Geraldine past:
Career start> Grafton > NRF > Director! Fast track success.
How did you manage to do it so fast?
Geraldine started her career in the Electronic Industry where she worked for three of the major multinationals in various supervisory and management roles in the technical and quality disciplines; but predominantly as a classroom and online trainer delivering anything from company induction to component recognition and ESD training. She was recruited by Solectron Ireland in 2000 to help set up their training department when they expanded into the SMT business. When she was made redundant, Geraldine was offered a job with Grafton Recruitment. It was totally different for her being on the other side of the recruitment fence. But having been the client for many years, it gave her a good inside into what clients want. One major thing she learned from experience of using agencies was not to waste the client’s time. During her seven years with Grafton, she managed three of their offices on the east cover, covering both North Dublin and Co. Louth. She was actively involved in a lot of projects, one of them being part of a team of twelve who were selected to re-align the business from a regular agency provider to an employment solution provider. When Geraldine left Grafton, she took six months extended holiday and then a part time role came up in the National Recruitment Federation. This role was to manage member services and part of this incorporated the education programme co ordination role. She was there for three months when the opportunity of the Directors role was presented.
Geraldine in NRF:
How do you become a member of the NRF? What would the benefit be of being a member?
The National Recruitment Federation is a voluntary organisation set up to establish and maintain standards and codes of practice for the Recruitment Industry in Ireland.
NRF Members aim to communicate their commitment to providing quality service by agreeing to abide by a strict Code of Conduct.
Founded in 1971, the NRF seeks to provide its members with the best possible service in terms of support, communication, advice sharing and problem solving and in doing so to promote professional competence within the industry. It is also widely recognised by most organisations (including the Government) as the foremost representative body for the Recruitment Industry in Ireland. Membership of the NRF is granted only to organisations that meet criteria of excellence (including adherence to the provisions of the Employment Agency Act 1971 and all other relevant Government legislation & amendments) and how agree to abide by the NRF Code of Conduct.
Tell us a bit about the Co-ordinator of Education program for Certificate in Recruitment Practice role? What was your involvement? How many recruiters are certified until today? Is it still available? Who are the trainers? Who are the average students?
As a qualified Trainer and business coach, CERTRP and owner and MD of Kingcomms Training, this area was to be part of my role when I joined the Federation.
There are fifteen recruiters certified today, with another fifteen due to be certified by the end of 2010. My involvement in this started two years prior to joining the NRF when I was asked to write on of the Modules. It is uncanny that I should end up in this role. On joining the NRF just after the initial launch it became evident that the programme needed to re-designed and updated to fall in line with the current turbulent and fast changing markets.
The trainers are Grainne Martin from GMT and Pat Meehan from Invictus management. We are in the process of recruiting a barrister to deliver the Legislation Module. The updated programme is now available, with the November and December classrooms booked out. I must also add we have partnered with the Institute of Learning and Management, and the programme will be endorsed by City and Guilds. All successful recruiters of the program will be certified through ILM and City and Guilds. There is no such thing as the average student. This programme is designed to raise the standards of the Industry, instil confidence in the recruiter whether they have been in the industry for one or twenty years, as a junior RC or a senior manager is a one size fits all. We will build on this program going forward.
Your current Director role – what does it entail?
This is a very diverse and multi-faceted role. It comes with the responsibility for all PR & Marketing, event management and internal communications of the NRF; as well as the day-to-day running of the membership office and co-ordination of membership activities and the Education program.
Geraldine on NRF in general:
How is NRF today?
NRF is very busy due to the changing of how we do things both internally and externally. We have installed a new website www.nrf.ie. This new site has a lot more functions, hence, enabling us to communicate more with members, gather and provide more information through the site and generally give a better service. We will be developing a resource page for individual members and hope to have this up and running in the New Year.
Our main aim is to constantly strive to be “the best that we can be” in order to help our members in any way we can. The success of the recent “Breakfast Briefings” is an indicator that we are going in the right direction. We are listening to our members to see what their needs/wants are, and how, if possible, we can facilitate them. Our main goal is to add value and relevance to our members.
How many members? How many Recruitment Licenses are registered today? How many active agencies (as opposed to dormant licenses) are not members of NRF? What are the most common reasons?
There are currently ninety-seven members. The last licence list we obtained in September from the Department of Enterprise Trade and Innovation stated there were 393 licences issued. Of these, there are 280 which are trading and currently active agencies.
I cannot generalise as to why non members do not join. There are a variety for reasons for this; for some it is cost though our membership is very small and is based on the number of staff, others because they do not see a benefit for them and that is ok. You cannot force people to join but my aim is to contact them regularly and encourage them to join us, keeping them informed of all the good we are doing and then hopefully, they will see the benefits of being a member.
What could the NRF (or we as members) do to get even more agencies on board?
It is the role of all members to lobby on behalf of the NRF to non agencies. When we are dealing with the Governments on issues that affect the industry, we do so on behalf of the industry as a whole and not just for NRF members so everyone is benefiting. More members mean “the bigger we are, the louder the voice”. Use the NRF branding and logos at every opportunity to make sure your clients know you are members.
How can we help the NRF?
One of the new services going forward to conduct surveys through ‘Survey Monkey’ where everyone can help by making sure they respond. If we don’t know what you think or what you want, we cannot do anything about it. We keep the brand alive by promoting the NRF to clients and encourage them to use NRF member agencies.
Geraldine on the Recruitment Industry:
How do you see the industry changing (anything from past/present/future you would to share)?
The industry has changed job wise in the past couple of years and the trend is still leading in the favour of temporary and contract positions rather than permanent. Social media is playing a big part in how Agencies and Companies alike recruit staff and source candidates.
The recruitment industry as a whole has grown up a lot. The standards have improved dramatically, and as an industry we are more willing to share information to help the industry grow. The recession has whittled out a lot of non compliant operators.
Trends?
What are the biggest challenges for the Recruitment agencies today?
The industry has gone through a very tough few years and the NRF has not escaped: there has been many challenges and difficulties for members. For recruitment agencies today, there are so many challengers and one of the biggest is managing both client and candidate expectations. The perception is there is an abundance of people unemployed so how come we cannot fill some roles or provide more CV’s to the client for selection. This will always be an issue in some specialist and niche areas. The people just are not there and if they are they are not moving. Competing with low margins is also challenging for some agencies. Managing the candidates’ expectations in this current climate can be another huge challenge, whilst they may think they are the perfect fit for a role and tick most of the boxes of the JD. Some clients will not settle till they have all the boxes ticked.
What are the best opportunities today?
The best opportunities at the moment seem to be in the Financial and Healthcare and IT sectors, both temporary and permanent employment opportunities are seen in these areas by members who deal in these sectors. In saying that, there is a lot of positivity coming to the forefront, confidence is starting to come back but is still slow in a lot of areas.
Challenges/ opportunities for the future?
What is next for Geraldine?
A holiday hopefully! No seriously, my vision and goal is to grow the Federation and introduce more services for members. Hopefully get every member to sit the Education program as we have introduced individual membership and this is part of the criteria of joining, continue to source experts for seminars and workshops with relevance topics that will be of benefit to all.
How are you going to do this?
The NRF is supported by a core committee and sub committees who work very hard on behalf of all members. These people are amazing they give their time and expertise voluntarily and still have the very busy day job to do. These people are paramount to the future of the federation. With their help, I think we can conquer it all.