A funny thing happened on the way to this blog post.  I was approached by Bill Boorman.  I was asked to share a little information about where I live.  Bill is Co-founder of the TRU-Events. Bill Boorman, is a compassionate, caring, and focused individual. He is a Blogger, commentator, Speaker, and Event Coordinator. Bill can be reached at www.twitter.com/BillBoorman or www.trumanchester.wordpress.com    He will support you any which way he can. It was a pleasure meeting Bill.  You see, I live in Manchester, PA USA. and Bill’s latest Tru event is in Manchester, England. We wanted to bridge the gap between the 2 Manchesters.

I live in Manchester, PA York County USA.  Manchester is a small town located in Central PA.

§  Population:2,350

§  .783 miles

§  494,784 Acres

Borough land was obtained in 1740 by John Nickey, and heir of William Penn. The borough was originally named Liverpool, after Liverpool, England.  The town fathers realized that there was already a town named Liverpool in PA. So Manchester Borough was born on August 26th, 1869.  Much was accomplished in the small town. Schools, fire services, a trolley ran through the town.

Fast forward to 2010. A small town in the 21st century is full of community,friendships, family, schools, recreation, shoppes, and events. Annual parades, and Ice cream socials are still a part of our borough.

My husband David and I have resided in Manchester for 11 years.

Special thanks to www.manchesterborough.com for the great information and history. Thank you Bill Boorman for asking me to be a contributor. It is an honor.

Wishing you the best on a Fantastic #TRUManchester event

Tribeca explained:

“If you’ve been to New York, particularly Manhattan, and taken a trip to the Financial District, chances are you drove past Tribeca. In a typical New York twist, Manchester’s Tribeca bar itself is multi-tiered, with a cosy mezzanine above the entrance way, a large bar and fabulous low slung sofas, with separate raised seating and eating areas. It’s a place to relax, unwind and get playful.

The music is a mix from low-key jazz ‘chill out style’ during the day to mainstream ‘upbeat’ in the evenings, Tribeca is busy, buzzy and vibrant. Definately somewhere to start and end your evening.”

Wednesday night is Mojito Madness with special deals and crazy drinks. could be messy!

Directions to Tribeca.

For anyone around tonight, we have an informal meeting point at the Old nags head in Jacksons Row, Deansgate. The football will be on in the main lounge, with quiet areas for those who want to talk.

http://www.old-nags-head.co.uk/

I’ve been impressed by the way he has gone about implementing social recruiting in to a small recruitment business on the south coast. He has real experience to share rather than theorey.

here is what Steve has to say about his tracks:

Tomorrow I set off to sunny (ahem!) Manchester to be part of Bill Boorman’s next outstanding Recruitment Unconference adventure, as I take my place amongst the track leaders of #truManchester, at the Manchester Conference Centre; but equally thrilled just to be there.

I went to #truLondon in February, as a recruitment veteran, but a social media/modern technology novice – and gained outstanding insight into where the recruitment industry should be going, but isn’t. Others will say that it is getting there. I would still say… slowly, very, very slowly. Much of February was a blur, but I met some good people, and heard some great theory, and the reality of it all is that there were some real case studies, but they were in the US – which is a hell of a big country. I go to #truManchester a little wiser about Social Media and how in can impact recruitment effectiveness, but still bemused by the lack of take-up by the recruitment industry.

If you are a recruiter in and around the Manchester/North West region, and you are conscious of how the communications world is overtaking the recruitment industry, and fast – you should be there. If you can’t be there – get on Twitter and follow the hashtag #truManchester. Social Media is not a fad, nor is it a waste of sales time; Technology is developing, and it is relevant to recruitment; The Candidate landscape is constantly moving, and we need to catch that fast train. These things matter, to good insightful recruitment professionals.

The format is easy. No conference speakers, no big auditoriums, no presentations, no gurus – it’s all about discussions in the form of `tracks` led by some facilitators, but in an open discussion format. No man or woman is more or less an `expert` than any other. Frankly it’s blissfully unstarry and grounded.

I shall be one of the Track Leaders on the subjects of `The Future of Recruiting` with Jennifer McClure and Mervyn Dinnen, and `Social Media Circus` with Glenn Le Santo and Jennifer McClure again. I shall bring my clown hat especially for the latter track. But I look forward to chewing the fat over some other great subjects on an awesome agenda.

Equally, your free to move between tracks. the track leaders will not be offended, so get to as many as you can and be sure to tell us what you want out of the track. That’s the whole unconference ethos!

For #tru virgins, here’s 6 things we don’t do:

1: Presentations or PowerPoint

2: Give out name badges. If you want to know who someone is, ask them. If you see someone new, introduce yourself. It’s called conversation!

3: Organise lunch. Part of the conversation is pairing up and going somewhere local in whatever group you choose.

4: Hold back on views. We expect everyone to engage and speak freely, and disagree, while respecting others.

5: Be miserable. Keep a smile on your face. this is supposed to be fun

6; Turn your phones off. We want you tweeting, engaging, posting to FB or blogs, videoing, asking for questions and views from the twitter stream and being active!

In case you missed the venue, we are turning the Manchester Conference Centre in to the Unconference centre. You can find the address and location at the end of the post.

If anyone wants any tickets, I have 7 left!

Bill

Link to the Venue

Enjoy!

To prepare for the track, I sent out a tweet asking for views on flat fee recruitment. One of my follows, Jack Barton of Oyster and Ocean partnership, and JobshopHQ felt so moved he blogged a reply to start the debate.

Recruitment Will Eat Itself (R.W.E.I)

When will we ever learn to work together as recruiters in this country?  Not in a Hays / Randstad / CDI AndersElite et al price fixing cartel type way though, certainly. Time and time again I see recruitment businesses undercut one another and subsequently devalue and undermine the quality of service it is then possible to provide.  When did that become the UK mentality?  In America for example, competitors see one another charging 25% for recruitment services.  Their mentality is to approach the same client and to offer the same service AT THE SAME PRICE.  In the UK our first thought is to undercut, over and over again.  Why?

For the most part, clients now look at pricing above everything else – they have cottoned on to the fact that many recruitment companies are so desperate for work they’ll agree to almost anything to work on a job or for a prized place on a PSL where they’re probably working at 8% and getting paid in 90 days.  Of course we have all seen this before – in a boom market these clients are the first to receive poor service as recruiters leave them in their droves for the 25-30%ers.  The main issue is that those recruiters that started the undercutting have most likely left the market because you know what, low margins don’t pay the bills.  If they did, we’d all have an office in Inverness employing untrained phone monkeys on 12k basics.

What’s the point of employing talented individuals, spending 18 months developing them professionally, basing yourself in a good working environment and striving to provide quality service if all you’re going to do is work at eye-stabbingly poor margins?  I turned down another revised VMS rate agreement today for The London Borough of Bromley.  Sorry Comensura, you’re usually pretty reasonable to be fair.  I know your earnings are based on annual savings splits, but we’re not going to work at 10%.  Don’t even get me started on Matrix.  Anyone with an ounce of sense will be able to work out that this business model doesn’t work, and until companies have the guts to start saying “No”, the same elements of our industry that outsiders frown upon will continue to exist because that is all we will be able to sustain.  The Oyster Partnership is a specialist provider of Public Sector recruitment services and client after client are now being denied our services.  It turns out that there are plenty that are available to replace them.  After this shift in strategy our GP is up by over 20% on the same period last year with the same number of consultants.

Don’t give away your hard earned skills for nothing.  Back each other up.  Value what you do.  Don’t panic. Support each other and swap skills where you can.  Run sustainable businesses.  It will be better for everyone in the industry and we will all be able to give our clients the levels of service they deserve and demand.

So what do I think of flat fee recruitment?  If you give me £299 I’ll have the answer for you within a month.

Jack Barton

Director

The Oyster Partnership

Over to Lis. Have your say.

Links In This Post

Oyster Partnership

Ocean Partnership

JobShopHQ

HRConnexions

That is  the full 12, though I could have posted 100′s more.

How do I feel about #truManchester next week?

I’m Mad For It!

Extra link:

List of Manchester Bands From Wikipedia

BY REQUEST:

For the Job Board Doctor

And for James Swift