Business Thought For The Week

[Paul Mullen]

Hi All,

I just thought i would start a thread so we can share a common thought for the week.

I would like this to be along the lines of what we have tried in business thats not worked and what we have tried and has worked.

This should help us all be more profitable and also save time and effort.

I will try to respond to all messages as quickly as possible and hope to post a new idea every week.

Thanks


Paul Mullen


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[Paul Mullen]

RECRUITMENT

We have recently opened a new call centre in Preston and decided to see if it was possible to fully staff it with the right people, without going down the route of press advertising or recruitment agencies.

Soloution

I had a company make up 3 distinct banners 4 feet by 10 feet and intended to display them one at a time at the entrance to our car park. Total cost was £360.

Results

The first banner for sales staff was displayed on Monday and so far we have had 126 calls of which i have arranged interview with almost half.

Conclusion

This was a success the normal cost to attract that number of applicants would exceed £5,000.

I hope this idea helps as recruitment can cost a small fortune.
Can you let me know what you think of doing this as a company and if you have any other different ideas.

Thanks

Paul Mullen

[Ian J]

One of the advantages of using a good recruitment company is that they screen the candidates for you and will only submit those that look worth an interview.

Carefully checking the applications and reading the CV's of 126 people will take a considerable amount of time ( which costs money )

The Job Centre is also useful for recruiting and that costs nothing.

[Paul Mullen]

Ian,

Thanks for the suggestions.

I have in the past used both methods and yes a good recruitment agency should screen applicants but in my experiance they never do when it is for sales jobs. I just end up with a full inbox. They are very good if the position is more admin, manager or techie related.

As for using Job Centre Plus this is far from free. The cost involved with taking on one person via this route exceeds what a recruitment agency costs since the time spent going through applications that they have been forced to make and booking inteview times that they never attend also completing the paperwork that Job Center plus constantleysend to you costs a lot more in the long run.

The dilema we have, is we are talking about mass recruitment not just one or two members of staff.

Thanks again

[MikeH]

Interesting tactic using the banner. Seems like a reasonably succesful return for £360. However, location will be a a massive factor in the success of this.

Mike.

[Paul Mullen]

Thanks for your responce Mike,

You are right that location is a key factor in this approach and this method will not be for everyone.

The suggestion is really about helping new businesses to look outside the box.

Thanks

Paul Mullen
pmullen@yourtelecom.net
0845 225 6006