Running a recruitment event and how not to do it

"Hello everybody" shrieked our presentation host. "My-name-is-Ker-ree and I'm a recruitment consultant and I really love my job" (pause for breath). "Now I know you've all had to get here really early today, but at least you'll all be home in time for Sunday lunch".

If you are in any doubt, the above was not a worst case scenario for the person, in a "should've gone to Spec Savers" scenario, who had wandered into the wrong conference room. It was the introduction to a weekend recruitment drive, run by a well-known insurance company. You might have been forgiven for thinking her next words would be "and welcome to Corfu" or "Now we're gonna move our chairs back and we're gonna play some games". Maybe she had forgotten she was no longer a holiday rep?

As you might guess, this morning recruitment session did not get any better. There were interview procedures, carried out by scruffy members of staff, who it seemed were unprepared for what they were doing and they were struggling to keep up with the processes involved. Multiple times I asked "but what is the job?" "Okay, what specific jobs are you recruiting for?" First red flag: When a company does not know what they are looking for and just seems to be interviewing candidates with no specific aim. Second red flag: When a company does not do what it says it does...

This companies staff did not behave as their literature said you must if you were in their employment. Their recruitment brochure was full of specific detail about their expectations. "It is important you dress in a conventional business style, because customers and visitors do attend our offices". Seeing their own staff undertaking contact centre duties, especially "mam" in her jersey and jeans like all her work-mates, the dress-code was clearly far more relaxed. Third red flag: Dress-code did not give a good impression.

The end result finally came after a prolonged wait, a letter to say I was not successful. Interview feedback could be supplied, they said, so I requested it. I rang them up after receiving their non-committal "feedback" by post: "It was felt our other applicants more closely matched our requirements". I could hear someone's droning voice, bored beyond belief with regularly making this statement as often as I have heard it. "That is not feedback", I told the monotone author of the letter. "That is fob-off. Now let's have some proper feedback!" "It was thought you were very aggressive" she said, sounding very self-righteous herself. "Really?" I said. She remained quiet. "Well, that is very odd" I said. "Because at every stage of this interview, I kept getting told how well I'd done. So that was a load of cobblers then, or what you're telling me is".

It is only now, twenty-one years into the future, it has occurred to me that this might have been a dry-run. A try-out for the company, to see if having a recruitment day could work. Booking applicants in en-masse; photographing everyone, to see if you looked pretty enough or who to identify to the police if you escaped; observing everyone's interactions at the reception area, maybe; having a holiday rep style presentation; leaving batches of applicants in the coffee lounge to talk among themselves while a team leader comes to choose who she wants, accompanied by Mr Scruffy & Mute lacking most of his teeth and not wearing professional jewellery; taking two pretend inbound calls to prove one could complete details on an electronic form and deal with a stroppy customer whose policy has been cancelled because he stopped paying the premiums, hence the policy will not be paying out for his claim; a group meeting with the intelligent lady, all about how professional the company is and how strictly they are audited; an in-depth interview with another Mr Scruffy who does not seem to own a tie or a clean shirt, who could not keep up with writing at the speed required for the depth of detail he was asking for. My impression? A total shambles!

But in 1993 I had a similar experience when I went to a financial services recruitment event. I sat waiting with lots of well-dressed parrots, who kept saying "yeah, it's a very good opportunity to earn a lot of money". There were only five companies recruiting, with their representatives waiting to take turns at you...

I insulted the first company by saying "I'm not working for commission only, that's a rip-off". However that was the norm in many financial sales jobs, especially at that time. The second company, silly girl kept saying "no, it ain't commission only, i's commission genera'ed". Please take some elocution lessons, dropping your Ts all over the place really does let your company down. "So what is the difference between that and commission only?" I asked. Her basic training manual definition just told me, as I confirmed for her, "so that's commission only then, isn't it?" . "Well no, it ain't" she said. "Well yes, it is" I said. I had a few "minders" start hovering at this point, sensing she was out of her depth as someone not used to being challenged...

The third company, having seen my interrogation, said "You sell policies that pay out after the policy holder is dead". I would like to think I recall them saying "Do you like that any better?" and me saying "Yes!"

With the fourth company, one I had never heard of, the representative was scruffy. I was immediately repulsed, as I always am, by the display of nostril hairs spiking out of his nose. "That looks so unsightly". Yes, it was commission only too. "But, we have lots of 'orphaned clients' from reps that have left the business" he told me. That sounded really encouraging, not! When I followed up this opportunity by calling that representative, I was told "he doesn't work here anymore".

The final company was one I had an endowment policy with. I responded to them more favourably than the others, only because they had produced a set of handouts explaining their salary and commission structure. Yes! They gave a salary. "You can start on commission only though and you can change over to commission only anytime, because eventually you will be earning so much money salary or commission becomes irrelevant". [Really?] Please do not remind here "there is no limit to how much money you can earn", because in reality we all know that there really is.

That final company was the only one who invited me for an interview, or first stage interview if it really was that. I will never know, because I did not go. I cancelled the interview on the day. Driving 23 miles each way, on the morning after working a night-shift, would not have been a good idea...

There are probably plenty of sales managers out there who would say to me, because they believe all their own spin, "but you could have made your fortune if you'd gone ahead with it". Well maybe, but maybe not. I can live without knowing. In that era, I found financial sales people had a tendency to boast about what they really earned, including their benefits. Anyone in such roles for a significant number of years, working for commission only, would never tell me what they earnt. Although one advisor called Jayne gave the standard corporate answer of "having a database of clients with changing financial needs", but "in the first year you don't earn anything, because you're building up your client base". Worth noting in sales, "salaries" may be like the pop-stars so called reclaimable advance enabling them to meet the expenses of performing the role.

I wonder if mass recruitment events really do achieve positive outcomes? I heard a report of a job fair held in Liverpool in the 1990s, where a significant number of people got jobs as a result of it. I have never found these events beneficial. As recently as 1996, the company I was working for held a national recruitment event. "You could earn up to £35,000" they were saying in their national advert placed in The Sun, "so it must be true!" The Bristol office drew in applications from people based in Plymouth and Ffestiniog, who were all prepared to relocate for the salary. Sadly, it was like saying "on target earnings". Applicants faded away after being told the salary was the maximum they could expect to earn and in reality they would have a basic minimum wage of £2.20 per hour, albeit rates were usually around £4.00+ per hour although not much more. The Bristol office, at the time, did not have any vacancies. So therefore a complete waste of time.

The last job fair I went to was in July 2019. There was a stand for the army which I am far too old for now, unless such severe civil unrest occurs meaning the army "can't afford to be fussy"; A stand for the police, who I would never be fit enough to join; A stand for Railtrack, although they seemed more keen to get me looking at their website... which had no suitable vacancies. Other than two insurance companies, and information about modern apprenticeships, most of the stands were "the rubbish" in recruitment terms. A holiday camp 35 miles away, required twelve hour days working for minimum wage; a hotel at an equally distant remote location and a few social care organisations with rather dubious opportunities. "Its hard work, but it's so rewarding" said the bearded man. He was marketing a facility for children in care and he did not seem convinced of this statement himself. The NHS were also trying to coax volunteers to work in a local hospital, to experience the work of a care assistant. "It's good experience" said the Sister in uniform "if you want to pursue that career". Actually, I think the NHS have quite a cheek pursuing volunteers to perform care assistant duties.

For me nothing good came from this local careers fair, apart from taking away handfuls of ergo-friendly promotional ball-point pens. As they were very comfortable to write with, compared to BICs, a new role has emerged for me. Sourcing replacement Parker pen "like" ink refills from eBay. So I now consider myself having a new role as a self-proclaimed "ballpoint pen technician".