Well the end of another compelling series of the Apprentice - and sadly once again Sir Alan has failed to appoint the best all-round candidate - Claire Young. All credit to Lee, but i just don't think Sir Alan is willing to take on a strong woman as his apprentice (cf Ruth Badger).
But despite that, great entertainment - and I will be on apprentice watch come September, to see if I can spot the next series in action.
Well that's what I'd like to say after the experience of trying to watch 'The Apprentice USA - Series Three' over the past few weeks.
Whilst there have been some problems with this series, episodes rather short, and not enough focus on the tasks, that doesn't justify the treatment from BBC2. Either you make a decision to show a series and then show it in a way that viewers can cope with, or you don't!
In this case the BBC fell down badly. The series has been shown twice a week or once, two episodes a week or four - all without any warning - and there hasn't even been a webpage for it on the BBC site!
So the result of all that was I missed the final two episodes on Thursday! I do know that Kendra deservedly won, but the BBC certainly didn't. Let's hope for better with Series 4 (if they show it) and the next series of the British version.
The recruitment agency Veredus recently released a report entitled 'Talent Management - The Capacity to Make a Difference' which was commissioned by the Society of Chief Personnel Officers (now known as the PPMA).
This report which makes interesting and alarming reading looks at "the extent to which public sector agencies were supporting and nurturing future generations of management" - essentially staff recruitment, development and succession planning. It does also cover aspects of the private sector, and inevitably because of its focus will be relevant to libraries.
Key Findings In summary:
"The majority of respondents ... reported a lack of leadership at board and director level, at middle management and at team leader level;
The survey revealed a a reasonable ability to attract front line staff, but not so in recruiting specialists, middle and senior managers;
The ability of the private sector to recruit to all levels is stronger than in the public sector - possibly reflecting better status, reward and image;
In the public sector local government appears to face the most acute problem in terms of attracting specialists and middle managers - more so than in health and central government;
Retaining staff at management level appears less of a problem across all sectors, however in local government significant problems were reported in retaining specialist workers;
In relation to Talent management strategies - 74% of organisations reported that they didn't have a well developed plan; 68% didn't have a talent retention plan (80% of public sector organisations said they had no real plans for talent management or retention);
Only 20% of organisations had active diversity strategies in place; and 68% of respondents said they preferred to rely on 'gut feel' and personal knowledge rather than any developed form of competency rating in assessing leaders of the future; little attempt is made to develop a 'talent data-base' and just over 30% of staff get appraisals;
Over 70% of respondents felt they did not give enough time to developing managerial talent, and over 60% felt it was absolutely central to 'get it right'."
So probably not new to you, and I can't claim much better for my own organisation - though we do at least have appraisals!
Veredus recommend a 10 point plan to address this sorry situation:
1) Make the business case - ie what would happen to our business if we didn't perform in core areas or lost key people?
2) Create your own talent map
3) Understand your own reputation
4) Conduct an independent audit - of teams, managers and their strengths
5) Review your career development opportunities
6) Focus on people within
7) Pulling it together - once you've done 1-6 look to embed a talent management strategy linked to your business plan and goals
8) Prioritise your actions
9) Take a business not purely HR approach
10) Put talent on the executive agenda
So know you know what to do, and I imagine that at least some of this work could be done effectively at department/unit/service level even if the organisation as a whole doesn't want to grasp this particular nettle!
This is my latest Update Column which appears in the June issue, it's the last on staff issues for a while, at least.
I thought that it would be an appropriate way to complete this series of columns on career management, by looking at recruitment from the Manager’s perspective.
The first thing to note is that increasingly the recruitment process is subject to new legislation – so it is vital to make sure that you are up-to-date and that you fully comply with both the law and your organisation’s procedures. For the purpose of this column, I will assume that this is the case, and that advice and support is available from your Human Resources Department.
Once a vacancy arises you need to establish that you really do need to recruit someone to fill the post, in considering this you may find yourself better off distributing tasks between other posts or moving staff around in order to increase their experience. However, if you are able to establish the need for recruitment then you will need to agree who will be involved throughout the process - so that they can contribute to agreeing the following:
- Job Description
- Person Specification
- Salary/Terms/Benefits
- Advertisement
- Selection Criteria – for short listing and final selection
- Nature and format of the selection interview
It is clear from my experience – on both sides of the table, that it is essential to start by drawing up (or reviewing) the job description and the person specification.
Assuming that you then carefully construct your advert, and selection criteria around the person specification (being clear about salary and benefits etc) then making the decision about candidates during the selection process should become quite straightforward.
After all what you’re aiming to do is to identify which of the available candidates are capable of doing the job, and then selecting the one who will best fit into the organisation, taking into account the skills and experience already available to you.
To achieve this you must be clear about how you will select candidates for interview – so that you can ensure that candidates are clearly asked to provide all the information you need to make your choice. Organisational practice will dictate whether you request a CV or application form – but in either case you will need a statement from the candidates, which provides more information about their suitability. If you have identified the essential skills of the job in the person specification, then this will enable you to ask candidates to put forward examples of the skills/knowledge they have in these areas.
Once the advert has been agreed you should use your job specification and any other information provided in the advert to devise the selection criteria for short listing. As employment law increasingly extends to the conduct of the recruitment process it is vital to ensure that selection decisions are recorded and can be demonstrated to be objective.
You now need to agree how the short listed candidates will be assessed. I’m assuming that you will use a ‘traditional’ 30-40 minute panel interview, but increasingly employers are using assessment centre techniques to increase the effectiveness of the process. It’s also the case that two-stage interviews are becoming more common, with the use of recruitment consultants to advise on (or in some cases agree) the final short-list for formal panel interview.
Also increasingly common is the request for a presentation or some form of ‘written’ assessment like a short paper. I recognise that these methods can have a place in the process, however it is important to ensure that you have identified a means of objectively assessing them alongside the interview – and that you are aware of the extra burden they place on applicants. Crucially they must add something to your decision making process if they are to be worth the effort – on both sides.
Having done all this preparation, then all you have to do is advertise and carry out the interview and the candidates should ‘select’ themselves!
So, now that Michelle has triumphed over 'The Badger' - despite the fact that Ruth did win the final task (under the only criteria Sir Alan recognises - ie making the most money) - what have we learnt from this series of the Apprentice.
I'm pretty certain that Sir Alan was influenced by Michelle's background and what she's achieved in life (certainly there are some similarities with his own experiences of working hard from a young age), though that shouldn't detract from her clear abilities and determination.
However, once again its clear that luck plays a big part in what happens to the individual candidates - I was surprised that Michelle survived the 'Top Shop' challenge - certainly not a good idea to lock yourself away in the VIP changing room with 'free' champagne whilst your colleagues slug it out on the shop floor! Interestingly enough Ruth also crossed Sir Alan's path on that challenge when she failed to exploit Philip Green's generosity sufficiently!
Beyond this, I think last night's episode should have reminded us just how important staff recruitment and management is, and it's clear Michelle has got some way to go here!
I understand that she'll be setting up a company to recycle computers, which last year's winner Tim might have preferred more than his skin care project! Oh and here's a link to Amstrad for Paul!
'Till next time...
This is an edited version of my April Update column. I'm going to talk about choosing which jobs to apply for and how to prepare your application.
Inevitably this part of the process is one where you have to wait for suitable jobs to be advertised. However, you can still manage this and prepare yourself. To do this you need to have a good (but not fixed) idea of what it is you are looking for. Obviously this requires some knowledge of your skills and experience, and what motivates you. One way to establish this is to ask yourself the following questions:
You do need to be honest in answering these questions – but don’t be too influenced by your current role, think back over other jobs that you’ve had as well. It’s also worth remembering that just because you haven’t worked in a particular area or sector this doesn’t mean that you aren’t equipped to do so, you may just have to work a bit harder to sell yourself and to demonstrate that you have the skills required.
I believe that if you have gone through this process then you are more likely to spot the right opportunities when you see jobs advertised – particularly as I believe that if you apply for jobs which you are suited too, and which appeal to you – you will be more likely to succeed at interview.
Once you have identified a suitable job, you need to apply – and whilst it should be obvious, do make sure that you have provided the information requested and applied in the format specified. I’ve seen far too many applications that have failed to provide some of the required information – in the majority of cases, these have been automatically rejected!
Remember employers generally receive more applications than the number of candidates they want to interview, so you DO need to clearly demonstrate exactly how you meet the criteria they have set. However, try to do this concisely. In my experience one or at the most two pages of A4 are sufficient to demonstrate your skills, more than this will almost certainly raise questions about your ability to summarise and present information effectively. And remember, your written application is all that the employer has to go on to make their decision. In my previous column I suggested that a ‘generic’ statement of your skills and experience would be a useful tool, but you must customise it to match the job you are applying for. Make sure that you have taken account of the emphasis that the advert gives to particular skills, and that you have removed anything irrelevant. Even good applications can end up being rejected if they fail to focus on the job as advertised. By now you should be ready to prepare an application which will get shortlisted - good luck.
Despite the by-line to my latest column (Update April, 2006) I remain (very happily) at the University of London, Research Library Services.
Then maybe you should tune in to 'Selling Yourself' on [Channel] Five on Tuesday nights!
After all, apart from experience as interviewers, we don't usually get to see real people being interviewed for real jobs - that they do actually want.
Now of course, this is TV - its set-up for the viewer, its edited for effect - and frustratingly we don't really see as much of the interviews as I would like. But you do get to see some 'task-based' selection methods, and just how pressurised the 30 second 'elevator pitch' can be.
The other thing to say is that the interviewers do take a rather more confrontational approach than I've generally experienced, but you can still learn from the way the candidates respond.
So, my advice is - if you've planning on having an interview any time in the near (or even distant) future, check out the programme and website. The tips on the website are a bit limited, but you can get a free Personality Profile Assessment!
This is a slightly edited version of my latest column which is in the January/February edition of Update.
It seems appropriate that I should turn my attention to the topic of Career Management in this column, because next month I will be starting a new job. Moving from the Royal Society of Medicine to the University of London, Research Library Services where I will be Director, Academic Services.
I intend to discuss the process I went through and the decisions I took in this and my next column. The area of career management is a huge one, and these columns will only scratch the surface.
The question of responsibility for your career is crucial – no-one will manage your career for you, and its very much the exception not the rule for head hunters to be used – even for the highest level library jobs. Therefore, you must recognise that if you want to change jobs (unless change is forced on you by your employer) you will have to actively manage your career yourself!
Having spent six years in my present post by last summer, I became convinced that it was time to consider a move. I should say that this is very much a personal decision, and the amount of time that anyone spends in a particular job or organisation will depend on a great number of factors – not least their own temperament, where they are in the organisation and the role they are in.
For me, the fact that I had completed a major refurbishment of the library (a project that had been part of my role since I joined the Society), and that something equally challenging was unlikely to come along again, meant that I felt it was right to think about moving on. However, in other circumstances there would have been different ways to respond to this situation, for example by looking for a secondment or sideways move; taking on a special project or indeed seeking out new tasks within either the existing job role or organisation.
Having taken the decision to look for another job, I also reaffirmed my desire to remain in a library role – not a given due to the limited opportunities that exist as you progress in the profession. I also recognised that this lack of opportunity could make moving a long process – another reason for active planning. Because I was approaching this from a perspective of active management, whilst I was still enjoying my post - I knew that it shouldn’t matter if finding a job took some time.
Having reached the point where I knew that I was looking for another senior management role in a library, I was able to think more about my skills and come to a view about the roles that I could apply for – with some hope of being interviewed. This last point is important, from my experience, on both sides of the interview desk, I believe strongly that if you apply for a job you don’t really want or think you can do, this will show up – if not in the application most certainly at interview.
After that it was a case of making sure that my CV, and generic statement of skills were up to date. Obviously its vital to write your application specific to each job, but I do believe that having a set of carefully written statements about your skills and experience help you to put together a good application. Just remember to proof read very carefully.
After this I focused on checking each edition of CILIP Appointments (I stuck with the print version, but obviously you can use the web), and other sources of job adverts like the Guardian. By my reckoning I was pretty lucky, in that I applied for three jobs, had two sets of interviews, and was offered my new job at the end of November.
More on how I selected which jobs to apply for and how I approached the interviews in Part Two.
What follows is an edited version of what I thought would be my January Update column. However, due to a communications failure at the end of last year, it was lost in the ether, and what I had intended as a later column has appeared in the January/February edition of Update.
Whilst it could be considered an ‘easy’ choice to decide to reflect on the year just ended – I feel that the opportunity for thought and reflection shouldn’t be missed.
However, I don’t want to share my resolution(s) for the new year, nor to encourage you to set your own. Instead what I propose is to share a technique for reflecting on our own performance at work. Naturally, if you find out something that makes you want to change the way you manage that’s fine – but for me taking the time to reflect and consider is as important as any changes that result.
Begin by listing the high and low points of the year, for this exercise try to limit this to areas where your management of the situation was central to the outcome. Having produced a list – broadly equal on both sides I hope – the next step is to review each item and note down one or two things you did which you believe led to success or failure (depending on which side the list it is).
It is important to look at both positive and negative incidents – and if you feel that the year as a whole has been chiefly on the negative side it would be worthwhile thinking further back so that you have a more balanced list to consider. I recognise that this will be a subjective assessment, and you should remember that on the negative side you will most likely be looking at things that could have been handled better, rather than out and out failure.
By now you should have a list of high and low points, each example annotated with just a few words explaining, from your current perspective, why it was successful or not. Next you should revisit this list starting with the high points. For each item, consider the reasons for success and highlight the generic key success factor i.e. “communicated effectively” “motivated staff”. Once you’ve been through the whole list you should have a new list of these key success factors.
Now comes the hardest part – turning to the low points, you need to produce a list of those things that you either avoided i.e. “didn’t consult” or did badly “didn’t get message across to users”. This will require a bit more soul searching, and may shake your confidence a little – try not to let it, we all make mistakes and if we didn’t we wouldn’t learn or develop. It’s also likely that you will be able to identify things that you learned for the first time from these experiences that you can apply in the future.
You efforts should by now have resulted in two lists – key skills that you used to manage successfully, and those areas that you need to work on. Its quite possible that the same skill area will appear on both lists – in that case you will need to think more deeply and ask yourself what differed between the two examples. As a result of undertaking this exercise you should have a better idea of your strengths, and have also identified some weaknesses or problem areas to work on – anything you resolve to do next is up to you!
I recognise that some may find this exercise a challenge, and for those that do I would encourage you try it anyway. Perhaps by limiting yourself to a particular instance or key challenge rather than the whole year. Whilst we may not feel comfortable with what we find out (or the process itself) it is only through thinking about how we manage that we can develop.
If anyone would like to discuss this further or share their experiences I would be happy to hear from you by email or via the weblog.
I'm an academic librarian
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