The section ‘giving feedback' has been introduced to allow recruiters to give feedback on candidates and whilst not rating them as individuals, it does rate their behaviours. It adopts the sites ranking approach - showing those behaviours that are highest rated and those that should be avoided 'at all cost'.

For candidates this provides an essential insight into what to do and what to avoid when it comes to applying for jobs, approaching recruiters and employers and going for interview.

Typing errors in the CV No cover letter Excessive jewellery Bad spelling CV's wrapped in all sorts of folders etc Standard CV that doesn't relate to the job Turning up late with no phone call Asking about recouping travel expenses One word answers Looks rehearsed and wooden Unwilling to express an opinion Unable to give examples of achievement Poor eye contact, unable to sit still etc

Turn up 10 minutes early for the interview Customised Cover Letter Clean and tidy fingernails Pleasant demeanor Asking relevant questions about the business Done research into company in advance Wearing a suit to the interview Firm Handshake Sensitve to time pressures Brief when asked to be brief Clear well thought through replies Able to provde examples to illustrate answers Demonstrates good self awareness

The Recruitment Industry is a great place to be and running your own recruitment company can be a fantastically rewarding challenge. This section provides ideas and suggestions to recruiters who are, or are thinking of, setting up their own recruitment agency.

Setting yourself up:

• Consider how you can best access the wide range of expert advice without unaffordable expense. Use free resources available on websites run by the government and professional bodies
• Use a formation company that can help you with the basics to ensure that you are compliant
• Find a good accountant.
• Decide about location; the need for offices, systems, infrastructure, staff. Initially try to do as much of this as possible on a service basis rather than through hiring staff
  
• Consider your brand. This may seem daunting but need not be too costly and is something that is hard to change later
• Consider your IT needs; what sort of web presence do you want, how will your candidate and client managment systems work etc. See also this article in our knowledge centre
• Try to plan all your first year expenses up front so that you can prioritise and make good choices

Your business plan and finances:

• Be realistic. Put together a Profit and Loss forecast, run a worst case scenario - about 20% of your first estimate of sales. You can do an upside one as well for fun but make sure you can survive on the worst case at least for a substantial period of time.
• Look at your cash flow. Even a successful business can struggle with cash flow issues, and this becomes particularly critical if you are in the temp or employment agency market where your contractees will need paying every week and your clients will take a lot longer to pay. Plan on the industry average of around 50 debtor days or more.
• Get insured. Consider buying necessary insurance that you can pay for monthly. Yes, it's a little more expensive than paying up front but it helps you preserve your cash position.
  
• Seriously consider outsourcing temp payroll and credit control - aim to do this on a totally variable cost basis and utilise the outsourcers' management disciplines. You need to be spending your time selling, not processing weekly payroll, dealing with C.S.A. queries and chasing debts etc. Don't hire payroll and credit control staff or buy payroll, invoicing and sales ledger systems. Get experts to do it but don't pay out up front and raise the invoices in your name.
• Be prudent. Check out the credit rating of your clients.
• Get your terms sorted. Absolutely clarity up front on invoice terms will save you effort and angst later on. Make sure you are clear about CVs you send to clients, protect yourself in the event that they hire people but not through you.

Your candidates:

• Take a bit of time to consider what it is that you will be offering your candidates and what might make you the recruiter of choice
• Set your pricing parameters up front and take care not to compromise on these in an early bid to do business since you will find it hard to recoup them later - unless you build this into a longer term contract
• Decide - and cost - your candidate sourcing options
• Work hard on candidate care, and just as importantly, candidate after care. How do you plan to keep in touch with the people you placed? This is critical so that they come to you if they are looking to hire (or indeed move on)
• What service guarantees do you propose to give your clients
• How will you prevent your clients from taking your people and not paying your fees (make sure terms and conditions are legally robust and clearly printed on the backs of your CVs)

Your Clients:

• Take a bit of time to consider what it is that you will be offering your clients and what might make you the recruiter of choice
• Set your pricing parameters up front and take care not to compromise on these in an early bid to do business since you will find it hard to recoup them later - unless you build this into a longer term contract
• What service guarantees do you propose to give your clients? Consider your position if your candidate leaves within 1 month, 3 months, 12 months. Consider different fee structures based on candidate aftercare and retention guarantees. Consider invoicing over the first 6 months post placement (it might hit your cashflow but could give you competitive advantage and keep your fees up)
• If you are negotiating a long term preferred supplier arrangement consider using a procurement professiona
• Think about how you will prevent your clients from taking your people and not paying your fees (make sure terms and conditions are legally robust and clearly printed on the backs of your CVs)

The section ‘giving feedback to employers' has been introduced to allow recruiters to give feedback to employers giving them suggestions on what to keep doing and what to avoid. This is a fairly light hearted expose of some serious issues and aims to provide a fun environment where people can share and learn. An ideal opportunity for recruiters to give the feedback that they have always longed to give, without the need to manage the client relationship and ego!

For employers and hiring managers/HR professionals this provides an essential insight into what to do and what to avoid when it comes to advertising for jobs, approaching recruiters and candidates and conducting interviews.

Delay weeks before arranging interviews Unprepared for the interview Makes no notes of what candidates say Keeps the candidate waiting Cancels and/or rearranges interviews Selection programme overly long or too short No chance to ask questions Interviewers clearly untrained Fragmented interview programme Very slow to get back to candidates Ongoing process unclear and not explained Little attention given to advice of recruitment consultant

Explaining the next steps Managing the timing of the process Read CV in advance Leaves Time for Questions Information on Company made available Ccandidates meet people and see the office/site etc Timely follow up to applications and interview Offer of feedback when psychometrics used Obtain quality information via well structured interview programme Interviewers trained and professional Good diversity awareness and commitment Selection progamme a good challenge to candidates

We offer the following resources for recruiters:

• A knowledge centre which includes information and articles for recruiters as well as candidates and employers. Please let us know if there is anything you would like us to add to the centre
• A forum which brings together recruiters, candidates and employers as well as employees, consultants and interims.
• HR and recruitment consulting information in our consulting centre
• A range of psychometric tools and advice in our psychometrics centre
• Details of recruitment related suppliers on our suppliers directory
• Details of various job boards in our job boards directory
• A recruiters corner where you can give feedback to candidates. You are on it!
• A site Features Page where you can submit a personal profile thus increasing publicity for your site

HireScores.com offers you a unique opportunity to get feedback from candidates, and to demonstrate your commitment to feedback and confidence in your performance when approaching existing and new clients.

We are pleased to offer free advice and support in helping you make the most of your registration with HireScores.com - just let us know if you would like to take advantage of this. We also have a number of services and advertising opportunities - just let us know if you would like to know more.

In the meantime, hopefully you will find some of the following information useful.

Looking first at candidates, there are a number of ways you can encourage your candidates to rate your performance:

• Include an article in your monthly newsletter
• Send an e-mail to everyone on your database
• Put links on your website and encourage people to rate you in your normal correspondence and via your site
• Hand out cards to candidates encouraging rating
• Add a question about whether they have rated you to the checklist for your regular follow up phone calls

Opposite Clients and your business in general, your involvement with HireScores.com gives you a strong marketing and PR benefit. To this end you may wish to:

• Contact your clients and tell them about HireScores.com and why you have joined - this is excellent PR, demonstrating confidence in the quality of your work
• Issue a press release outlining your commitment to feedback and how you hope to benefit from the information and feedback HireScores.com will provide you
• Join our Forum where you can join with other recruiters as well as candidates and employers in exploring issues to do with recruitment, working and running a business (and a host of other topics) which will also create publicity for your business and both contribution to your learning and that of others
• Work with us to encourage employers to start using HireScores.com thus giving you access to even more feedback and insights

And finally for yourself, you can:

• Engage, share best practice and learning with other professionals on our forum
• Read articles and gain inforamtion and advice
• Give feedback to candidates and employers on the best - and worst - things that they can do
• Use our supplier and job board directories and use or Psychometrics and Consulting Centres
• Contribute to an improvement in recruitment quality, standards and effectiveness
• Be part of a community which brings together candidates, employers and recruiters for the first time