Author Archives: Crooton Team

Recruitment agencies and employers will continue to be challenged to find top talent in their respective industries. Knowing where to find the best candidates can ease this workload.

Because technology has progressed so much, we have selected several of the latest techniques that employers can use to match people with positions. Our personal preference involves virtual Geo fencing, but more about that later.

Traditional Job Adverts

Up your recruitment skills when posting job descriptions in traditional forums. Like it or not, words matter when it comes to attracting the cream of the crop with familiar written job adverts. Up your game by using AI to refine your written advert. Specific AI tools guide phrasing by analysing data and predicting which ads will be successful because of how the ad has been worded.

Freelance Employee Required?

Recruiters tend to overlook the benefits of freelancers when a gap needs to be filled for a limited period. Typically, the gig economy is overlooked due to red tape in the organization. Overcome this hurdle, and specialists from content writers to web developers and graphic designers can be sourced through online freelance websites.

Programmatic Advertising

Although no longer strictly a major innovation in the recruitment field, programmatic advertising still holds value. Employers can use this technique to target candidates with the desired qualifications by using automated job ad posting. Candidate profiles should be well-researched and posted on sites that they are predicted to frequent for this process to reap the desired visibility.

Social Media?

Social media is not just for socializing. If employers have not yet tried this recruitment technique, perhaps it is time to give it a try. Social platforms like LinkedIn are where most of the older generation hang out. Over 80% of the younger generation use social media, and most access these platforms via smartphones. Tap into this rich source to discover new talent.

Geo Fencing

Saving the best to last, Geo fencing is a specialized recruitment strategy employed by Crooton to reveal the best talent available.

What is Geo fencing? In its simplest form, it involves the placement of digitally displayed job adverts on websites and apps. In other words, a pre-selected ‘fence’ area is determined within a geographical range to display ads on user’s smartphones.

How does it benefit employers? Crooton has implemented this strategy to benefit its clients. The primary advantage of using this recruitment practice is that it targets talent within competitor locations by displaying employer vacancies to potential talent within the fenced area.

Target top graduates. Employers can focus on aiming recruitment efforts at sourcing apex graduates from universities and colleges. targeting of campus locations via smartphones is a ‘smart’ decision given the fact that the use of this device is set to exceed 61 million by 2024.

Outperform competitors. Businesses can use Crooton’s expertise in Geo fencing to outperform rivals by posting appealing vacancies for competitor employees to view.

Diversity recruitment. Known locations of neighbourhoods characterized by diversity can be targeted for talent searches and compliance.

Specific industry recruitment. Military bases and training facilities can quickly be isolated to source premium talent for specific industries. The same concept applies to the recruitment of individuals in other fields such as the auto industry or entertainment.

Veterans, layoffs, business closures and re-locations. The seemingly endless reach of the Geo fencing technique is also applied to reach veterans, employees who have recently been laid off, those available following business closures, or when corporations relocate.

Geo fencing should not be confused with IP targeting. Although IP targeting is effective, geo fencing recruitment outstrips that of IP in terms of success.

Find out how Crooton can enrich your workforce horizons by taking your recruitment strategies to the next level.

In June 2020, our MD gave a presentation on the opportunities for the use of geo-fencing within the recruitment sector at a US Conference for Job Board operators.

Here is a link to that presentation.

“We have found the Crooton Team to be helpful and on-hand to provide us with quality candidates for singular specialist requirements which have reduced our reliance on Recruitment Agencies and have also turned around a number of high volume projects with tight deadlines, going above and beyond to support our team.”

“They are clearly passionate about understanding and meeting our needs and have delivered against some tough deadlines.”

“I would have no hesitation in recommending Crooton for their excellent, cost-effective service.”

A number of significant things have happened post lockdown that have clearly impacted business. Operating within the recruitment sector, we have had numerous new business meetings rescheduled and recruitment campaigns suspended; and just like many others we have had to review our cost base and re-negotiate supplier contracts where appropriate. 

Where we are fortunate, is that we continue to maintain strong relationships with our partners. One thing that has not changed, and is unlikely to change, is the importance placed on ‘trust’. We would like to think that those organisations that we work with, know that we will not over-promise and under-deliver and always strive to support them in any way we can. Recently this has meant offering additional services where internal recruitment teams have required some extra help and over the forthcoming months I suspect we will be called upon to support in other areas that we have not yet foreseen. From wherever these calls come, we will seek to adapt and meet those needs. 

Where we see business requirements strengthening over the months ahead, are solutions to support an increase in productivity. Within recruitment we suspect this is likely to come from new tools to help teams interact and engage with candidates in a more efficient and effective way. With this in mind we have been ‘building’ things that will deliver solutions to meet these needs. We will soon launch a marketing platform which will allow everyone to create great looking digital ads which can then be delivered to a targeted audience. Soon after this deployment, we will launch a flexible applicant management system that will help teams manage applications. 

The digital ad creation tool and ad delivery system, will allow bespoke ads to be created in multiple formats in minutes rather than days, and allow the serving of these ads via the ad networks. This easy to use system means anyone will be able to create great looking adverts from scratch, or build templates that can be amended in seconds with new vacancy details. With the creative tool plugged in to all the major ad networks, these ads can then be served wherever you want them to be seen. We are planning to offer free access to the ad creation tool to businesses over the coming weeks. If you are interested, please drop us a line at enquiries@crooton.com and we will send you login details over the coming weeks.

Our second ‘build’ project centres around a candidate management system, which will allow  businesses to manage candidate applications within an easy to use interface. Users will be able to build online assessments in various formats, communicate with applicants through the system, share comments with colleagues, review and weight applications and access insightful reports. Over forthcoming months, we will look to deploy further functionality based on user requirements and the service will be offered for free for the next 6 months with no on-going commitment. 

Our vision is to build a flexible free/low cost solution that can be customised for individual requirements. We want to create something that really works, that people want to use and that delivers real value. The tool could be managed as a stand-alone service or integrated into existing systems and in subsequent releases we will look to deploy new functionality that is aligned with user requirements. We think you know better than us, what is really needed, so if you would like to help shape the next phase of this project whilst benefiting from free access to the service, please drop us a line enquiries@crooton.com.

We’re really excited about building something great with you over the months ahead.

Depending on the sector within which you operate, recruitment of new staff could be your main priority at present. However, it is just as important to retain the excellent staff you already have.

Feedback from a lot of the candidates we speak to, regarding their motivation for leaving a company is around transparency of the ‘goings on’ at a senior level.  Staff want to feel like they belong and would like to help shape the business and have their ideas heard. When they feel that they have this level of investment and engagement from an employer, they are more likely to stay. 

When staff have an excellent bond with their manager, we have found that their commitment to the company is stronger.  To feel valued for the work they are doing is at the top of the list of reasons someone will stay with a company. And showing their value doesn’t have to be financial; an email recognising their efforts, a shout-out during a meeting or conference call are fantastic ways of recognising individuals performance, a bottle of their favourite tipple or their favourite snack is also a great way to show appreciation.  

It’s so important to raise and retain morale within your workforce, as a happy team is a productive and loyal team. 

Examples of how other companies are retaining staff:
– additional perks like lunch vouchers, extra holidays days to be taken later,
– a fun team bonding event once things return to normal,
– retention bonuses,
– additional financial incentives for x number of additional shifts worked.

These aren’t things you may be able to exercise immediately, however, staff being able to ‘bank’ incentives are just as good.

It now seems highly likely that we will see a significant increase in the number of people infected with coronavirus over the weeks and months ahead. Here at Crooton, we are fully committed to standing shoulder to shoulder with our health and social care colleagues to get suitably skilled staff permanently deployed to those most vulnerable in our society.

We are already supporting a number of health and social care agencies to respond to the Coronavirus threat from a position of strength. By overfilling permanent roles, and aiming for 110% post occupancy, not only will shortages be less acute but those on the ground will be better placed to provide continuity of care than ‘in-demand’ ad hoc locums.

An article in the Guardian last week (Care workers could be redeployed to UK coronavirus hotspots, Guardian, Wed 4 Mar 2020) looked at plans being made within the Care Sector to address the issues that are likely to arise. These included a review of obligatory background checks by the Department of Health and Social Care, that can currently take upto 2 weeks,  to see whether these would impact on implementing an emergency plan. It would seem prudent at this time for the commissioners to at least allow staff to start who have had DBS clearance in the last 12 months, whilst new ones are pending. 

Industry leaders within the sector have said that without emergency measures, the forecasted infection levels in the UK could force homes to close and residents to be moved to NHS facilities. This would inevitably cause considerable distress and further increase the burden on already stretched services.

The Adult Social Care Sector currently employs a workforce of over 1.5 million, with employees split between  permanent 91%, temporary 3%, bank 4%, agency 1% and other 1%. With a 7.8% open vacancy rate (skillsforcecare.org) and usual sickness rates typically running higher for Carers than the average for the UK economy at 4.8 lost days per year, there is already significant pressure on the workforce to maintain service levels. 

As infection control measures increase,  the number of workers self-isolating will significantly impact on service quality and delivery. The impact might be partly mitigated through a greater reliance on locum bank/agency staff and extended working hours. However, if government predictions are right, and 20% of the population are off work at the height of the epidemic, then this will clearly create some very significant problems and the situation will be exacerbated the longer this period lasts.  With the Government officials now forecasting a peak in April, there is little time to mobilise and ensure there is sufficiently skilled permanent staff available.

Care providers should look at reducing the number of open vacancies they currently carry in an attempt to reduce the impact of coronavirus on the continuation of services. With a turnover rate of staff of a little over 30% in the sector, staffing levels will return to normal levels very quickly post virus, minimizing the longer term financial impact.

Technological solutions might help care providers speed up recruitment within their sector – online services for reducing processing times on DBS checks, recruitment marketing tools to access potential candidates and screening services to allow internal recruitment teams to operate more efficiently.

A mix of technology, good strategic planning and focused resourcing is likely to help minimize the impact of this virus in the sector over the coming months. However, with forecasts on the potential spread changing by the hour, it would seem that the window of opportunity to make the greatest impact is shortening.

Results of a campaign run for Mental Health Support Workers in London.

Within two weeks the client had made 5 offers and 4 hires from the list of candidates we were able to supply.

Results of a campaign run over 4 weeks for a haulage company based in Cambridgeshire.

The company was looking to recruit 5 HGV Class 1 Drivers.

Using ‘Employer Fencing’, traditional marketing channels and search activity we were able to provide them with a shortlist of candidates, from which they made 5 hires.

1 fee, 5 hires = significant saving on cost per hire.