Interview Gaffes - The Top 5 Revealed

The top five interview gaffes have been revealed.

The top five gaffes, according to executive recruiters TheLadders.co.uk, are:

1. Inappropriate clothing. One candidate wore a boob tube to an interview.

2. Lying. A candidate was asked to complete an interview in French, after claiming to be fluent in the language.

3. Having a go at former employers and colleagues. One candidate did not bank on his interviewer being related to his previous boss.

4. Acting desperate. A candidate that admitted the interview had not gone well and then claimed that they could work in another part of the organisation.

5. Being unprepared. Upon being asked what they could bring to the role, one candidate responded with: “What is it you do again?”
Sarah Drew, general manager of TheLadders.co.uk, said: "Sometimes the most able candidate on paper can shoot themselves in the foot when you actually meet them. What you, as the potential employer has to do, is assess how much of it is just interview nerves and how much of it is indicative of their inability to do the job!" *Article from the recruiter.

For any interview hints or tips please do contact G & G Recruitment Solutions.

Information Analyst (Governance, Quality) - Access, Excel, SQL, NHS

Information Governance Analyst skilled with SQL, Access (as a query tool), Excel, Business Objects and a familiarity with functions of PAS & EPR is being sought by our NHS client.

You will provide routine support & cover for data quality reporting, especially for PbR, plus audit of data flows & casenote audit under Information Governance. You will provide expertise in at least 2 of the following areas: - Registration Authority, Information Security, Data Standards, Data Protection & Confidentiality.

This is an excellent 6 month contract, so please do send through a detailed CV asap.

G & G Recruitment are working as an Employment Business.

G & G Recruitment gets RSS feeds

G & G Recruitment solutions are happy to announce that candidates can now subscribe to our all new RSS feed which will allow candidates to keep abreast of all our latest jobs quickly and efficiently. We are hoping this will not only aid our candidates in applying for jobs but, also help our client's as it will increase the number of applications for our roles.

RSS is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines, and podcasts in a standardized format.[2] An RSS document (which is called a "feed" or "web feed"[3] or "channel") contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with web sites in an automated manner that can be piped into special programs or filtered displays.[3]
The benefit of RSS is the aggregation of content from multiple Web sources in one place. RSS content can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader" or an "aggregator", which can be web-based or desktop-based. A standardized XML file format allows the information to be published once and viewed by many different programs. The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloading any updates that it finds and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.
The initials "RSS" are used to refer to the following formats:
Really Simple Syndication (RSS 2.0)
RDF Site Summary (RSS 1.0 and RSS 0.90)
Rich Site Summary (RSS 0.91).
RSS formats are specified using XML, a generic specification for the creation of data formats. Although RSS formats have evolved since March 1999,[4] the RSS icon ("") first gained widespread use in 2005/2006.

Temporary Workers - Recruiter

Andrew Miller’s temporary and agency workers’ Private Member’s Bill has been withdrawn.
The Bill’s aim was to afford the same provisions for temporary workers that permanent employees enjoy. It had sparked fear in the industry that the move could be to the detriment of the UK’s agency work model.
The death of the Bill was inevitable following the government’s announcement on Tuesday that there had been an agreement between business leaders and trade unions to give temporary workers equal pay and conditions after 12 weeks in the job.
But the government will have to persuade MEPs in Brussels to amend the European Agency Workers Directive, possibly at 9 June Employment Council or soon after the French take over the presidency in July, before any legislation is agreed.
Any agreement on the Directive, which has been blocked by Britain for years, would have to go before the European Parliament for a decision, which could delay the new law for more than a year. * - Article from Recruiter.

G & G Recruitment are still concerned about the possible implications of giving temporary workers equal rights to permanent works on the market. Will it mean that clients will be less willing to use temporary workers? Will it mean, in the IT and Information Management sector, that temporary workers must have their pay brought in line with permanent workers, which would usually mean a decrease? Shouldn't consideration be taken for the different markets in which these temporary workers work? Will it force the small recruitment agencies to close as they cannot cope with even more red tape, rules, regulations and processes? Will client's choice of agencies be reduced?

Should you have any thoughts or questions, please do contact us on info@ggrecruitment.co.uk

IT Training and Support Coordinator - Current Vacancy

IT Support and Training Coordinator with experience of providing support and training on bespoke business systems is urgently required. Any experience with Housing Systems like CTX or another Housing Management product would be highly desirable.

You will be responsible for the support of the client's in house systems as well as the provision of all software training for the organisation. Alongside the Application Systems Manager, the IT Support and Training Coordinator has a key role in the successful implementation of new systems including project administration and change control.

This is an excellent permanent opportunity, so please do send through a detailed CV asap.

G & G Recruitment is working as an Employment Agency.

IT Support Officer - Current Vacancy

IT Support Officer skilled with Windows 2003 server, Windows XP/Vista, Active Directory, MS Office and knowledge of SQL Server is urgently required.

You will also have knowledge of or be prepared to learn, Sharepoint Designer and Sharepoint Server 2007.

You will administer the Windows 2003 server systems including Active Directory, administer Exchange 2007 server, Administer and further develop MS Sharepoint 2007 as well as providing technical support to other team members and administering the backup servers.

This is an excellent permanent position, so please do send through a technically detailed CV asap.

G & G Recruitment is working as an Employment Agency.

Network Support Analyst - Current Vacancy

Network Support Analyst experienced in supporting Windows 2003 server, Exchange 2003, SQL Server 2005/2000 and ISA 2004 is urgently required.

You will be responsible for managing the day to day operation of the server and network infrastructure, supervise and support the IT Technicians and helpdesk administrators and monitor the IT Service desk.

An MCP or MCSA qualification would be highly desirable. This is an excellent permanent opportunity, so please do send through a technically detailed CV asap.

G & G Recruitment are working as an Employment Agency.

NPFiT - Making Progress?

Delivering the NHS Connecting For Health National Programme for IT is proving to be an enormous challenge, says the National Audit Office.

All elements of the Programme are advancing and some are complete, but the original timescales for the electronic Care Records Service, one of the central elements of the Programme, turned out to be unachievable, raised unrealistic expectations and put confidence in the Programme at risk. Today’s progress report on the Programme by the National Audit Office concludes that the original vision remains intact and still appears feasible. However, it is likely to take until 2014-15 before every NHS Trust in England has fully deployed the care records systems, four years later than planned. In the North, Midlands and East area, the software has taken much longer to develop than planned, so some Trusts have had to take an interim system. Completing the development of the system and introducing it in this area are significant challenges still to be addressed.The estimated cost of the Programme is £12.7 billion. The costs of the main contracts have remained broadly unchanged, aside from the purchase of increased functionality. Because of the delay in deployments, actual expenditure to date (£3.6 billion by 31 March 2008) has been much lower than expected. Planned ‘go live’ dates were missed for many of the first Trusts to take the new care records systems and the NHS and suppliers are now increasing their emphasis on establishing realistic timelines for deployments, reflecting the circumstances of each individual Trust.According to today’s report, the success of the Programme will depend on the commitment of NHS staff. The Department’s latest survey, conducted in spring 2007, showed that 67 per cent of nurses and 62 per cent of doctors expected the new systems to improve patient care. Identifying and realising the benefits of the systems are essential to raising confidence further and convincing all staff of the value of the Programme. The Department reported on the benefits of the Programme for the first time in March 2008.Tim Burr, head of the National Audit Office, said today:"The scale of the challenge involved in delivering the National Programme for IT has proved to be far greater than envisaged at the start, with serious delays in delivering the new care records systems. Progress is being made, however, and financial savings and other benefits are beginning to emerge. The priority now is to finish developing and deploying care records systems that will help NHS Trusts to achieve the Programme’s intended benefits of improved services and better patient care."

* Article from http://www.publictechnology.net/

Agency Workers Breaking News - Recruiter

Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that new rules would be introduced to give agency workers "fair treatment" in his draft Queen's Speech this morning.
In announcing his wish list for new legislation, Brown said:

"We are committed to both flexibility and to fairness in the workplace and we will do nothing that jeopardises jobs and businesses taking on workers. But most people agree that it is not fair that, even after months in the job, agency workers can currently be paid less than the staff they work alongside --- and as a result permanent staff can feel they are being unfairly undercut. So My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business plans to bring forward legislation - subject to an agreement between employers and employees, and in Europe - that will for the first time ensure new rules for fair treatment of agency workers here in Britain."

It is the first time the government has publicly given its views on domestic legislation to protect agency workers, after abstaining during the votes on Andrew Miller's Private Member's Bill to offer temporary agency workers the same pay and conditions as permanent staff.

Tom Hadley, The Recruitment and Employment Confederation's director of external relations, said that the statement suggests there will be a swift move in the next Parliament to implement the European draft agency workers directive (AWD).

Hadley believes that there could be an agreement on the AWD at the 9 June Employment Council, or perhaps shortly after the French take over the presidency of the European Parliament in July.

Any agreement between ministers in the Employment Council would then have to go to the European Parliament for a second reading. If the Parliament accepts the position, with no amendments, it is possible that the final text of the AWD would be available around 6 months after agreement in Council.

"The REC has consistently held the view that the EU Directive holds more chance of a workable outcome than the Private Member's Bill on agency work that is current being debated in the House of Commons. The REC will be working with government, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) and other stakeholders to ensure that this is the case,"
said Hadley.

In addition, the government is pushing forward with its planned Agency Work Commission. The commission would be made up of representatives from the Confederation of British Industry and the Trade Union Congress. The TUC has yet to confirm that they will sit on the commission, but it is thought that this is becoming more likely.

Hadley added: "If everything comes together the recruitment industry could see new legislation on the pay and conditions of agency workers by April 2010. The framework of the legislation will be the Directive. It is thought that the Agency Work Commission would be allowed, under the terms of the Directive, to set a derogation period after which equal treatment rights are implemented." *Article from Recruiter.

G & G Recruitment will be following the progress of this story closely.

LinkedInProfile

Working Mothers - Recruiter

There is growing support for a government review, recommending flexible hours for mothers with children aged 12 and under.
The review by Imelda Walsh, HR director of supermarket chain Sainsbury’s, calls for the current qualifying age limit for children to be doubled.
Sue Hewitt, women's development consultant at workplace development firm Milecastle Consultancy, said: “One of the things that holds women back is access to childcare. Having an opportunity to work more flexibly by law would really help a lot of women who are in the situation where they’re unable to make headway at work. It would also level the playing field in terms of recruitment. If there is a structure in place that supports them, where flexibility is the norm and not a special request, that will help everybody, not just women.”
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) also welcomed the review.
Mike Emmott, CIPD employee relations adviser, said: “We wholly support moves to extend the ‘right to request’ to more parents. But the government should be bolder still and extend the right to all workers. The danger with ever larger groups of people, entitled to request flexible working, and a smaller number not entitled to do so, is that divisions will grow up in the workplace.
“Many enlightened employers already allow employees to work flexibly regardless of their family status. An extension of the right to request to all workers would level the playing field, without compelling employers to offer flexible working where this is incompatible with business needs. Our research shows that it would also deliver improved employee engagement, and therefore contribute to boosting productivity and performance in the workplace.” *- Article from Recruiter.

As a small company who are an equal opportunities employer and do have a working mother employed G & G Recruitment also support the move to extend the 'right to request.'

Optimistic growth predicted by software and IT services sector, despite credit crunch

SMEs in the software and IT services sector are challenging gloomy economic projections according to a survey from Intellect, the UK technology trade body.

With 53% of respondents forecasting double-digit growth for 2008 compared to 49% that predicted double-digit growth last year, the mood amongst SMEs remains bullish, despite the global financial squeeze. The Intellect survey, now in its second year asks software and IT services companies operating in the UK about their current and future performance. The SME software sector, in particular is an important contributor to the UK economy, and the survey aims to understand better the key challenges and opportunities of companies developing and selling software in the UK. The overwhelming majority of respondents (83%) were SMEs and it was these who were most bullish about the year ahead. Businesses expecting 15% or greater organic growth were largely in the smaller end of a £0-£20m turnover range, and there were no companies larger than this expecting such high growth rates. Some of the sectors most likely to generate this growth, according to the respondents are Services, Telecoms, Public Sector and Banking. These predictions are, however, tempered by the amount of activity companies are reporting in the Public Sector and the Financial Services sector. Growth estimations have not matched up with the reality of market activity. From 2006-2007 the percentage of respondents servicing the two sectors dropped from 28% to 27%, and 35% to 27% respectively. It is possible that SME software companies are adding value through becoming more specialised in certain sectors, or that their size enables them to be more agile in operations, providing quality of service and flexibility that larger companies may have trouble matching. Commenting, Nigel Hartnell, Chairman of Intellect’s Software Group and Executive Director of software as a service company FFastFill Plc said: “The results from this survey show that in today’s current economic climate, some SME software companies are finding their size an advantage, not a hindrance. Agile SMEs have the ability to respond to market changes and customer needs more quickly than large companies. Through innovation and intensive customer focus, many respondents believe they will generate impressive levels of organic growth.”The survey, which contains case studies, as well as a variety of questions on performance, activity, pricing and development strategies, also shows that SMEs are embracing globalisation. In last year’s survey, 59% of respondents identified globalisation as having a neutral or negative impact on their business. In 2007 respondents showed a marked turnaround in attitude, with 57% of respondents seeing globalisation as having a positive or very positive impact on their business. SMEs are today working on a global stage, identifying opportunities in the global market rather than focusing on home markets. Outsourcing and offshoring is also on the rise, but it appears that Asia is becoming less popular as a destination. The percentage of respondents outsourcing to Asia dropped to 44% from 55% in 2007. In contrast, both Western and Eastern Europe have seen an increase in R&D outsourcing. As Chris Barling, Chief Executive Officer of Actinic, a company profiled in the report said, “We are currently saving about 40% in costs by developing overseas – mostly in Eastern Europe. We decided on Hungary because of the cost and quality benefit.”The Intellect Software and Services survey will be conducted annually to establish whether these findings are trends or blips, helping establish the most comprehensive overview of the SME software sector currently available.

* - Article from www.publictechnology.net

Update Agency Workers - Recruiter

* - The following article is from the Recruiter: -

Ministers again refused to support or oppose Andrew Miller’s Private Member’s Bill in a crucial vote yesterday on giving temporary agency workers equal rights.
The government’s abstention, which was greeted with disappointment from business leaders and accusations of cow-towing to backbenchers, came at the start of the committee stage of the proposed legislation.
Employment minister Pat McFadden refused to back an opposition motion to defer the Bill’s passage through Parliament, adding that the government needed more time to resolve the issue at European level.
Previous moves in Europe to give agency workers equal treatment, in terms of equivalent salaries, paid holiday, overtime and sick pay of full time staff, have been blocked by the government. But Gordon Brown is facing increasing pressure to offer concessions after more than a third of Labour MPs voted in favour of the Bill in February.
Brown hopes to head off further pressure from Europe by creating a commission involving business and unions to reach a consensus.

If you have any questions regarding this or comments, please do contact G & G Recruitment.

Information Manager - Current Vacancy

Information Manager experienced in collating and manipulating data using MS Access, Excel and SQL queries to produce ad hoc and routine management reports is urgently required.

You will be responsible for devising processes and routines for staff to follow to ensure data integrity and efficient working, the production of management information reports, ensuring that the databases are reconciled and interfaces/XML file transfers occur regularly to ensure data integrity, develop and run regular reports to ensure that invoices and accounts are processed and validated.

You will also be responsible for using benchmarking information, providing cost and performance information for the department and making recommendations to improve cost control or performance and preparing a range of validated key performance indicators (KPI) as requested by Senior Management teams on a regular and ad-hoc basis.

This is an excellent permanent position working for a friendly organisation. The initial location will be Staines, however, the role will be located in Ealing in the long term. If you are interested, please do send through detailed CV asap.

G & G Recruitment is working as an Employment Agency.

Agency Workers - Recruiter

The following article comes from the Recruiter: -

Agency workers endure much lower levels of job quality and are paid less than permanent staff, according to a new report.
Conducted by academics at universities in Bradford, Leeds and Kent, the ‘Agency Working in the UK: What do we Know?’ study found that, on average, agency workers are paid £7.80 per hour contrasting with an average £11.47 for permanent workers.
Two out of three agency workers are employed in clerical, semi-skilled and unskilled occupations, while only one fifth are to be found in managerial and professional occupations.
Dr Gary Slater, senior lecturer in economics at the University of Bradford and co-author of the report, said: “The CBI has called for equal rights to be limited to agency workers with tenure of one year or more. Our study shows that almost three-quarters of agency workers would be excluded from coverage if such a restriction were to be put in place, which surely runs counter to the aims of the Bill [Andrew Miller’s Private Member’s Bill] to provide equal treatment.” Dr Chris Forde of Leeds University Business School and the report’s other co-author, added: “Agency working has grown in importance over recent years. Our figures, drawn from nationally representative data, provide a reliable basis for comparing the experience of agency workers with other groups in the labour market.”

G & G Recruitment acknowledges that in the clerical, semi-skilled and unskilled areas this report and the Agency Worker Directive may have a point. However, within professional and niche sectors, like IT and Information Management, the candidates often earn more and any move to give them equal rights with permanent employees would severely hamper the market and effectively ruin the job variety and experiences that temporary work gives these candidates. It would also hinder the economy as a whole as outside skills would not be sourced as often to come in and aid projects or departments. Temporary workers within these professional and niche markets are not only essential to their markets, the economy and the clients but, offer a great experience for candidates and a great earning potential.

Successful Recruitment - Honesty by all

Successful recruitment depends on a number of things.

A. The right sales staff to get the initial role on within the client.
B. The right consultant to ensure that the client receives the service they deserve.
C. The right candidate for the client's role.

The last one is the hardest. One of the reasons for this is a breakdown of communication and a lack of trust between the Recruitment Agencies and the candidates generally caused by pre conceived perceptions of Recruitment Agencies. It is true, there are some Agencies out there that will lie, push, conceal and generally do anything to ensure that they get a placement.

At G & G Recruitment we are focussed on ensuring we listen to candidates’ needs, we are honest and up front, we provide regular feedback and do not push or cajole them into interviews or roles they are not interested in. This has led to us having many happy candidates. But, it has also led to us being stung by candidates that still do not trust us. All we ask is that candidates do as they say.

A. Make sure you mean it if you say you wish to go forward for a role, after being asked about location, salary, organisation, role and any other details you may request.
B. Make sure you mean it when you confirm an interview.
C. Make sure you mean it when you accept a role.

We have recently been stung by the whole "emu" process of candidates who mysteriously become incredibly quiet after confirming they wish to go forward for a role, confirm an interview or even accept an offer of employment. They were given every opportunity to say no. We would much rather candidates said no at the start of a process rather than not turn up or not answer their phone. This lack of respect comes from the pre-conception that all agencies abuse the candidates and will do anything to get a placement. But not all agencies are like this, in fact it is an ever decreasing minority. I understand that sometimes things change but, is it really that hard to call or send an e-mail when things do change rather than wait till the last minute or even not bother at all. I have heard the saying, look out for number 1, don't worry about saying yes to every job opportunity. But really, what is the point of going forward for a role you would never accept. Plus, you may think that it does you no harm in doing the "Emu" but, your name is remembered and will not so readily be forwarded to a client when you are next looking for work. What goes around, comes around.

I am thinking, would candidates be so willing to do this, if like agencies they could be rated on websites.

I do apologise if this sounds like a bitter rant but, I truly do hope it gives an honest picture of how trust and honesty in the recruitment process could really benefit all parties.

Any comments on this, please do contact us on info@ggrecruitment.co.uk or simply leave a comment on this post.

Happy Summer all - it appears to have arrived!!!

Information Officer - Current Vacancy

Information Analyst skilled with Access, Excel and Word is urgently required.
You will have proven skills, knowledge and ability in manipulating, analysing and providing meaningful interpretation of data and reports, proven know-how and skills in presenting information visually and formatting documents/entering data. You will also have advanced skills in IT systems - Excel, Access, Word - have familiarity of working across an organisation in order to achieve goals and ideally, knowledge and skills regarding providing information for contract monitoring returns. Finally you will have delivered and managed training programmes on the data systems you work with.
This is an excellent opportunity to work within a friendly organisation within London. Please do send through a detailed CV asap.
G & G Recruitment are working as an Employment Agency.

Project Manager - Prince 2, NHS, ICT, MS Project

Project Manager with solid Prince 2 knowledge (Preferably qualified), over 3 years experience of managing IT projects is urgently required and experience of handling budgets is urgently required. You will be running projects for our client across a number of differing organisations across Essex. In charge of the full Project Life cycle you will ensure project best practice is adhered to and projects are delivered to cost and in time. The role is initially for 3 months. Any experience of Project Managing IT Projects within the NHS would be highly desirable. Please do send through detailed CVs asap. G & G Recruitment are working as an employment business.

Managed Service Companies (MSC) - New Regulations

From 6th April 2007 the Government introduced new tax rules relating to Managed Service Companies (MSC). Full guidance on the legislation is published by HMRC, details of which are given under Q13. This section of the REC Guide is a brief explanation for REC Members based on that guidance.
The justification for this legislation is the Government’s view that workers who work through MSC are invariably not in business on their own account, in other words they are not self employed for tax purposes. However, they are paid in a way which minimises the amount of PAYE tax and National Insurance Contributions (NIC) they are liable for. They do this by paying the workers a salary at the national minimum wage (NMW) and the balance by way of dividends.
IR35 legislation introduced in 1999 was supposed to ensure that those who worked through a limited company, of any description, and who were not genuinely self employed would be liable for paying PAYE and NIC on all income earned from providing their personal services. However the IR35 legislation has not been fully effective as a means of recovering tax shortfalls because it relies on an interpretation of the complex tests for self employment. Therefore, the Government enacted the MSC legislation in a bid to collect the £350 million of tax it believes is slipping through the net under the name of bogus “self employment”.
The new legislation requires a MSC to deduct PAYE tax and NIC on all earnings paid to workers and to apply the same rules for tax relief on travel expenses as apply to other employees. The new legislation goes further than IR35 in that it makes it compulsory to deduct PAYE tax and NIC if a company falls within the definition of a MSC. Further, if a MSC fails to deduct any or the full amount of PAYE tax and NIC, HMRC have powers to recover this shortfall from third parties, which can include employment businesses (from 6th January 2008). See Q4 & Q5 below. * Article from the REC website.

For the above reasons G & G Recruitment do not favour or recommend any MSC. Simply we can provide weblinks and contact details should contractors ask us for this information. If you have any more questions on this, please do contact us.

Search Engines can help Small Business - PCG

As more people log on to search engines small businesses need professional help to make the best of the opportunity. According to comScore there in August were over 209 million unique users of search engines in Europe, with 85.1 searches per searcher, meaning the internet provides a significant space for businesses to advertise themselves. Google is the most popular search engine, receiving 81.9 million unique users a month and searching over eight billion web pages. Jack Wallington, programmes manager at the Internet Advice Bureau (IAB) said that small businesses need to seek professional help to get the best out of this marketing opportunity." A quick meeting with a professional company with experience working on different campaigns will always benefit an SME, particularly because search engine marketing changes constantly and continues to increase in competitiveness," he said."The danger with optimisation is that there is a lot of free advice available on the internet and it is not always possible to know what is correct and what isn't," added Mr Wallington. *from the Professional Contractors Group (PCG) website.

G & G Recruitment are currently undergoing their own website review and more specifically are focussing on Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). If anyone has any ideas or views on this, please do contact us.