FEBRUARY 2016 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY www.professionalsecurity.co.uk

Interview

A new year, a new job?lunch wIth recruItment consultAnts:

48

Graham Bassett

mike hurst

In the age of linkedin, when security officers might be recruited purely on what they have uploaded onto websites, are the cV and the job interview dead? we ask.

The short answer is no; but the long answer took a lunch with two specialist security

industry recruitment consultants, Mike Hurst and Graham Bassett, who you will recall we lunched with in London last year. This time we went to Vinoteca, Graham’s choice, next door to St Pancras and Kings Cross stations. Once, if you wanted to know directions, you asked a policeman. Now, at least if you are standing in the plaza of that new development north of Kings Cross and looking lost, a red-coated ‘ambassador’ asks you if you want directions. Embarrassingly, where Professional Security was going for lunch was in view, behind him.

new year, new job?One of the reasons for speaking to the men was to ask if the new year is a time when people make a resolution to change their job, or at least look for a new job. The two agreed. As recruitment consultants, they have relationships with clients (employers) and candidates (employees). The employer may decide it’s not worth hiring someone, and settling them in, in November; better to wait until the new year. As for employees, they too may wait, until after the Christmas party, and the end of year bonus, and returning their children to school; then they focus on work - client and candidate, Mike pointed out. January, and the summer, are the two times of years when people are looking, or actually moving, Graham said: “That time to reflect; you just have a little more me-time.” As he added, someone may have been thinking about it for a long time - it’s not a rash decision - and you have had time to talk it over with wife or partner, whether they’ve agreed or urged

‘stay put’. January, as Mike put it, is a month when you’ve ‘cleared the decks’ (or should that be desks?!). “New year, new job, is often true.”

Grass is greener?However: is the grass greener in the other field? Professional Security then asked. Mike replied that if you are unhappy in a current role, for whatever reason, then often the grass does appear greener. As he tells people, on the sales side of security, for instance: if they are not enjoying their job, so much so that they are not wanting to get up in a morning, it’s likely that your performance will suffer. Graham agreed, adding that there’s a big difference between someone itching to leave their job, whose employer would be disappointed to lose them - than if an employer gives someone the sack. Giving the recruitment consultant’s point of view, he said that he would want to ask a candidate if it was really a ‘mutual thing’ that someone left their job, or whether they were given the sack; because the next employer will want to know. Eight out of ten ‘redundancies’, he suggested, are not redundancies; they have gone because of their performance, or lack of. Or, as Mike added, because they haven’t got on with their boss, or new management; all sorts of reasons. Or, as Graham added, what the candidate thought they were signing up to, has proven not to be the case in the first couple of months. The grass has not proved greener. In that case, Mike said, it’s better to go after two months, rather than nine, to say at once that it’s not worked out - because if you do stay those nine months, a future employer may wonder why. This took us back to what the two said in an earlier talk with Professional Security - and in a presentation to the ASIS Europe conference last year - and talking of that conference, the two are giving another presentation at the 2016 conference in April in London. Last year they talked in terms of being ‘authentic’; being true to yourself.

If a job hasn’t worked out for you, and if the employer too realises that you aren’t what they are looking for; the search for the right candidate has to start again, which might mess up sales figures; and in turn may mean some explaining away on your CV.

clues to roleHow can you avoid that, by looking for clues about what a workplace and a role is really going to be like? Ask people who already work there, if you know them, said Graham; or if you don’t, look on Linkedin. In a word: “Network.” Look at staff turnover rate, Mike suggested; or even their website, Graham added. An interview can be as much of a chance for the candidate to get a feel for the employer as the other way round. Is there still a need for an interview? “In my opinion, yes,” Graham said. He as a recruitment consultant certainly gets more out of a face to face interview than the same done over the ‘phone; you might learn of an achievement or a responsibility that you can tie in with what the employer is seeking (or doesn’t even know that they are seeking, but it’d be useful). The internet won’t replace the physical interview, Graham said: “You can run up a massive template of questions; it isn’t the same as eye contact.” That said, security officers might be hired via such websites as Monster.

Four or fiveFar from the interview being dead, you could have four or five stages for a senior job. You have an application form to fill in; a telephone interview; then a first interview proper; a second interview, perhaps; and then you might have to give a presentation. If a candidate is not actively looking and has not put themselves on the job market; but, he or she has been identified as having strong potential (because they are doing well in a job at a competitor), then the first step above may be replaced with an informal meeting over a coffee.

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FEBRUARY 2016 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY www.professionalsecurity.co.uk

contInueD ... From PAGe 48

Interview

50

left to right, Graham Bassett and mike hurst presenting

at the AsIs europe conference in

Frankfurt last spring. top: Vinoteca in

london n1

Does all that, and online profi les on Linkedin, mean that the CV is dead? The two said not; and the men advised that you don’t leave inconsistencies between your CV and your online profi le. It looks bad, whether you have something to hide, or you’re just not very competent at setting out your own job history (or both). Mike spoke of one candidate where he knew a past job was missing - because he’d put the candidate up for that job. That’s given the recruitment consultant an ethical dilemma - should he forward that to the client? - and a practical one; if the employer sees a gap in a history, and wonders why,

that’s already a negative. And Mike brought up the ‘recommending’ that Linkedin lets you do for others. He said that he’s had ‘hundreds and hundreds’ of recommendations for security management, something he doesn’t do. Graham also raised recommendations given by someone who’s a supplier; are they just saying nice things because you’ve given them an order?! All that said, such networking sites do allow you to put your face out there. The CV deserves some thought as to what you say, about your achievements rather than woolly phrases such as ‘team player’, and how you lay it out. Mike and

more about AsIs europeThe annual ASIS Europe conference runs in London from April 6 to 8, at the Business Design Centre. Mike Hurst and Graham Bassett are doing a double act for a second year, speaking this time about nudge theory; ‘using behavioural economics to enhance personal development and infl uence decision-making’. Among other UK speakers, Prof Martin Gill is chairing a panel on low margins in the manned guarding sector; he will also speak on recent research on the value of security, featured in our November issue, arguing that security has been under-sold by its practitioners. Speaking on corporate security are Corin Dennison CPP, Director (Global Investigations), Adidas Group, and Andy Martin, Retail, Business Development Manager, Axis Communications. Another past speaker, Martin Smith, chairman and founder of The Security Company, is talking on the insider threat. Robert Hall, Director of Security and Resilience Network, at the business body London First, will discuss organisational resilience. ❐

new blood can workwhile our talk with mike hurst and Graham Bassett focused on the cV and interview, they turned to the job advert. They queried if security employers are, by giving only the most basic information in an ad, selling their business enough. If the (for example) guarding company doesn’t set out its full benefi ts, it may fi nd itself getting poorer-quality offi cers. Set out a benefi t package, and a guard contractor may attract better offi cers that don’t want to leave. On a wider topic, the security industry could do more to bring on talent, including people with transferable skills from outside Security. Why state in an advert that the applicant must have sold CCTV, intruder alarms or guarding? When you may fi nd yourself interviewing an experienced, but average or under-performing salesman? Why not, Graham said, hire someone with good sales skills, or a manager who can get the best out of people: “I am a great advocate of bringing people in [from outside the industry] ... I fi rmly believe in transferable skills; you have got fresh blood, you haven’t got history or baggage with them. We just don’t encourage new blood.” He named Stuart Tootal as one example of a man who went from the British Army into corporate security, at Barclays (‘and look at how successful Stuart is in that role’). That new blood can work both ways; private security people can move into facilities

management or IT, and perhaps back again. While Graham spoke of a real synergy with manned guarding and facilities services such as cleaning - hence the ‘bundling’ of contract services - he also spoke warmly of Prof Martin Gill’s Security Research Initiative that has pointed to the value in security; and how security people could do more to ‘sell’ what they do. Some corporates, having taken up bundling as a good idea - and contractors obliging by including security at low or no margin in a far larger contract with an overall margin - now some corporates are separating security from maintenance, gardening and so on. You may move out of security for a while, perhaps to bring up children, and full-time work need not be the only option.

try before you buyJob candidate and employer may go for what Graham called a ‘try before you buy’ arrangement, particularly on a specifi c project. As Mike added, an employer may hire a project manager at the rate of £70k or £80k a year, and ‘once the hard part’s done’, run that project with someone recruited at a lower salary. An employer may want a short-term person to draw up a marketing strategy, or write a tender, or a specifi cation document for an installer; things that the employer doesn’t have the capability to do in-house. The catch is that such work may be too inconsistent for you to make a living at over a year. ❐

Graham may do a candidate ‘bio’, besides a CV, after an interview, as something the consultant puts his name to, stating that the candidate ‘ticks boxes’ or boxes the client hadn’t thought of.

Knowledge of cattle Nor do you necessarily put your whole CV on Linkedin, or your whole identity into your CV; for security reasons, for one thing. If you have served in the police or Army, you may not want some people to know your home ‘phone number and street address; better to use your mobile number, and personal email address (not your work one!) and give only your town or area you live in. You cannot be sure where your CV will turn up. And both suggested it would make sense to have someone check your CV. A CV has to be relevant, besides accurate. As Mike said, if you were a sniper, is that of use to a civilian employer (even if they might be tempted to make use of that skill?!). He smiled to recall one CV that under hobbies said ‘marital arts’, and one about someone who had worked in agricultural fencing, who knew about ‘cattle erections’. ❐

hAPPY‘It’s trespass, but only if you get caught.’Dan witchalls, who recently jumped off canary wharf buildings (with parachute), having avoided security guards.

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