View from the Hill

What are your favourite comfort reads?

Ah January, cold, dark, depressing and, unbelievably, still going on. Depending on who you listen to either yesterday or last Monday was Blue Monday, allegedly the most depressing day of the year. The date seems pretty much arbitrary but I can see their point.

So what to do to beat the January blues? It always seems to me that January is the very worst month of the year in which to form new year's resolutions, give up carbs, chocolate, alcohol or go on a fitness drive. These things should clearly be saved for the more pleasant spring months, when you actually want to go outside and do things or eat more healthily. January is a time to hunker down, eat lots of comfort food, wear cosy clothes, keep warm and, of course, indulge in a little bit of comfort reading. Preferably next to a roaring fire with a nice glass of red or a hot chocolate.

What constitutes comfort reading is a matter of individual taste but I guess it's anything you find reassuring, absorbing and will happily return to time and time again with the feeling of an old friend well-met. I would wager that old childhood classics would feature on many people's lists. Authors such as P.G. Wodehouse, Jilly Cooper, Terry Pratchett, Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer, Agatha Christie, Dick Francis and Katie Fforde probably also feature heavily. You will no doubt have your own - what's on your list?

My comfort reading holy trinity are Agatha Christie, Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh. I obviously hanker back to a certain kind of Englishness.

Whatever yours might be, enjoy until it's safe to go outside again...

- Fiona

Image "Embraced by Words" by Robert van der Steeg

@ByLeavesWeLive

Another year, another excellent blog idea from my friend Louise, also known as @louise_stone. This morning she sent me a story (blogged by@CenSta) which brightened this little corner of SE1 and gave me a nice warm feeling. Admittedly we're both a little behind the times as this is a story which began in March 2011. Still, better late than never, eh?

It's all about Edinburgh's mysterious paper sculptures. Made of books. Found in libraries. They are beautiful pieces of art and the story is just as magical. The first creation was found at the Scottish Poetry Library (@byleaveswelive).

If only Jackson Brodie was available to track down the very talented sculptor. Or maybe Sherlock. I'd be happy to help. Or perhaps I'm confusing them with Jason Isaacs and Benedict Cumberbatch. Oh dear, I'm getting distracted...

- Suzanne (@suzyredrec)

2012 - looking forward to an exciting year ahead

2012 is already looking good to me.

It is easy to be swayed by the concern of those in the news and finance arena that all there is ahead of us is doom and gloom. The Euro currency countries will implode, house prices will render us all in negative equity and more jobs will disappear. I am not going there.

Read these stories but treat them with caution. Great Britain plc has a backbone of people who want to, and can, make business. It is populated with immensely talented and able people and combined with this a growing number of individuals who are prepared to reach out with time, effort or money to include others in their endeavours. The future may be tough but it is manageable.

This week I have spoken to three people who instead of sinking into a slough of despondency after redundancy just before Christmas have sat down and devised a way in which they can unite as a team (consultancy) and offer essential information services to those very companies (and others) that could no longer offer them full time work.

I met with someone on Wednesday who eulogised about her work environment and how she loved the company, the place, her boss and her colleagues so much that she would work without pay if the need arose. She didn't earn much and knew a rise was not forthcoming for 2012 but to her the most important thing about work was that it should be a positive experience from getting up in the morning and wanting to be there, providing a service to clients, through to going home with the feeling of a job well done. (Sharp contrast to someone else I spoke to who could see no point in doing anything to get advice or experience and skills on top of their academic qualification to make them more attractive to a future employer).

The Olympic goodwill will percolate throughout Great Britain and whether we love or hate sport we can all benefit from the feel good effect. Ditto the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. No one will spurn another day of holiday and there will be opportunities to organise and participate in celebrations with friends and neighbours.

The market in information jobs is now unrecognisable to the one in which I started working in back in the 1970s. It continues to evolve and is presenting an array of different and exciting opportunities to those who want to grapple with those differences, to extend their knowledge and have a positive attitude to working outwith their comfort zone.

We may not make our financial fortunes in the forthcoming years but the opportunities and chances are there to examine what we can do for ourselves and others to gain fortune of the more lasting kind. That is how we are approaching 2012 and 2013.

- Sue Hill

"Come on, let’s be havin’ you"

Quoting Delia Smith seems an appropriate thing to do when talking about the county town of Norfolk.

And, as a Norfolk girl, I feel it's been a good week for our one and only city, Norwich. Not only did the Canaries beat Newcastle in fabulous style (4-2, thank you very much) but it's also been confirmed that the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library is the UK's most visited. This is according to figures by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (Cipfa).

One also imagines both these events would very much please Mr Stephen Fry as both a Director of NCFC and a lover of words.

- Suzanne

Elvis has left the building: LIKE 30 revisited (and the Christmas party!)

The LIKE 30 event from Thursday 27 October has already been thoroughly blogged by James Andrews, Virginia Henry, Sarah Wolfenden and Matthew Rees , so this is a very belated postscript to their excellent accounts.  

The evening's theme was knowledge transfer, the practical problem of transferring knowledge from one part of an organization to another, particularly in the context of senior staff or key knowledge holders leaving the business.  It was led by Gary Colet from the Warwick University Business School, who is the Facilitator for the Knowledge Retention & Transfer Special Interest Group at the Knowledge & Innovation Network. 

Gary opened his presentation with a practical demonstration of "knowledge degradation", with four volunteers participating in a form of Chinese whispers.  A simple narrative was read to the first volunteer, then passed progressively down the line to the fourth, who then had to repeat their own version to the audience. What I found interesting about this exercise was not simply the rapid loss of the basic facts and substance of the story in its final telling, but also that we in the audience couldn't agree on what we'd been told.  The simple lesson here was that it is important that knowledge is directly communicated to the people who need to use it, without an intermediary. 

Gary went on to outline and demonstrate the techniques and strategies to ensure that effective knowledge transfer takes place during times of personnel change, through structured interviewing and facilitation of key conversations.  Practical, structured interview and facilitation techniques must of course be backed up by appropriate and thorough record keeping, whether this is done through agreed written accounts or other audiovisual recording methods.

Something that Gary was keen to stress was that for this process to work, it is important to establish trust and rapport.  The last thing a person leaving an organisation through, for instance, early retirement or redundancy, may want is to do is to share their professional knowledge with the organisation that they are leaving.  One way to approach this is to emphasize the professional nature of the transaction - you can work wonders by appealing to an individual's professionalism and showing respect for their knowledge and experience.  So when your knowledge stars leave the building, you can be sure that their often priceless knowledge and expertise does not walk out of the door with them. The benefits for the people whose knowledge is being harvested, is that they feel that they have been valued throughout their time with the organization.

There is a lesson to be learned there for HR and other managers dealing with staff at all levels of the organisation during the kind of fundamental restructuring and redundancy programmes that we are currently seeing.  My question is in times of corporate crisis how often is this kind of respect truly demonstrated?

On a lighter note, the LIKE Christmas party on Thursday 8th December at the Rugby Tavern in Clerkenwell was yet another thoroughly enjoyable evening.  A great end to a great year of events.  Thanks again to the LIKE team for all their hard work during 2011, and we're looking forward to next year's programme!

- Donald.

All I want for Christmas...is a brand new job

I came across a blog on LinkedIn this morning that sets out the reasons why continuing to job hunt in the holidays is a good idea. Accepted wisdom is that everything shuts down for the holiday and your CV will sit gathering dust on the desk of the hiring manager until January.

However, many offices are open over the festive period and because the pace of regular business activity slows, managers with positions to fill might have more time to spend on recruitment matters. If you have already got your CV or interview in over the holidays, you are in an excellent position to beat all those who have "find a new job" as their new year's resolution.

Fiona

 

Résumé On The Dancefloor

I am pleased to introduce another guest blogger Gordon Kaye (@gordon_kaye on Twitter). Gordon has a strong interest in the potential of social media in promotion and recently completed a research study with Sue Hill Recruitment on the role of Facebook in the recruitment industry as part of his MA in Information Studies. Over to you Gordon...

As a DJ and music producer, I developed a strong interest in social media platforms by following how artistes, and particularly new artistes, used these tools to rise through the ranks and emerge as the stars of tomorrow.

Rolling on nearly a decade, it is easy to identify the evolution of social media; LinkedIn reigns as the corporate supreme, Twitter signposts information and hash tags have developed a smart way of performing searches within specific sectors. Facebook is by far the most social of these networks, developing a transparent community where people can share their interests, comments, hobbies, music and video clips. The platform has both been criticised for its part in aiding this Summer’s UK riots and praised for its role in signing up volunteers for the aftermath clean-up operation. However, wherever you stand on the Facebook debate, it is difficult to deny its influence and power.

Whilst studying for a Masters degree in Information Studies at the University of Brighton recently, I based my dissertation on Facebook’s role in the recruitment industry. I welcomed the challenge of investigating whether a social networking site well known for its role in building social communities amongst people with similar interests, could present a suitable place for jobseekers and recruitment agencies to communicate and if, and how, recruitment companies are using Facebook to their competitive advantage.

My investigation examined how students use Facebook as a jobseeking tool and how organisations, both in the recruitment world and outside, were successfully engaging with their audience via Facebook.

My findings unveiled some recruitment companies were using Facebook, but the degrees to which they implemented its use varied dramatically. All saw it as another way of generating traffic to their websites, but some were experimenting and following the trend because they were concerned they might be missing opportunities and only very few had defined strategies. Again, very few measured Facebook’s success in turning enquiries into job applications and even less tracked how many of these transformed to job hires. However, all the agencies in my study believed Twitter was a more successful platform in generating engagement with candidates, but that LinkedIn was significantly the most successful in their campaign.

My research uncovered many ways in which organisations in different sectors were successfully engaging with their public and making financial savings in the process. My findings showed the general consensus in the recruitment world is that it is too early to tell how effective Facebook campaigns have been, because there is very little accurate measurement of the return on investment. There was much evidence to support the positive ways in which Facebook can display a potential employer’s openness and human side and as a place for candidates to see the consultants they are dealing with. In a highly competitive market where candidates have similar skills and qualifications, it can also give employers and agencies a clearer indication of an applicant’s influences, culture, style and the way they communicate in social circles. Facebook can bring valuable information from learning about candidates in a broader sense.

Whatever your point of view, if an organisation is going to successfully engage with their market through Facebook, it is essential that they listen to and involve their audience.  Successful use by organisations encourages their public to communicate by involving them and providing incentives, such as promotional gifts or advice and offers them influence, giving users a sense of power. Some companies’ social media technologies are tightly integrated with how they learn and work, carefully analysing how these forms of media can inform their business strategy and culture in light of surprises and emerging trends. It’s also a place where an organisation can show their social, more informal side. By showing these sides, they may attract a different type of jobseeker. Facebook may also be a more successful platform to engage with passive jobseekers, giving them insight into a work environment and colleagues they could expect to work with.

The main message of my research was that Facebook is not successful for every sector or business and that a defined strategy based on an organisation’s goals should be a careful consideration. However it did identify some of the ways in which Facebook has successfully promoted brand awareness, from artists giving away song downloads to recruitment agencies instigating friend referrals. However, it still remains to be seen whether Facebook is a successful component in the recruitment toolbox. 

What time is PIMS o'clock?

Most recently it was Friday 4 November at 2pm.  This is when the Property Information Management Society (PIMS) last met for their regular group networking event.

After tea and coffee in the offices of EGI the workshop started off with a presentation from Susie Kay on Professionalism.  This was a stimulating talk (no mean feat on a Friday afternoon) which asked the question, what is professionalism?  It is fair to say that everyone went away with more than a few useful ideas to implement not only at work but also in our personal lives.

Afterwards I spoke about how to approach career direction, recognising your skills and the ever popular topic of CVs and interviews.

This was followed up with refreshments and nibbles as well as some interesting conversations about part time working, professional membership groups and animal husbandry no less.

Thank you to PIMS for inviting me to speak, an interesting and thoroughly enjoyable way to finish the week.

- Jeremy

Remember, remember it's Movember

Movember of course being that time of year when men who don't generally sport face furniture grow moustaches with the aim of raising vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

This year our very own Ryan Reast has taken up the challenge and is growing himself a lovely lip rug. Ryan hopes his moustache will spark conversations and generate some laughs whilst raising the all important funds and awareness.

Here he is is on Movember 7th. Conclusion in the office is that it's kind of underwhelming so far. But with 22 days left, still plenty of time for luxuriant growth.

But what kind of moustache should Ryan grow? Debate is raging - Handlebar? Tom Selleck? Hitler? Sanchez? Walrus? Ryan is a keen football fan so I think he should pick from the wide range of excellent footballing taches available - perhaps the David Seaman?

Ryan's Movember page is at http://mobro.co/ReastR if you would like more information or to support him.

 

- Fiona

conversations, and no doubt generate some laughs; all in the name of raising vital awareness and funds for cancers affecting men.

 

You wouldn't steal my bike, so why steal my music?

Listened with interest last night to the inaugural John Peel lecture delivered by Pete Townshend of The Who (Watch The John Peel Lecture in full). Townshend examined the current state of music media and asked the question: Can John Peelism survive the Internet? In an age of free downloads and a disposable attitude to music, can creative people earn a living, and without radio how can the "unpolished" music that John Peel championed find an audience?

Townshend was very passionate on the subject of copyright, arguing strontgly against unauthorised file-sharing, saying the internet was "destroying copyright as we know it".

He also said that people who downloaded his music without paying for it "may as well come and steal my son's bike while they're at it". You wouldn't break into his house and take the bike, so why steal the earnings that would pay for that bike.

Making the point that in all other walks of life, people are paid for work - If someone "pretends that something I have created should be available to them free... I wonder what has gone wrong with human morality and social justice", he said.

Obviously Townshend himself is far from being a struggling musician and he acknowledged this but pointed out that the position for new musicians is far from rosy. There is also a creative dilemma whereby "A creative person would prefer their music to be stolen and enjoyed than ignored. This is the dilemma for every creative soul: he or she would prefer to starve and be heard than to eat well and be ignored."

A lot of people would perhaps regard downloading music for free as not legal but, you know, essentially ok and it was interesting to hear a musician's perspective on this. Well worth a listen if you have the time.

- Fiona