It meant when we designed in country A for a flow of customers in region B, the agents were mainly from that region.

I thought the late 1990's flow of call centres to India was interesting, and shortermist. Basically, it was Exec's more worried about bottom line economics of running their businesses, than thinking about customer relationships. My most annoying experience was cashing in the endowment policies associated with a mortgage. The original policies were issued by two separate companies, which some 15years later had merged - one had outsourced to India, and it took 3months and 20 phone calls to get cashed; the other presently still handled the calls in the UK, it took 28days and one phone call to cash. I had a life insurance policy with that company, which I also decided resultantly to cash and move elsewhere, and after doing so wrote to the Chief Executive to explain my experiences and reasoning - he still moved the call centre handling completely to India! I think there are excellent Indian based call centres - but the good agents were the one's who had travelled, and returned home - and they were picked up years ago.

Some 12months later, the new CEO of the insurance company announced he would be moving front office handling back to the UK - a short hand way of saying what other banking CEO's admitted later, that customer turnover was escalating out of the roof when calls were handled overseas from the customer, while locally based solutions showed more stable relationships. About two years later, I was interviewing an experienced Call Centre business development manager for a job, who had handled the review of the a large UK car breakdown companies thoughts about off-shoring. He took a brief on a Thursday, wrote a business case through the weekend which he presented to their telecoms team on the following Tuesday; and had a commendation by Friday from the CEO, together with a two year deal to retain all telecoms services for his company. Why? Because he had taken their own data of each customer being worth an average of £480pa in revenue, with an average life relationship of 47years, and calculated the point at which increased client turnover (and hence lost revenue) outstripped the cost saving of off-shoring - the answer: 0.01%, or 23days!

I think there is a role for off-shoring, but in customer relationships there are other factors. I always thought these would show through, and eventually the effective off-shoring would be "back office" mainly non-client interaction and processing, not customer handling. Many of the biggest and best Asian IT outsourcing firms now employ "localised" front offices, with the back office where it is most cost effective - but the article questions: is it really, even at that level? I know of contractors in a large Swindon based organisation now complaining of continual delays in implementing a new IT solution, because the solution is being written some 6,000miles remotely, and communication issues mean wrong deliveries which are continually late.

I don't think this is a language issue - and I don't think its a cultural issue. I do think its an issue where we ought to accept each other as human beings, and that we truly are unique and different in many, many ways.

I think the question for us in business, is how do we manage these human scale differences to ensure delivery and team harmony? I have seen what are in the majority simple communication differences, translate into become highly disruptive racial problems - and that's just daft.

What Percentage of Job Opportunities Are Listed Online?

Steve asks: What Percentage of Job Opportunities Are Listed Online? I was asked this question in a session recently in my role as the President of PerfectJob Software, "What percentage of jobs are listed on the online job boards." I gave an answer, but wasn't comfortable that I really knew. So I went and did a little research, and I'm actually now less sure I really know. What do you think?

In answer:
I will answer from a UK perspective, as that is the data I know best.

It is difficult to get whole of market data. You can count vacancies at online job boards and newspapers, but little data exists for internal hires outside that issued by a publicly listed company when it makes a required financial announcement.

From the 2005 Office of National Statistics triennial employment survey, there were 650,000 vacancies in a workforce of 28million, with 30million possible active posts - ie: the UK was under resourced, and resultantly wage rates were rising. This would suggest an average job turnover rate of 46 years!

A more likely level for employee job turnover is around 5years in the average job, making 6million vacancies per annum. Of those, at the time around 1million were posted online (including companies own job board), while 1.5million were in newpapers and print media: today local newspaper advertising is still equal or greater in volume than online, purely from the fact that not every company has a website. The other 3.5million could be split at around 3million internally filled vacancies; and around 500,000 are never posted - about the scale of the head hunter market.

The old recruiters theory was that about one third of vacancies were known (ie - advertisied), one third could be spotted (ie - internal); and one third were secret. This data seems to support that old adage to an extent, accepting the volume of data one has access to these days thanks to the internet.

I think as the market develops further, we will see a greater volume in online jobs boards - its cheaper and it widens the net from a geographic and skill view point. But not every vacancy will ever be online. It doesn't need to be, when at least one of your potential successors should already be sat in your own team if you are doing - if you are doing your own job correctly.

The more interesting question for the online jobs sector is - how many employees are now online, and can be given a quiet tap on a shoulder to increase the size of the passive candidate market? I don't think advertising of the vacancy then is the question, but finding of the talent. Any increase in employee turnover/resultant reduction in average time in job will be far more fiscally damaging to employers than the potential gains of cheaper costs of hiring.

The video resume - and how it can be used for a resignation!

There is a lot of debate at present about both the Online Resume and Video Resume at present. But one thing that should be remembered about all CV's and resumes is that - evidence follows you everywhere in the new online world.

For instance, how about using the media of video to resign?

Birmingham Mail journalist Adam Smith - aka Steve Zacharanda - decided he wanted to support the campaign of Barack Obama: but how would he persuade his editor that he could go to America? He decided to choose a swing-state, and as he couldn't pronounce Ohio, decided to go to - Miami, Florida (wonder why a UK journalist would want to go to sunny Florida in the damp, cold UK autumn?).

After Obama won, Smith had to deliver the promised article to his editor, so dutifully logged in to the Birmingham Mail web system from Miami in the after-win party, to record his copy. However, he got caught on video somewhat worse for drink by one of his Dutch colleagues.......



Videoed in a drunken stupor, Smith admits that he has had lots of fun with local ladies, and is now plagiarising the BBC for his filed copy: oh, and decides to hand in his notice while being interviewed.

This resultant video has been much viewed and resultantly reported and blogged about, in both the Birmingham Mail and many of the Fleet Street and US National Newspapers.

A few thoughts:
- The speed at which anything can be distributed today is amazing. For example, just see the Vodafone advert where the child watches Manchester Untied on a South East Asian Beach. But even quicker is the speed at which any potential employer can also find such stuff on the web. As I have suggested, why not checkout your own Google-resume?
- I wonder if Adam Smith still has a job at the Birmingham Mail, and if so is he covering anything more now than the local council meetings while he works his notice?
- How will he write this down on his next CV: bring enough to collect 50,000 hits on YouTube, or daft enough to get drunk and resign on video?

And PS: Adam, if you are reading this - NO, I don't want the job of how to write your next CV!!!

But still, as always - Good Luck!

How to Write a Cover Letter?

Karen asks: I am wondering how best to write a Cover Letter for Banking/ Management Consulting jobs. I am hold a bachelor's degree from a UK business school and am looking for jobs in these fields. Most will ask for a cover letter to join their graduate programs however I always dread writing them. I hear that sometimes they are rarely looked at; can those of you in the recruitment business comment on that? My previous Careers Service (as I have already graduated) gives the usual generic advice like "expand on your skills highlighted in your CV." I think I have a great CV, a good degree from a great UK business school and feel that perhaps it is my cover letters that is letting me down. Would you please give your comments and advice? Thank You!

In answer:
The simple answer is, if you don't include a Cover Letter in your application, you will be rejected - fact. Most research suggests that if you don't include a Cover Letter, then your chances of gaining a post even where it is not specifically asked for are around eight times less than those applicants who do include one.

As a recruiter, let me step you through how the process works in most recruiting and HR organisations that handle job applications. Most application correspondence will be handled initially by a junior member of staff, who will have been given a brief to reject any candidate against certain criteria. What are these? Simply, answering the job advert in a way in which the core skills and experiences are shown in the application. This member of staff is there to (a) learn the job, and (b) find reasons to reject your application as not relevant - they are saving time for the senior person, who then only has to review the relevant applications. This first stage process will remove around two thirds of applicants, who will only avoid the rejection letter should the senior staff member find there are just not enough applications.

So, the need for the Cover Letter is to make sure that you get past the first stage process and into the senior persons hands; and then to get them to call you - no more, no less. You hence don't restate you CV/Resume in your Cover Letter, but engage with the reader to show you have the relevant skills and experiences, and have applied them in real projects with actual referenced results.

You can read more about Cover Letters on my blog How To Write A Cover Letter - honestly, the skills of how to write a great Cover Letter are quickly learnt in less than 30minutes.

If you are still full of dread after reading the website, then just drop me a message and I will happily help you out - I love writing Cover Letters, they are so much fun!

Good Luck!