What makes a good temp?

With the economic situation still having a massive bearing on the jobs front, temporary work could be a lifeline, but is it for everyone?

If you are considering temporary work, what can you do to make sure you’re the one Recruitment Consultants think of first when a new assignment comes in? Is temping really for you?

Sell yourself in a professional way to your recruitment agency.
When an agency are looking for a dependable temp, tell them why you are good. Are you flexible? Versatile? Quick at picking things up? Do you have the skills that are required? Easy to get along with? Are you available at short notice?

Sell yourself to the recruitment consultant as you would in a job interview: make a list of your previous jobs and highlight key accomplishments and skills you’ve gained.

Understand how recruitment agencies work.
Picture the scene; A company have a problem, it may be that they have an increased workload, a project that needs to be completed ASAP or a key employee has gone off sick. The want someone with relevant skills to help them. This is where you come in.

Think of yourself as a mercenary!
You have skills that are transferable; you have the experience that would benefit the Company. You have good communication skills. You have the skills that are needed, you are good at creating and developing relationships, you are available at short notice. You can help them!

Be flexible in every way you can!
Flexibility is the key to being a successful temp. It’s not just about being flexible in terms of when you start on a new assignment, either. If you want the work to keep coming your way, you need to be flexible in terms of the rate you’re paid for short term assignments; and the role you have.

How keen are you to get work?
What can you do if, on a Friday afternoon, you find yourself without an assignment or any work for the following Monday? Perhaps you are considering temping whilst looking for your ideal permanent role?
It seems clear that if you go the extra mile to get the work, by keeping in close contact with your consultant and contacting the agency on a regular basis, you’re more likely to be successful in ensuring the money keeps coming in. Remember, be persistence.

Will temping look bad on your CV?
We are often asked about this point. Some people do not want to temp as they believe it will detract from their stable work history. Our advice is to keep on working (if that is what you want/need) Gain more skills, gain more experience on different computer packages and more business sectors. If you have been temping for some time, group your experiences together and list your key skills and experience. Good employers will understand.

What happens next?
Many of the temporary people we work with at Ba Recruitment, we have known for some time. We have developed relationships with people we have found dependable and versatile. However, we are always looking for good people. It’s up to you to develop a relationship with your agency and whilst you are temping a good agency will always keep you in mind when a suitable permanent jobs comes in.

Happy job hunting!

My recruitment year 2012

The only ones left in the Quality Street tin are the hard toffee ones.
The batteries have worn down and the helium slowly escaping from my Air Swimmer, it's slowly loosing the will to live, becoming shrivelled and tired.
Well, that was Christmas and the end of 2011. "Good riddance" I say.

What happened in 2011?


2011 was for me a Social Media year. It was the year where I found myself hopping from Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn. Trying to be everything to everyone (and not really doing any good at all) Commenting but not being heard. Retweeting till I was tweeted out. Reading so much that my eyes popped but not really taking anything in.
Empire Avenue had me in its grasp for a while. God! What a waste of time.

On the positive side, I now have a plethora of Social Media accounts. Take a look over to the right hand side of this page under "Creating direct encounters" for the list. I guess a good starting point for 2012.

So what's in store for me and recruitment in 2012?

These are my predictions for my businesses for 2012, so please feel free to comment (or shout or scream!)

Ba Recruitment

• I will be more quality conscious on which assignments to take on.
• I will get more temporary workers out on assignment.
• I will become a better recruiter! Meaning that I will listen to my clients more. I will service them better than I have done over the past year. React quickly and find really good people.
• I will leave the paperwork (which I love so much) and concentrate on the things that are important.
• I will get more commitment from my clients.
• I will make more profit.

Job Affair

• I will give Employers a simple and effective way of attracting better and more qualified Jobseekers. I will give Jobseekers a simple method of searching and applying for their jobs. 
• I will increase SEO and find more partners to advertise jobs with. 
• I will come up with a better way to market the Great Jobseekers that register with our JobBoards, see GreatBritishCVs
• I will generate more from advertising revenues than last year (which was our best to date)
• Project 98, From a standing start in 2012, I will make sure that we capitalise on these sites. 
• CareerTown will be published.

In general, I will allocate my time better between my two businesses. Giving the amount of time and attention that they both need so much.

I will spend less time on Social Media and more time servicing my customers.


I am in the very fortunate and I would think unique position in as much as I have more recruitment tools at my fingertips than the average recruiter.
I have a great Recruitment Agency and a successful JobBoard business. By combing the two, I have the tools to reach more jobseekers, generate the best applications and deliver the best service.

Here's to 2012. Let's get cracking!

A nearly end of year update

I have been so busy with various projects and really don't have any of the major updates I have been expecting (and to let you know about)
Perhaps (like they say in Dale Carnegie) I should salami up the issues and make them into smaller bite sized pieces. (I'll never learn)

So, as a little update...
Ba Recruitment - traditional recruitment has slowed a little in the lead up to Christmas. Derbyshire companies are still recruiting and our knowledge of the local accounts environment has certainly helped recently.

Job Affair - is currently undergoing a website revamp, about time too.

Just4Medical - We linked with another major jobboard and started to receive many 1,000's of new jobs onto the site (around 40k) Upon hindsight, we felt that the quality of the job listings was not in line with our site so after around 1 week, we decided to take them all off. We are currently advertising around 2k live jobs.

GreatBritishJobs - continues to make excellent progress. Listing around 4,500 live UK jobs. Our biggest obstacle here is how to market the great candidates that register and apply on our site. We think the idea is so simple in as much as we market candidates via our social media feeds and employers notice the updates, come back to the site and search the database. It is totally free to upload jobs on the site and to search our CV Database. I still think this is a simple but brilliant idea.

East Midlands Jobs - again continues to increase traffic numbers, we show good quality jobs. Lots more marketing on our part is needed here.

Project 98 -This is my pet project as we enter 2012. I have a plethora of job related UK domain names and have finally found a use for them. I will be creating a series of mini-jobsites that will be informative yet simple on the area concerned. Career In Accounts is the latest in the series.

Career Town - We have now started in earnest with the site graphics and database. When I went looking for link exchanges from other job related sites, I felt that the time involved was very costly. Not knowing if a site would accept my link, not knowing if that site would provide a reciprocal link back to one of my various sites. So we have come up with simple idea of having a free UK Recruitment Services Directory.

We aim to keep our operations simple and useable for everyone. We may not have the newest technology and the zippiest graphics but what we do provide an easy way to search and apply for UK jobs and recruitment information.

UK Recruitment - What is temp to perm?

In the UK recruitment sector, temp to perm or temporary to permanent is the way we (UK Recruitment Agencies) describe the situation where a person is working in a temporary capacity in a business and then gets offered a permanent position. Sometimes this situation is planned for and all parties are aware before the assignment takes place. Other times a worker will start with a business and after a certain period of time and usually when the worker has proved themselves to a business a permanent job is identified and subsequently offered to the temporary worker.

In the current UK economic climate more companies are looking at the temp to perm option. The reason is two-fold. There are more people available for the temporary assignments due to redundancies and lay-offs and businesses are not prepared to invest in permanent members of staff, who, in the longer term may prove to be unsuitable.

Temporary work is a great way to get into any organisation. You will be able to prove to employers that you are flexible and versatile in the workplace. You will be able to learn news ways of working and new I.T. platforms to experience.

Let’s face it; if you are being paid to do the work, it’s your chance to be able to suss out the company. Not all companies have rigid interview processes. That first interview may have been impressive but does the company actually come up with the goods that they have promised.

At Ba Recruitment, we have jobs that are temporary, temporary to permanent and permanent. If you are looking for a job in the Accountancy or Administration fields, in the Derbyshire or North Nottinghamshire areas, get in touch with us today.

The origins of the Interview

Found this on YouTube. It should give you a little giggle on a Friday afternoon,

5 top tips to guide you through the interview

Preparation
Find out all you can about the organisation by ringing for an informal discussion, surfing the web, requesting brochures or ask your consultant at Ba Recruitment

Presentation
Dress smart. Make an effort. Suits for both men and women are best and always smile. You never get the chance to make a good first impression.

Punctual
Always be early and be sure you know how to get there. Always contact the interviewer / consultant if you are going to be late.

Predetermine
Asking questions is always an opportunity to impress. Predetermine a few questions and write them down to take to the interview.

Positive
Stay positive throughout. If you have any doubts try to ask questions in a positive manner.

Enjoy the interview and good luck! :)

Ba Recruitment network poem

I used to use this when I stood up at network meetings for Ba Recruitment.

An Accountancy Recruitment service straight from the heart,
Give us your requirements right at the start,
We interview Ledger Clerks, FDs FCs and more,
Credit Controllers Bookkeepers and Accountants by the score,
Trainees, Data Input qualified or not,
What do you want? We've got the lot.
We interview, analyse grade and assess,
People from us are always the best.
For a passionate, ethical and cost effective appraoch,
We know our subject better than most,
So come to a business that makes you number one,
Ba Recruitment - Richard Johnson.