Don't mess with nature...

A harsh lesson but one that others would do well to learn perhaps: don't mess with crocodiles...

Meeting hell

A post over at Seth's Blog for all those stuck in that perpetual-meeting kind of hell. You know the type I mean. If you don't, you're lucky!

I like his idea for removing chairs from the meeting rooms personally, I've had a couple of stand up meetings and they went really well. Something else that we're going to try in our meetings is the Six Thinking Hats technique. If it works out I'll let you know!

The best clients

Good post from Dennis Howlett (an accountancy blog that is a riveting read and interesting even if you have no interest in accounting).

It got me thinking about clients in the recruitment sector. Dennis' list should apply to clients in this market too but I'd wager it doesn't for most people. I went to a talk in Chicago last year where the speaker was from the HRO Buyers Advisory Board. The board is an independent HRO buyers group and the membership is a veritable 'who's who' of organisations that outsource some or all of their HR function.

Most of the audience were potential buyers, looking at the possibility of outsourcing. I went to get the 'other-side' info and pick up any tips I could. What I remember best from it though is the following assertion:

All of the groups membership expect and want their outsource companies to make money.

Now this isn't really a surprise when you think about it logically. Yet still, it made me stop at the time and at the end I went over that particular note a couple of times to really make it stand out. Buyers should be thinking of long term relationships and they expect providers to make money over the period of the contract. Something as radical as outsourcing your HR function (or just your recruitment function) is not to be undertaken lightly. So why plan to scrap it in 6 months? Exactly, no one does. Yet that's what happens time and again. The blame for this is often attributed to poor service (and I don't doubt for one second that there is a heck of a lot of poor service out there, I hear about it all the time). Yet maybe more of the responsibility (because I don't like the word blame) needs to be on the buyers, the clients.

At Omni we've got (and lost) clients that are indeed gold standard. And I think we're getting a lot better at saying no to those who just won't be up to scratch. Yet does anyone tick all the boxes from the list? Do any of your clients? If not, what can you do to help them get there?

The "world's local bank" do themselves proud...

Although I think I'm probably incapable of being surprised by the appetite to make money demonstrated by the worlds leading banks, HSBC have this week outdone themselves. You may have seen this story in the news recently but I thought it worthy of flagging up nonetheless as I think with all the advertising money and the massive charm offensive by banks like HSBC it is easy to forget that in reality they aren't the good guys they'd like you to think they are. Customers come second, money comes first. That is and always will be the way of it.

The stand-out quote of the story:

"...not everybody in the world is equal. Some people have higher incomes and need greater services through the bank. These customers demand a better service."

If I was a HSBC customer, that quote alone would be enough to make me switch banks.

Free ice cream!

This post is as simple as the title! Via Martin, the MoneySavingExpert, and thanks to Messrs Ben and Jerry - free ice cream!

Enjoy!

Quick mind/link dump

Hi all! Hope everyone had a great Easter break and got some nice weather. Four days off and I feel fairly refreshed so whilst my brain is working reasonably well I'm going to put together a few links that I've come across over the past days/weeks. Bit of a brain dump to be honest so a real mix of links in there, both work related and not. Hopefully some will take your fancy.

- Seth's most important rule (which my thinking is very much in line with) ties in quite nicely with the secret I divulged last week

- Follow up from Guy on Carol Dweck and the different types of mindsets people have (for background see this previous post)

- An interesting post about stress and burnout at work from a new section of the always interesting PsyBlog.
N.B. Jeremy has decided to start up a Careers section on PsyBlog after good feedback on this post, that I've linked previously. Looks interesting so I'll doubtless be paying it a few visits as he starts to get some more content on there

- An interesting green post here. More on the whole green issue to come...Omni have some very interesting things in the (recyclable) pipeline

- The best t-shirt website known to man: Threadless is very cool and a shining example of a working user community. As the t-shirt says, I ♥ Threadless

- Another non-work link so for your lunch hour obviously ;-) This is something that I've always thought would be a good idea - design your own trainers. Good work Puma! (Not ridiculously pricey either, a good personalised birthday present for someone or just a nice treat for your feet)

That's it for now folks. Hope something tickles your fancy in there. Any comments etc

The secret

I can't believe we're already in April. Where's the year gone? I've had my head buried in graduate CVs and telephone interviews recently as it's backs against the wall time for my clients' grad scheme this year; the assessment days start next week with nearly 120 people being seen in total. Gulp!

Here's a quick post therefore, before I get back to the slog. But it's an important one. I want to tell you the secret. The one thing that matters. I've said it before but I wasn't as blatant about saying it. It's the one thing that impresses me. It's how to get on the PSL I run. It's how to buy some time on the phone with me. It's how to sell me a product and how to get me to evangelise for you. It's how to get noticed by me in virtually any context. It's how to convince me you're worth more money when it's salary review time and it's how you get my job.

Here it is. The secret.

Be Remarkable

(...in that literal sense I've talked about before, meaning what you do, I'll remark upon)

Now you have the secret I'm looking forward to seeing what you'll do with it.