Anthony Haynes writes: The purpose of this episode is simply review what we consider to be an outstanding business resource, namely the Build a Better Agency podcast, presented by Drew McLellan and published by Agency Management Institute.

FJ Wilson's Managing Director, Fiona Wilson, and I have followed the podcast for some years now and have consistently found it stimulating.

Better still, as we'll explain in some detail in subsequent episodes, we've found the resource of practical use, providing ideas that we've used to improve our margin.

Link

Build a better agency (AMI)

Further listening

We hope you enjoy listening to this episode. If so, you might find the following episode also of particular interest: The business context: why it matters to employers and what to do about it.

Credits

Thanks to Bart Hallmark for the production and Harry Chalmers for the music.

Finally, what we do

FJ Wilson Talent Services provides recruitment and talent development services and also coaching for individuals.

We specialise in professional roles at mid or senior level, Our core market comprises organisations for professionals - typically membership organisations, awarding bodies, regulators, learning providers, and charities.

To find out more about our services and to contact us, visit our website fjwilson.com.

Anthony Haynes writes: Job descriptions, and the advertisements based on them, frequently specify the kind of experience that candidates must have - "candidates must have 3 years' experience of..." or "candidates must have worked for such-and-such kind of organisations".

Such specifications can be helpful and save much wasted time. But that isn't always the case: it's not uncommon for the specifications to be unnecessarily prospective.

In this interview, Sherah Beckley and I identify key considerations for determining what kinds of experience are necessary - and what kinds are not.

The aim is to optimise the job specification, from the point of view of both the hirer and the prospective employee.

Finally, what we do

FJ Wilson Talent Services provides recruitment and talent development services and also coaching for individuals.

We specialise in professional roles at mid or senior level, Our core market comprises organisations for professionals - typically membership organisations, awarding bodies, regulators, learning providers, and charities.

To find out more about our services and to contact us, visit our website fjwilson.com.

Anthony Haynes writes: This episode is entirely practical in nature.

Sherah Beckley and I discuss ways to help ensure that you perform effectively at a job interview.

As has become our custom, we provide a bronze, silver, and gold tip - but here we also (for the first time ever!) a platinum piece of advice.

Further listening

We hope you enjoyed listening to this episode. If so, you might be interested in our other episodes aimed at job-seekers and candidates. 

They include:

• Virtual interview tips
• Presenting yourself: self-management
• Networking: the how and the why

Finally, what we do

FJ Wilson Talent Services provides recruitment and talent development services and also coaching for individuals.

We specialise in professional roles at mid or senior level, Our core market comprises organisations for professionals - typically membership organisations, awarding bodies, regulators, learning providers, and charities.

To find out more about our services and to contact us, visit our website fjwilson.com.

Anthony Haynes writes: What makes for effective talent acquisition?

The ideal way to find out is to ask stakeholders to reflect on their experience. I'm delighted to say that's what we were able to do here, courtesy of our richly experienced two guests, Louise Gulliver and Martin Greig - both from the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS).

In our case study, we reflect the recruitment process on when Louise was the hiring manager and Martin the (successful) candidate.

We focus especially on:

• good practice at various stages of the process
• in particular, what makes for effective communication on the part of the various parties involved
• questions of whether and why to use a recruitment agency - how can an agency add value?

Towards the end (from 18:35), we each provide key take-aways in terms of things to do or not to do. covering themes such as preparation and research, accuracy, and communicativeness.

Credits

Louise is Group Director of Marketing & Communications at CIPS.

Martin is Head of External Affairs at CIPs.

This episode is produced by Bart Hallmark, with music by  Harry Chalmers.

Further listening

We hope you enjoy listening to this episode. If you do, you might find the following episodes of interest:

• How to maximise candidate attraction
• Why is a vacancy brief so important?
• How NOT to write job advertisements
• How to research a prospective employer

PS

We've published a written version of our case study here: https://www.fjwilson.com/docs/case-studies/CIPS-Greig-Case-Study-Nov-22.pdf.

Finally, what we do

FJ Wilson Talent Services provides recruitment and talent development services and also coaching for individuals.

We specialise in professional roles at mid or senior level, Our core market comprises organisations for professionals - typically membership organisations, awarding bodies, regulators, learning providers, and charities.

To find out more about our services and to contact us, visit our website fjwilson.com.

Anthony Haynes writes; This is the third and final episode in our mini-series devoted to time management and productivity.

The opening episode outlined a tactical ('bottom-up') approach.

The second outlines a strategic ('top-down') approach.

Here we outline a synthetic approach: we bring our two approaches together, explore the relationship between them, and outline how to use them in combination for maximum effect.

References

Edwin C. Bliss, Getting things done: doing it now (Bantam Books).
Oliver Burkeman, Four thousand weeks: time management for mortals (Penguin, 2022).

Further listening

This is one of our episodes that deals with working life and management in general, rather than recruitment-specific topics. 

If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might be interested in other general (as opposed to recruitment-specific) episodes dealing with such issues as:

• stakeholder management: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1186295/10868141-stakeholder-management-what-it-is-why-do-it-and-what-the-pitfalls-are
• business context: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1186295/10744800-the-business-context-why-it-matters-to-employers-and-what-to-do-about-it

Finally, what we do

FJ Wilson Talent Services provides recruitment and talent development services and also coaching for individuals.

We specialise in professional roles at mid or senior level, Our core market comprises organisations for professionals - typically membership organisations, awarding bodies, regulators, learning providers, and charities.

To find out more about our services and to contact us, visit our website fjwilson.com.

Anthony Haynes writes: This episode is the second in a mini-series of episodes on time management, designed to help you and your colleagues to help improve personal productivity and effectiveness.

The first episode dealt with the tactical approach to time management. This episode outlines a strategic (aka 'top-down') approach.

The relationship between this approach and standard time management techniques is like that of a negative to a photographic image.

Standard techniques focus on how to get more stuff done, more quickly; the approach here, in contrast, focuses on how to become more effective by deciding what you're not going to do.

How to succeed by doing less, if you like.

Reference

Oliver Burkeman, Four thousand weeks: time management for mortals (Penguin, 2022).

Further listening

This is one of our episodes that deals with working life and management in general, rather than recruitment-specific topics. 

If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might be interested in other general (as opposed to recruitment-specific) episodes dealing with such issues as:

• stakeholder management: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1186295/10868141-stakeholder-management-what-it-is-why-do-it-and-what-the-pitfalls-are
• business context: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1186295/10744800-the-business-context-why-it-matters-to-employers-and-what-to-do-about-it

Finally, what we do

FJ Wilson Talent Services provides recruitment and talent development services and also coaching for individuals.

We specialise in professional roles at mid or senior level, Our core market comprises organisations for professionals - typically membership organisations, awarding bodies, regulators, learning providers, and charities.

To find out more about our services and to contact us, visit our website fjwilson.com.

Anthony Haynes writes: This episode is the first in a mini-series of episodes on time management, designed to help you and your colleagues to help improve personal productivity and effectiveness.

This episode outlines a tactical (aka 'bottom-up') approach: the approach is granular in form, focusing on specific aspects of working life - especially typical tasks and common obstacles.

This is one of our episodes that deals with working life and management in general, rather than recruitment-specific topics.

Reference

Edwin C. Bliss, Getting things done: doing it now (Bantam Books).

Further listening

If you enjoyed listening to this episode, you might be interested in other general (as opposed to recruitment-specific) episodes dealing with such issues as:

• stakeholder management: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1186295/10868141-stakeholder-management-what-it-is-why-do-it-and-what-the-pitfalls-are
• business context: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1186295/10744800-the-business-context-why-it-matters-to-employers-and-what-to-do-about-it

Finally, what we do

FJ Wilson Talent Services provides recruitment and talent development services and also coaching for individuals.

We specialise in professional roles at mid or senior level, Our core market comprises organisations for professionals - typically membership organisations, awarding bodies, regulators, learning providers, and charities.

To find out more about our services and to contact us, visit our website fjwilson.com.

In this episode, Sherah Beckley and Anthony Haynes discuss stakeholder management, drawing in part of insights gleaned from FJ Wilson Talent Services' work with organisations for professionals.

Sherah and Anthony first consider definitions of, and rationales for, stakeholder management and then identify a series of pitfalls that stakeholder managers need to avoid.

Reference

Stakeholders by Andrew Friedman and Sarah Miles is published by Oxford University Press

Finally, what we do

FJ Wilson Talent Services provides recruitment and talent development services and also coaching for individuals.

We specialise in professional roles at mid or senior level, Our core market comprises organisations for professionals - typically membership organisations, awarding bodies, regulators, learning providers, and charities.

To find out more about our services and to contact us, visit our website fjwilson.com.

Anthony Haynes writes: In this episode, I explore with Sherah Beckley the topic of the context in which employers operate.

We explore why employers need to raise their eyes and scan the horizon, to see what changes are coming down the road. What external developments will require responses from you?

We discuss how employers can use frameworks to focus attention in order to ensure they don't overlook changes in the environment they operate in

And, in the process, we introduce our EPISTLE model.

Resource

Ian Worthington, Chris Britton, and Ed Thompson, Business Environment: A Global Perspective (Pearson) is a wide-ranging resource on the topic.

Finally, what we do

FJ Wilson Talent Services provides recruitment and talent development services and also coaching for individuals.

We specialise in professional roles at mid or senior level, Our core market comprises organisations for professionals - typically membership organisations, awarding bodies, regulators, learning providers, and charities.

To find out more about our services and to contact us, visit our website fjwilson.com.

Anthony Haynes writes: This episode is aimed primarily at candidates and job-hunters -- though we hope it will prove of use in more general contexts too.

We consider the question of how to present yourself consistently, so that employers and others understand who you are.

With a couple of worked examples -- from our host, Sherah Beckley, and me -- we develop a straightforward approach to self-presentation.

Resource recommendation

Angie Wakefield, 'Why you should use 3 words to create your personal brand', on Medium: https://medium.com/@angiewakefield/why-you-should-use-3-words-to-create-your-personal-brand-d04ee7b0143.

See also

If you enjoyed this episode, you might also like our episode on networking: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1186295/10374110-networking-the-how-and-why.

Finally, what we do

FJ Wilson Talent Services provides recruitment and talent development services and also coaching for individuals.

We specialise in professional roles at mid or senior level, Our core market comprises organisations for professionals - typically membership organisations, awarding bodies, regulators, learning providers, and charities.

To find out more about our services and to contact us, visit our website fjwilson.com.