Firefish Recruitment Podcast: Recent Episodes
Firefish Recruitment Software
From recruitment sales and marketing to agency management, Firefish Software's Podcast and Audiobooks are here to help you change the way you recruit. Forever.
Subscribe to stay ahead of the recruitment curve; be informed, challenged, and inspired. You can also watch our Chief Fish Wendy talking with our special guests here - https://www.firefishsoftware.com/resources/live
Join Firefish CEO, Wendy McDougall, and Candidate Source Limited's Managing Director, Michelle Davies.
Michelle founded Candidate Source in 2010, after recognising that recruiters needed an ally; someone that had the expertise to support them in their job advertising when the to-do list got too long. After more than 13 years, Candidate Source Ltd continues to assist recruitment agencies in growing their business by creating effective online job advertising campaigns to gain maximum exposure.
Join Firefish CEO, Wendy McDougall, in conversation with Recruiting Gym Managing Director, Angela Cripps and learn How to maximise your agency's impact before Christmas to succeed in 2024.
Angela is a highly experienced trainer, management consultant, coach, NED, mentor and performance specialist with 30+ years' experience within the recruitment industry. With Recruiting Gym Angela aims to make agencies more successful and profitable through the development of their people, their strategies and their processes.
Join Firefish CEO, Wendy McDougall, in discussion with Roy Dungworth as they explore: 'How to Unlock the Potential of Contract Recruiting'.
Roy is the Director and Founder of Consiliario Consulting, an advisory organisation for the professional staffing industry. Roy is also Commercial Director of Elite Leaders. With over 25 years experience leading a number of the leading tech staffing organisations, Roy has an outstanding track record of launching, growing, turning around businesses and teams.
Join Wendy, CEO of Firefish Software, and 'Million Pound Billier' Brad Shackleton, as they discuss 'How to Perfect Your Sales Technique to Achieve New Business'.
Brad specialises in motivating, coaching, and developing ‘High Performance Sales Teams' and businesses on behalf of highly ambitious CEO's, Directors, Sales Professionals, & Entrepreneurs who aspire to be the No.1 service provider in their Industry. Brad is ex RAF (Pilot), related to Sir Ernest Shackleton (Antarctic Explorer), and a former 'Million Pound Biller' Recruiter and Global Top Sales Biller and performer for a Global Recruitment Plc (FTSE 250) in London’s Financial Services.
Ann Swain is the founder and Global CEO of APSCo, an international trade body representing the professional recruitment sector with operations in the UK, Germany, Singapore and Australia.
Ann is the author of the best-selling ‘Professional Recruiter’s Handbook’ and has over 30 years’ recruitment experience including time as Managing Director of Learning Curve and UK Sales Director at Computer People.
In this episode, Wendy and Ann explore: 'What the Hell is Going on with the Markets?'
Join the Firefish CEO Wendy McDougall and Vanessa Raath of The Talent Hunter as they give a live demonstration of how AI video tools can be used to market candidates.
With over 15 years of experience in the Recruitment Industry, Vanessa Raath has honed her skills in the Tech space. Vanessa now specialises in training recruiters to succeed in talent sourcing. Vanessa is passionate about elevating the standard of sourcing globally and has embraced AI as a tool to leverage impact in the candidate sourcing and marketing space.
Become a recruiter of the future, today. Get a glimpse into the future of recruitment and discover how your recruitment agency can become 10x more efficient overnight. Explore how AI will support recruiters to streamline admin, create engaging communications and attract more candidates as we take a look at the next generation of recruitment, powered by ChatGPT.
Join Firefish CEO Wendy as she chats to Johnny Campbell, CEO of SocialTalent about the current talent acquisition market and the new opportunities out there for agencies.
Firefish CEO Wendy McDougall and guest Johnny Campbell discuss:
⚡ What does the talent acquisition market currently look like?
⚡ What are clients looking for just now from recruitment agencies?
⚡ How has RPO implementation changed and how can agencies adapt?
...and more
recruitment #businesstips #recruitment2023 #talentacquisition #podcast
Join Firefish CEO Wendy as she chats to Louise Archer, founder of Retrained Search, about how to win retained business for your recruitment agency and the differences versus contingent recruitment.
Firefish CEO Wendy McDougall and guest Louise Archer discuss:
⚡ The advantages of retained versus contingent recruitment
⚡ The mindset needed when selling retained search
⚡ How to deliver the most value with your retainers
...and more
Louise Archer, Founder & Coach, Retrained Search - Louise has worked on the frontline of recruitment for twenty years. Having been a contingent recruiter before transitioning to retained Louise understands the struggles that Recruiters face, operating on a contingent basis. Her mission is to help Recruiters to transition to retained and secure more forecastable revenue.
#recruitment #businesstips #recruitment2023 #podcast
On February’s Crowdcast, Wendy chats to recruitment pricing expert, Jon Brooks, as he explains how to adapt your pricing strategy, demonstrate more value to your clients and stop working for free!
Firefish CEO Wendy McDougall and guest Jon Brooks discuss:
⚡ Why you should raise your prices this year
⚡ Different models to use when changing your pricing strategy
⚡ How to stop working for free and demonstrate more value to clients!
...and more
Jon Brooks is the leading expert in recruitment pricing, and works with industry leaders around the world to create effective pricing and negotiation strategies. Jon has 18 years’ experience in the recruitment industry, and was previously Head of Pricing at Reed.
recruitment #businesstips #recruitment2023 #podcast
On our first Crowdcast of Season 5, we talk with guest Neil Carberry about the outlook for the recruitment industry in 2023 and how recruiters can continue to find success amid economic uncertainty.
Gordon Webb and guest Neil Carberry, CEO of the REC discuss:
⚡ Thoughts on the economy and unemployment rates heading into 2023
⚡ Why this recession will be different for recruitment than in previous years
⚡ How recruiters can change their approach to clients and continue to provide value during economic uncertainty
...and more
Neil Carberry was appointed as Chief Executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation in June 2018 having been managing director at the Confederation of British Industry, leading the CBI’s work on the labour market, skills, energy, and infrastructure. In 1999, Neil began his career in recruitment working for executive search firm Fraser Watson before doing a post-graduate degree in Human Resources at the London School of Economics and joining the CBI in 2004. He is a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD and a Fellow of the RSA.
recruitment #businesstips #recession #recession2023 #podcast
On November’s Crowdcast, we talk with guest Christina Robinson about how to keep up with the top trends on social media and how to make your business stand out online in 2023.
Wendy and guest Christina Robinson, Managing Director at Green Umbrella Marketing discuss:
⚡ Improving your visibility through personal branding
⚡ How to use social media for PR in 2023
⚡ The importance of online communities
...and more
Christina Robinson is the MD of Green Umbrella Marketing, a specialist marketing agency focused on social media, website design and other online and offline marketing services.
On October’s Crowdcast, we talk with guest Katy Green about how to start working on the business, instead of in the business.
Wendy and guest Katy Green, Recruitment Business Mentor at Centred Excellence discuss:
⚡ How to start working on the business, instead of in the business
⚡ How to identify your superpowers as a business leader
⚡ Tips for building your team and accelerating growth
...and more
Joining Centred Excellence in 2016, Katy works alongside recruitment business and executive search owners to build a strategic system that accelerates their business growth to 7 & 8 figures.
Get the most from your candidate attraction strategy and reduce cost-per-placement in Q4 by identifying what jobseekers are really searching for.
Join Wendy as she welcomes back James Boshier, Head of Partner Success at CV-Library to discuss topics including:
⚡ What are candidates currently looking for when applying to jobs?
⚡ How important is salary vs benefits vs location?
⚡ How long should it take to apply to a job?
⚡ How can you tell if your job ad is performing well?
...and more
As Head of Partner Success, James works closely with ATS and Recruitment Software providers to help integrate CV-Library’s database of 17 million+ CVs into external platforms, ensuring sourcing candidates is as easy as possible.
Get the most from your candidate attraction strategy and reduce cost-per-placement in Q4 by identifying what jobseekers are really searching for.
Join Wendy as she welcomes back James Boshier, Head of Partner Success at CV-Library to discuss topics including:
⚡ What are candidates currently looking for when applying to jobs?
⚡ How important is salary vs benefits vs location?
⚡ How long should it take to apply to a job?
⚡ How can you tell if your job ad is performing well?
...and more
As Head of Partner Success, James works closely with ATS and Recruitment Software providers to help integrate CV-Library’s database of 17 million+ CVs into external platforms, ensuring sourcing candidates is as easy as possible.
Sourcing high performers for both your agency and clients is easier said than done.
Join Firefish CEO Wendy McDougall and Dr Chris Croner, Lead Sales Psychologist at SalesDrive as they discuss:
⚡ How can we make sure we hire the right salespeople and how do we identify top performers?
⚡ What are the common hiring mistakes people make?
⚡ What is the main personality trait to look out for, when interviewing candidates?
⚡ What is the difference between candidates who are motivated by money and those who are driven for success?
Dr. Croner is a Lead Sales Psychologist and Assessment Developer at SalesDrive. With SalesDrive, he helps identify the behavioural traits that differentiate the highest performing salespeople in the world.
How do you grow your team alongside your business?
Wendy and guest Angela Cripps, Owner/MD of Recruiting Gym as they discuss:
- What is the role of the business plan?
- How do you engage and empower your team?
- What mistakes do leaders make when going for growth?
...and more
Angela Cripps is a globally experienced trainer, management consultant, executive coach, board advisor, mentor and performance specialist who has been working within the recruitment industry for over 30 years.
Angela is the owner and responsible for the day to day running of the Recruiting Gym – a training, coaching and consultancy business with an online training platform of over 100 courses relevant to the recruitment industry.
LinkedIn is an incredibly valuable tool for Recruiters to use, but are you getting the most from it?
Join Wendy and guest Antony Whetham, Account Director for LinkedIn as they discuss:
- What are the most common mistakes recruiters are making on LinkedIn?
- How can you personalise your InMail approach to get better responses?
- How can you use LinkedIn to attract more passive candidates?
- How can recruiters use data from LinkedIn to win more business?
- Where do you see LinkedIn going in the future?
and more...
As Account Director at LinkedIn, Antony works closely with recruitment clients to enable them to:
-
Build their brand at massive scale within their chosen recruitment verticals
-
Engage their LinkedIn network to position themselves as thought leaders
-
Recruit high quality, passive candidates and generate new business wins more quickly and more effectively than their competitors
Do you want to know what the current trends and challenges are in the recruitment industry?
Then join Wendy and Matt Alder from 'The Recruiting Future' podcast as they discuss:
- What are the current trends in the recruitment industry?
- What is the biggest challenge hitting internal recruiters right now?
- How should an agency recruiter be maximising on these challenges?
- We have seen a rise in SME companies providing RPO offering do you think this is a vehicle for growth?
- What does the next generation of recruiter look like?
...and more
Matt is a Global Speaker with a wealth of experience in recruitment and Talent Acquisition. He is the host of ‘The Recruiting Future Podcast’ – the worlds leading podcast on Talent Acquisition - and a published author with ‘Digital Talent’ which is out now.
He helps companies understand the rapid digital transformation of the HR and Recruiting sectors and build competitive advantage through cutting edge strategic innovation. He operates as a strategy consultant and also has a major focus on research and high quality content production.
Do you want to attract more top quality talent with the Ads you post on Job Boards?
Then join Wendy and James Boshier - head of partner success at CV Library to find out how to upgrade your job ads and get better results from job boards.
Tune in for discussion on the following topics and more:
- What is driving the current price hikes in the job board market?
- How can you maximise the algorithm to get a better return on your job ads?
- How has Google for jobs impacted the jobs market?
- Where is the future of job board technology heading?
Do you want to have productive board meetings that drive success for your recruitment agency?
Then join Wendy and John O'Sullivan on Wednesday 16th to find out how you can get he most of from your board meetings to drive your agency to success.
Tune in for discussion on the following topics and more:
- Defining the purpose of the board and the basics of running board meetings.
- How should we as directors and leaders be measuring success?
- Valuing a recruitment agency and what EBITDA actually means.
- How to start accurately benchmarking yourself against your competitors.
Are you ready to grow your recruitment agency 2022?
Then tune in to the Firefish Crowdcast as Wendy is joined by Alison Humphries to discuss:
- Why should you begin to grow your recruitment business?
- Maximising the margins on the roles you work to become more profitable
- How to be more efficient when filling your vacancies
Alison Humphries (MA Oxon, FIRP, CIPD, DipT&D) has more than 35 years’ experience in recruitment, becoming a director of 4 listed businesses and most recently led Liquid Personnel as MD through a period of exceptional growth culminating in a trade sale to ICS Group.
For several years she has worked with multiple recruitment businesses across all sectors to help them redefine strategy, achieve business goals, enter new markets, improve market penetration and value, and develop great leaders, often with a goal of preparing a business for sale. Her award winning L&D expertise plays a significant role in staff engagement and business performance. She is also REC Chief Examiner and an honorary fellow (one of just 25 people worldwide to hold this honorarium). Alison’s consultancy business is Recruitment Leadership Ltd and she is a well-known conference speaker and industry commentator.
www.recruitmentleadership.co.uk
Click to sign up for updates on future episodes! Do you want to know what the jobs market will look like in 2022? Then tune in to the Firefish Crowdcast as Wendy is joined by special guest and Economist from Deloitte Peter Ireson. They will be looking ahead to 2022 by discussing the following topics and more:
What have been the key drivers for change in the labour market. How does the UK economy and Job market measure up world-wide? How has work/life balance influenced the candidate landscape? What to look out for in 2022 to get ahead.
Peter Ireson is an economist in Deloitte’s Economics and Markets Research Team. The team advise the firm and its clients on macroeconomic conditions and the operating environment for businesses. They produce the quarterly Deloitte CFO Survey, the authoritative barometer of corporate sentiment and strategies in the UK. In addition to this, they publish an eclectic weekly Monday Briefing on developments in economics and finance. Peter previously worked within Risk Advisory at Deloitte prior to joining the Economics team and was educated at the University of Bristol.
Check out all of our previous episodes and sign up to watch new episodes live here!
Up next on the Firefish Crowdcast is Darren Westall , join us to hear discussion on the following topics and more!
- How to keep your brand alive through the Christmas period.
- How to keep your eye on the long-term success of your brand when busy times hit.
- How to build a personalised marketing strategy for your business in 2022.
- How to get the most from your website next year.
Darren is the CEO of Paiger and has a wealth of experience in recruitment technology and marketing. He was the CTO at broadbean before co-founding Paiger and now speaks regularly at public events and on podcasts where he shares his work at Paiger and his expertise in marketing, tech and recruitment.
Check out the rest of our Episodes and sign up to watch them live here - https://www.firefishsoftware.com/resources/live
This week on the Firefish Crowdcast we are joined by James Nathan , tune in to hear discussion on the following topics and more!
- How to build personalised career journeys for recruiters.
- How to continue to develop experienced recruiters.
- What is the best way to mentor a top biller?
- How to incentivise your recruiters with tailored reward schemes.
James Nathan is a Director, Speaker and Recruitment mentor with a wealth of experience working in the recruitment industry. He runs one of the UK’s premier recruitment training businesses - Recruiting to Win® - training and mentoring consultants and business leaders to reach their highest potential. Alongside, James is also the Principle Consultant of Executive Search Firm, West Search, as well as hosting ‘The Only One Business Show’ podcast.
Clair Mohamed is our next guest on the Firefish Crowdcast with Wendy to discuss how to tailor your BD strategy to the job rich market...
You can view all our previous episodes and sign up for the live shows here!
Join us to hear discussion on the following topics and more:
- How to source the candidates that your clients can’t
- Why you should nurture passive candidates and how to approach them
- How to engage with clients and candidates that are hard to reach
Clair Mohamed is a Business and Performance coach with over two decades of experience in sales and recruitment. She is also very experienced in learning and development partnering with recruitment agencies and providing full spectrum training and coaching for staff at trainee through to director level.
Our first guest of the new season of the Firefish Podcast is Kevin Green
Wendy and Kevin discuss...
- Where to start in taking advantage of the current job boom
- How to sell your vacancies to candidates in a job rich market
- How to manage your clients and prospects during a candidate shortage?
- How to prepare for what comes next.
Kevin Green has been in the recruitment industry for more than 30 years, including 10 years spent as CEO of REC (Recruitment & Employment Confederation). He’s also a serial Non-Exec Director, a recruitmentthought leader, a TEDx speaker and a best-selling author with is ‘Competitive People Strategy’ which was shortlisted for Business Book of the year 2020.
Are you struggling to find the right people in a candidate short market? Then you need your job ads to stand out and attract talent.
Michelle Davies from Candidate Source joins us to discuss how to get the most from your job ads.
Wendy and Michelle cover the following (and more!)...
- How do you choose which Job Boards to invest in?
- How do you make your ads stand out by using the right trending keywords?
- How do you make the most of the first 3 lines of your job ad (What to include and what not to include)?
- What do candidates want to know about your company and its culture that they didn’t a year ago?
Are you looking to stand out as an expert in your market? A recruitment podcast is just what you need!
The awesome James Whitelock is our guest on the Firefish Crowdcast to discuss how to create an industry-leading recruitment podcast.
He'll be covering the following (and more!)...
- Why should recruiters care about starting a podcast right now?
- The dos and don’ts of getting started
- How to ensure you get the most value from your podcast content.
Hiring a marketer into your recruitment business is a big step.
So how do you get it right?
Join us as our Crowdcast guest Marketing Director Audrey Lartey, will be discussing...
- How do you know when you’re ready to hire a marketer?
- What is your responsibility as an owner when bringing a marketer into the business?
- Looking at your leadership team, how does a marketer fit into your business direction?
Could working closely with your competitors be beneficial to your recruitment business?
Join us today to find out!
Our Crowdcast guest Chairman of the TEAM Network, Simon Bliss, will be discussing...
- What are the benefits of working with your competitors?
- The practicalities of sharing a role
- Real life examples of successful split fee placements from The TEAM Network.
Now's the time to fire some of your recruitment clients!
Join us today to find out why.
Our Crowdcast guest, Performance Coach Claire Ackers, will be helping us get to the bottom of this topic, as we discuss...
- Reasons to let go of your recruitment clients.
- How to say 'no' to business without offending your clients.
- How to recognise the customers you should be working with and the ones you're wasting resources on.
Are you getting the most out of your current client base?
We're excited to have recruitment sales trainer Ben Browning on the podcast to share his tips on what you can do to maximise revenue from your existing recruitment clients!
So join us as we discuss…
- How do your existing business figures compare to current industry averages?
- What's getting in the way of current clients being your main source of commission?
- What can recruiters do to maximize on the opportunities already at their fingertips?
What do the best recruiters in the industry look for when considering a move?
Today we're joined by Rec2Rec expert Ruella Crouch who will be sharing her knowledge on growing recruitment teams at all levels.
So join us as we discuss…
- What has happened in the recruitment job marketing over the past year?
- What aside from money is the main motivator for recruiters?
- What can recruitment agencies do to attract top talent?
Does your recruitment agency have a PR strategy?
If your agency doesn't, you could be missing out on exposure that will pull in new business.
Today we're joined by DeeDee Doke who'll be sharing her expert knowledge on recruitment PR strategies you can use to boost your business.
So join us as we discuss…
- Is traditional media still relevant in today’s recruitment market?
- How do you engage with the media and get a story published?
- What makes an award-winning agency in 2021?
How can you use marketing to cut through the noise and stand out in a busy recruitment market?
Today we're joined by Christina Robinson who'll be sharing her expert knowledge on all things marketing.
So join us as we discuss…
- An insight into the latest recruitment marketing trends.
- Is it better for your brand to be present across all marketing channels or focus on a select few?
- How can you prepare your marketing strategy for growth?
As we enter into Covid-19 recovery phase, now is the time to start thinking about your agency's opportunities for growth.
But how do you know if your recruitment agency is ready to grow?
Today we've invited Midge Bennett on the podcast to discuss this hot topic with us!
So join us as we discuss…
- What are the main signs your agency is ready for growth?
- How can the 'Power of 7' methodology can be used in recruitment?
- What business owners should be doing to prepare for coming out of lockdown.
It's more important than ever to be in touch with the wants and needs of your recruitment market.
We've invited Steve Carter on the Crowdcast to discuss how to stay relevant in a fast-changing recruitment market.
So join us today as we discuss…
- What can the recruitment industry learn from the fall of high street retailers?
- How can we become more innovative in recruitment?
- What are the benefits of becoming an agile recruitment agency?
Knowing how to convert retained business into an RPO project will be priceless for you and your business in 2021.
Today we'll be joined by Paul Sharpe to discuss how to implement an RPO as an SME agency.
So join us as we discuss…
- How to implement an RPO or MSP model at your recruitment
- How to position yourself as an RPO provider to clients
- How technology can help you make your RPO model a success.
Make 2021 your best year yet by stepping up your prospecting game!
Today, we're joined by the amazing Jeremy Snell to discuss how to practice 'proper' prospecting in this highly competitive market.
So join us today as we discuss…
- What is ‘proper’ prospecting?
- What do prospects really want from recruiters?
- How to perfect your prospecting follow-ups.
The Firefish Podcast is back for 2021! We're extremely excited about the guests we have lined up for you the next few months.
In our very first session of the year, Wendy will be joined by Howard Greenwood from Jump Advisory to discuss how to ensure you have a strong recruitment team going into 2021.
So join us today as we discuss…
- The importance of starting off 2021 with a strong recruitment team
- How to approach a disruptive team member
- Why living your companies vision and values are key to success.
What is company culture and why is it important for your agency?
In this Audiobook, we’ll explore some tangible strategies for building a strong, positive company culture at your recruitment agency, plus tips on how to maintain your culture so it becomes one of the main reasons why people want to work with you.
Link to eBook - Social media for recruitment agencies: How to develop your strategy
The best and most successful recruiters are driven to excel, but they do so efficiently: they plan their days and workloads well, embrace new tech and proactively seek out ways to ensure they’re always recruiting smarter. Recruitment is a tough job and it will always involve hard graft, but this doesn’t mean you should be feeling constantly stressed out chasing your tail! There are plenty of things you can do to streamline your workload and become more productive with your daily tasks.
Listen in to find out more.
Links mentioned in the audio book.
Chapter 4
The Eisenhower Matrix - https://blog.firefishsoftware.com/how-to-stop-procrastinating-when-you-have-a-high-workload
Chapter 5
The Pomodoro technique - https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique
Chapter 9
Browser extensions - https://blog.firefishsoftware.com/5-browser-extensions-to-make-you-a-more-productive-recruiter
Chapter 11
Best Apps for recruiters - https://blog.firefishsoftware.com/best-apps-for-recruitment-marketing
Best productivity tools for recruiters - https://blog.firefishsoftware.com/best-apps-for-recruitment-marketing
We're rounding out the year with one last Firefish Podcast!
In our final session of 2020, we’ll be joined by Deloitte Economist, Tom Simmons, to get the lowdown on what you expect from the recruitment industry in 2021.
So join us today as we discuss…
- The UK economic outlook for 2021
- When we can expect the economy return to pre-Covid levels
- Where are the opportunities for growth next year?
Today we are joined by the awesome Hishem Azzouz to share how he became the go-to recruiter in his niche in a short space of time - and how you can do it too.
From his hugely successful Recruitment Rollercoaster Podcast to his massive social media following, it's hard to miss Hishem online these days.
We're delighted to have him on the show!
So join us today as we discuss…
- The first steps to take to dominate your recruitment niche
- How to create and share content that will boost your career
- How to become the go-to recruiter in your niche in 2021.
Forecasting for 2021 is going to be very different from what we're used to.
Which is why we've invited Recruitment Finance expert, Paul Glynn, onto our next Crowdcast to show us how to get it right!
Paul owns three Finance businesses that specifically serve SME recruitment agencies who don't have an internal Finance function.
As someone who's entire business goal is to help the recruitment sector have a better understanding of finance, he's the man to help us smash our forecasting for 2021!
So join us today as we discuss…
- How to be brave and keep it simple when forecasting for 2021
- How to adopt the right mindset for business growth in difficult times
- Steps to take now to ensure your agency has a good year in 2021.
Want to find out how to maximise fees and avoid bad debt at your recruitment agency?
Our next guest, Barry Cullen, has all the answers!
Barry is an ex-recruitment agency owner-turned-solicitor who now specialises in resolving backdoor hire and fee disputes for recruitment agencies.
So join us today as we discuss…
- Where to find hidden fees in your database!
- Are you wasting time working the wrong jobs?
- How do you maximise your fees and avoid bad debt.
We're in a sales-driven market, so it's never been more important to offer something different to stand out to prospects and clients.
With this in mind, this episode is going to be all about how to repackage your recruitment services to win more business!
For this session, Wendy will be joined by Tara Ricks - a recruitment leader who spent more than 20 years growing recruitment sales teams and developing innovative sales strategies that lead to new business in competitive markets.
We're can't wait to have Tara on the show to talk around this topic!
So join us as we discuss…
- The new services you should be selling to your clients right now
- How to repackage your services to become more competitive
- The first steps towards reinventing your recruitment offering.
Today Wendy will be joined by learning technology expert, Alan Hiddleston, to talk about how recruitment businesses can use creative online learning methods to onboard, train and develop their recruiters.
Alan has been working in the technology space for more than 10 years, as a senior sales leader, advisor, and investor in a variety of Learning and Talent Technologies. Today, he leads D2L EMEA’s Corporate learning sector.
This, combined with his strong knowledge of the recruitment industry, makes him the perfect guest to talk around the topical subject of implementing online methods to train and share best practices with your recruiters when in-office training isn’t available.
So join us on as we discuss….
- The main things to think about when putting together a remote training/onboarding plan for recruiters
- How to keep momentum with online learning/training and ensure it sticks
- How recruitment agencies can use eLearning to scale.
We’re delighted to announce that Sid Barneswill be joining us for the next episode of the Firefish Crowdcast!
Sid is an industry award-winning Executive, Consultant and Chairman and is currently the Non-Exec Director to 18 businesses.
As CEO of Mastermind Consulting, he advises recruitment businesses on strategy, client acquisition, retention, and leadership.
Join us today as we discuss how to sell your way to success in recruitment.
We’ll be covering…
- The steps you can take to maximize sales growth now and in the near future
- How to become a leader who manages their sales team to success
- How to use philosophy to become a better recruiter (yes, really!)
For the next episode of the Firefish podcast, we'll be joined by David Higgins, Non-Executive Director of Levy Europe, to discuss some of the ways Covid-19 is permanently changing the recruitment industry.
David has spent more than 30 years in the recruitment industry, with a hugely diverse portfolio that includes being Founder of global agency giant, Harvey Nash.
David now uses his expertise to help business build strategies for business growth across the UK and internationally.
So, join us today as we chat around the following…
- What are the long-term effects of Covid-19 on the recruitment industry?
- How to plan your business growth strategy post-Covid-19
- How to take advantage of the new working environment moving forward.
In today's episode of the Firefish Crowdcast, we are joined by Jon Brooks from The Value Advantage to discuss how to avoid lowering your fees in a job short market.
Jon has more than 10 years’ experience within the recruitment industry, 9 of those years were spent at Reed in the roles of Head of Marketing and Head of product and pricing. Jon now specialises in using his experience of strategic pricing, commercial marketing and disruptive product development to increase profits and improve the customer experience
So, join us today as we chat around the following…
- Why your pricing strategy is more important now than ever in recruitment
- How to approach pricing negotiation in the current climate
- Why now is not the time to lower your recruitment fees
In this episode of Firefish Crowdcast, we are joined by Una McGuinness from UFM Talent to discuss the importance of marketing automation in the recruitment industry today.
Una has more than 20 years’ experience managing recruitment businesses in Digital, Media and Marketing sectors. 15 of those years she spent at Aspire, as Director and Board Member but previously also as Marketing Director, when she lead an ambitious but successful marketing automation project to increase the company’s engagement with candidates and clients.
So, join us we chat around the following…
- Why marketing automation is so important to the recruitment industry right now
- How automation can help your agency grow post Covid-19
- Areas of the recruitment process that can be automated and how to get started
In this episode of Firefish Crowdcast, we are joined by Natasha Clarke to discuss what is a real hot topic in the industry as we move into a job-lead market: how to become the agency that everyone wants to work with.
Previously Chief People Officer at SThree, Natasha now specialises in supporting CEOs and boards to develop their people strategy, driving business performance through leadership and culture.
So, join us as we chat around the following…
- How agencies can improve their reputation on the market
- The effects Covid-19 has had on business culture
- The direct benefits of caring more about diversity and inclusion at your agency.
Kevin Green has been in the recruitment industry for more than 30 years, including 10 years spent as CEO of REC (Recruitment & Employment Confederation). He’s also a serial Non-Exec Director, a recruitment thought leader, a TEDx speaker and a best-selling author.
His knowledge and experience makes him the perfect guest to discuss predictions of what we can expect the recruitment industry to look like post covid-19 and what recruiters can be doing to prepare for it.
So join today as we chat around the following:
- What the recruitment industry is going to look like post-Covid
- How to prepare for the new recruitment environment
- Kevin’s predictions of the economy and the impact it will have on the recruitment industry.
For this session, we’re excited to have James Osborne, Chairman of The Recruitment Network. James will be sharing his thoughts on some of the positive things that are happening in the recruitment industry right now and what we should be feeling good about looking to the future.
So join us as we chat around the following:
- The importance of being optimistic and resilient through difficult times
- How recruiter relationships will change post Covid-19
- The positive changes we may see in the industry moving forward
For the next episode of the Firefish podcast , our host Matt Jelley will be joined by John O'Sullivan, Chairman at Elite Leaders.
John will be sharing his predictions as to when the recruitment industry is likely to start recovery and what this will look like following the Covid-19 crisis.
John has been a Director for several of the top global staffing companies, meaning he is well-positioned to discuss how the recruitment industry is changing and what this means for recruiters looking to survive and thrive.
So join us as we chat around the following…
- When recovery is likely to start and what it's going to look like for the recruitment industry
- What recruiters need to do to plan to survive and thrive
- What changes we're likely to see in the industry and the implications and benefits of this
For the next episode of the Firefish Crowdcast, our host Matt Jelley will be joined by Hannah Keep, Managing Director of Vi International Ltd.
Hannah and Matt will be discussing the topic of remote training and development programs for recruiters - and how vital these are during the Covid-19 crisis.
So join us as we chat around the following…
- How training and development will benefit you and your recruitment business right now.
- Creating the training programme that works best for your situation.
- How Covid-19 has changed the future of recruitment training and development.
In the next episode of our new fortnightly Firefish Crowdcast, our host Matt Jelley will be joined by Louise Hannant, owner of Premier Resourcing UK.
Louise will be offering recruiters and business owners some invaluable advice on how to choose between defensive and offensive business decisions through the Covid-19 crisis.
As the owner of a PR and Communications recruitment agency, Louise is standing her ground, taking opportunities and making sure her business is as equipped as well as it can be for when the market picks up pace again.
For this special episode, Wendy herself will be in the hot seat! She’ll be offering recruiters and business owners some much-needed advice on how to keep client relationships going through the Covid-19 crisis.
As a CEO who has more than 20 years’ experience leading businesses through economic turbulence and has previously pulled her own recruitment agency through a recession (and came out the other end even stronger than before), Wendy’s experience and perspective is invaluable at a time like this.
So join us on as we chat around the following…
- The kinds of services recruiters can be offering clients who aren’t hiring at the moment to stay valuable and front of mind.
- Approaches or tactics to avoid in sensitive times like we’re seeing now.
- How the COVID-19 crisis will change the way recruiters manage client relationships for good.
Joining us this month will be the awesome Edwin Abl, an ex-recruiter-turned-CMO and personal growth mentor.
Edwin will be joining Wendy for a chat around the key behaviours you should nurture if you want to become a leader in today’s recruitment landscape – whether you’re looking to take a step up in your career as a recruiter or develop your leadership skills to lead your own recruitment team.
You can expect loads of invaluable insights from Edwin and Wendy on this topic, including:
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The key behaviours to focus on if you want to become leader in the recruitment industry.
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The challenges you’re likely to face in your journey towards leadership and how to overcome them
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Personal development areas to focus on if you have ambitions of leading your own team or starting your own business venture.
In this episode, our Chief Fish Wendy will be live with long-serving recruiter, author and resourcing expert, John Wallace, to talk around the steps recruiters should start taking now to ensure 2020 is their best year to date.
John has over 25 years’ experience in recruitment – both agency side and in-house. He’s also an expert in resourcing and recently published a book, Hire Power, where he seeks to challenge the way recruitment is currently thought about and highlight the real capabilities that make a recruiter great at the job.
Combined, he and Wendy know exactly what it takes to succeed in our current recruitment landscape – this one is not to be missed!
So join us on the 18th for loads of actionable insights, including:
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The biggest challenges (and opportunities!) for recruiters in 2020.
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The qualities and skills that clients look for in agency recruiters nowadays.
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The steps you need to take if you want to be an exceptional recruiter.
Joining Wendy this month will be Recruitment Marketing Consultant and strategy expert, Kristie Perrotte, who will be giving us the low down on how to implement a top-class recruitment marketing strategy that won’t break the bank.
Kristie spent 14 years at recruitment agency giant, Robert Half, holding senior marketing leadership roles across the international operations. She later decided to use her wealth of experience to help SME agencies achieve faster growth through sophisticated recruitment marketing.
A year ago, she became Founder and Virtual CMO of her own recruitment marketing consultancy firm, Thrive, that specialises in just that!
You can expect loads of invaluable insights based on Kristie’s wealth of experience, including:
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How to translate a big-budget recruitment marketing strategy into something that smaller businesses can execute (and afford!).
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The advantages of being a smaller business when building your marketing strategy.
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Improvements you can make today that will ramp up your marketing strategy – without having to splash the cash!
This month, Wendy will be joined by acclaimed Recruitment Sales Trainer, James Nathan to talk through some of his tried, tested and provensales techniques that win recruiters repeat business with their existing clients.
As an industry, we tend to focus a lot of our business development strategies on pulling in new business from prospects we’ve never worked with before. But what about our existing clients?
Canvassing for new business is a lot harder than it used to be, so focussing more time and effort into making the most of our existing client relationships is a no-brainer.
Expect lots of actionable insights from Wendy and James, including:
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How to offer the kind of customer service to your clients that will make them want to work with you, time and again.
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3 sales techniques that quickly convert previous clients into new business.
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Common mistakes recruiters make with clients that ruin their chances of recruiting for them again.
Make your clients love you and repeat business will naturally become the easiest money you can make!
Our Chief Fish Wendy is joined by esteemed business psychologist and recruitment coach, Andrew Sillitoe, who will share his secrets to running a highly successful recruitment agency and maintaining healthy life balance.
Andrew is very highly regarded amongst recruitment circles primarily for his candid, straight-talking approach to business and leadership coaching. Having spent many years working closely with recruiters, professional athletes and A-list celebrities, he knows exactly what works and what doesn’t when coaching busy people to success when they live and work in competitive environments.
This month we're extremely excited to be joined by recruitment agency founder and LinkedIn video legend, Mark Gaisford. If you’re not one of the thousands of recruiters already actively engaging with Mark’s awesome LinkedIn vids, I highly recommend you follow his page!
Thanks to an initial push from his video marketing expert son, Jack, Mark threw himself into the world of LinkedIn video a couple of years ago, and it’s really amazing what this has done for his recruitment brand and business.
Today, he’s posting video content that tots up 170,000+ views and is so engaging even LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner himself finds the time to tell him so.
Mark will be sharing…
· His thoughts and experiences with LinkedIn video strategy: what works, what doesn’t, and potential mistakes to avoid.
· Insights on what LinkedIn video has done for Mark’s personal brand and his recruitment agency, RedSprout.
· Mark’s top tips on how to keep improving your LinkedIn videos.
This month we're extremely excited to have Christina Robinson, Managing Director of Green Umbrella on the show!. If you’re unfamiliar with Green Umbrella, they’re a digital marketing agency that specialises in offering social media support and training to recruitment teams, so we really couldn’t hope for a better guest to talk us through the latest social media hacks for recruiters!
We all know how crowded the market is at the moment, so anything you can do to stand out and get noticed on social media will put you at a real advantage.
Christina shares her thoughts on…
· Christina’s go-to hacks for recruiting on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
· Tips for putting together a recruitment social media strategy that actually get you to your goals.
· How to measure ROI of your social media efforts so you can identify what’s working and what’s not and learn from your results.
This month, we’re extremely excited to have Hung Lee on the show! Hung is CEO of Workshape.io and also the brains behind the hugely popular Recruiting Brainfood weekly newsletter.
He joins me to discuss how to build a strong personal brand as a recruiter. As one of the biggest online influencers in recruitment at the moment, there really isn’t a better guest to give some insights on this subject!
Hung shares his thoughts on…
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Why building a strong personal brand is so important for recruitment
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How to build a loyal, engaged network for your brand.
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How to measure the effectiveness of your personal branding strategy.
We’re kicking off this episode with a bang, as Dougie Loan from Odro joins me to discuss the topic of pitching and winning more retainers as an agency recruiter.
I recently attended an event where Dougie lead a discussion group on this exact topic, and it was so spot on that I’ve decided to invite him on the show to share his insights with our listeners.
So expect lots of great insights, including:
- What’s stopping agency recruiters from pitching retainers?
- How to convince clients that a retainer is the right option for a role
- How to support a recruitment team to sell (and win!) more retainers.
This one’s packed with actionable takeaways that you can start implementing straight away to win more retained business with clients – enjoy the show and please leave a review if you enjoyed it :)
Really excited to have recruitment agency owner and influencer Dualta Doherty on the show this month! He is dialling in to share his ideas and personal experiences regarding how to become a ‘new rich’ recruiter in the agency market.
I (along with the rest of his 30,000 LinkedIn followers!) have been following a lot of what Dualta’s been doing with his recruitment agency the last few years and I’m a big fan of his podcast, Recruiter Startup. It’s really inspiring seeing what he’s achieved in this time and I know agency recruiters and business owners can learn a lot from this guy!
So please join me and Dualta for what promises to be a really insightful and motivating chat around the following:
- What it means to be a ‘new rich’ recruiter and how it will make you more money
- How the likes of outsourcing and automation can help you achieve rapid business growth by using your recruitment time more intelligently
- The secrets to how Dualta manages to run a high-billing international agency with a very small team and still find time to be a content generating machine within the recruitment community.
Our guest, Gavin Bell from MrGavinBell.com shares his thoughts on how recruiters could and should be using Facebook to find the perfect candidate.
Expect lots of actionable insights, including:
- How recruiters can laser-focus their Facebook campaigns to find the perfect candidates
- Where businesses are currently going wrong with Facebook
- Expert tips on Facebook retargeting and how to get started with it.
Our guest from Hoxo Media, Sean Anderson, shares his thoughts on why your recruitment agency brand matters.
Expect lots of actionable insights, including:
· How to promote and amplify your agency’s brand online
· How to find and tell your unique brand story
· How to benefit and get a return from your agency brand
Iain Blair from Revoco joins Firefish Software's Wendy McDougall to talk about his entrepreneurial journey from founding and managing a recruitment corporate giant to starting up a specialist SME recruitment agency.
With more than 20 years in the recruitment industry, Iain has loads of great tips and insights to share.
Listen to the podcast for more on...
• The main differences between running an SME recruitment agency and running a corporate giant • How to get to that critical mass stage with your business • The key milestones for growth • The benefits of being a smaller business over a larger corporate
In this month’s episode of the Firefish Software podcast, Wendy is joined by Belinda Kerr of Recruitment Garage to talk around the processes and lessons learned from managing partnerships and mergers in recruitment.
Belinda has twenty years of recruitment experience under her belt, and in this time she’s founded, scaled, merged and sold on two successful recruitment businesses in Australia. She's now focussing her time on inspiring and supporting recruitment entrepreneurs keen to scale up their businesses, but took some time out to share some insights with Wendy on how she herself managed to do this.
Tune in the podcast to hear more on:
• The experience of creating a recruitment franchise • The process of formalising the international sale of a recruitment business and what it's like • Insights on managing recruitment mergers, including the process, lessons learned and advice.
For this podcast, Firefish Software's Wendy McDougall, is joined by Helen Haddon of ComplyGDPR and Tricia Roberts of TEAM. With the upcoming changes to Data Protection legislation (GDPR), Tricia Roberts gets answers to TEAM members' top concerns about GDPR for SME recruiters.
Listen to the podcast to hear Helen’s expert advice in response to the following questions:
• What do recruiters need to do with old data under GDPR? • How will recruiters use LinkedIn and job boards after GDPR is implemented? • What steps can SME agencies do right now to prepare for the changes?
Tune in to find out!
Ruth Forster from Wagstaff Recruitment joins us on the latest Firefish Podcast to talk about building and scaling a recruitment agency sustainably. With over 17 years of experience in recruitment plus seven running Wagstaff Recruitment, Ruth has plenty of insights, tips, and advice to share.
Listen to the podcast and hear Ruth’s thoughts on: • Why you need to find a good business coach • How to monitor and manage your time effectively • How to find and retain the very best talent
Peter Gold from Storifyd joins Wendy on the Firefish Podcast to talk brand storytelling and mysterious marketing. This is an excellent podcast for recruitment owners thinking about the reason behind their business.
Listen in and learn:
• What Mysterious Marketing is and how it could benefit your agency • Why running a marathon isn’t so different to running a business • How to identify your agency’s why and commit to it • Harnessing that why to help your business grow
With 20 years of experience in technology recruitment, Gareth Biggerstaff is a great guest for the Firefish Podcast. Starting out as an IT resourcer, Gareth is now the owner of Be-IT Resourcing, a recruitment agency with an enviable success story. Gareth has taken his company from £0 - £10 million in just 3 years. Drawing on his years of experience in recruitment, Gareth shares some excellent tips and advice on business planning and forecasting for recruitment agencies.
In this episode of the Firefish Software Recruitment Podcast, John O’Sullivan joins Wendy to talk through how an agency owner can determine their business’ worth.
John is an experienced recruitment leader, working as a Non-Executive Director for several carefully selected, high growth companies in the recruitment sector. As the Chairman of Elite Leaders, a membership organisation for forward thinking, ambitious recruitment leaders, John helps agency owners create and determine their business’ value.
Tune in to our conversation with John and find out:
• Why culture is important to investors • The value of branding and positioning • How to look at your business like an investor would
Tom Glanfield, CEO of Lawrence Harvey, joins Wendy on this month’s episode of The Predictive Recruitment Podcast. Tom has a great, inspirational story about founding his company, Lawrence Harvey, from his girlfriend’s spare room with a £9K student loan, and taking it to its current multi million pound valuation.
From small beginnings great things can come, and Tom talks us through the journey from a one man start up, to a global company with close to 100 employees and offices in the UK, Germany, and the USA. This is an excellent episode, full of great business lessons including:
• Why Tom thinks naivety is important • Why businesses need to create a culture where sharing ideas is championed • How to attract and incentivise talent to a young start up
Our guest on this month’s episode of The Predictive Recruitment Podcast is Mitch Sullivan. Mitch spent the last 25 years working within recruitment, taking the normal contingency agency route from consultant, to manager, to troubleshooter.
With his wealth of experience, Mitch was the perfect guest for the Firefish podcast. He joins Alan for a conversation on how recruiters can make the change from contingent to retained contracts.
During the episode, Mitch and Alan discuss:
• The benefits of a retained model • Why clients don’t like the traditional agency model • How recruiters can achieve a 70/30 split between retained and contingent contracts
James Osborne is an award winning business consultant, advisor, and entrepreneur. He’s the founder and CEO of Innergy, a consultancy and training group.
He’s an in demand speaker, both in the UK and internationally, so we were lucky to get him on The Predictive Recruitment Podcast. In this, the 8th episode, James and Alan discuss what forward thinking recruitment agencies are focusing on.
James outlines his 3 key areas for agencies to consider:
- Efficiency
- Brand
- Pride
Join us on the 7th instalment of the Predictive Recruitment podcast. In this episode our Chief Growth Officer, Alan Hiddleston, talks with Lisa Jones, from Barclay Jones, about how to get the most value from your recruitment database.
Alan and Lisa focus on how to get the most value from your recruitment database. Lisa’s long term love of technology and its possibilities shapes the conversation, leading to an in-depth discussion on:
• Why your CRM is an important business asset • Innovative ways to use data • Why ‘tech needs to talk to other tech’ or the importance of integration • Why recruitment is like dating
Listeners can expect a wealth of actionable tips covering how to pick a CRM system, how to facilitate collaboration between marketing and sales, and how to plan for the future by purchasing the right technology.
Welcome to the sixth instalment of Firefish Software's Predictive Recruitment Podcast. In this episode, Alex Moyle of Elevated Recruitment, joins our Chief Growth Officer, Alan Hiddleston, for a conversation on spring cleaning your recruitment agency.
From rethinking your goals and budget to considering how clear your agency’s purpose is, this episode is full of excellent advice to help you galvanise your recruiter’s efforts.
Alex explains why it’s important for a company to build lasting relationships and review goals on a daily basis, alongside how a struggling business can be turned around in just 90 days.
This episode explores:
• Personalising KPIs • Creating shared goals for your team • Why leadership is easy but management is hard
Social Recruitment Strategist Steve Ward joins our Chief Growth Officer Alan in the fifth episode of The Predictive Recruitment Podcast.
Alan and Steve talk through social selling and the importance of inbound marketing in recruitment. Full of actionable tips, this episode covers: How to craft outstanding content for your blog, picking the right channel(s) to market your content, and how social media can bring relevant and better engaged interactions to a business
Alan and Steve consider ideas of branding, alongside a discussion on transposing face-to-face charisma into a digital environment. Listeners can expect to learn how to:
• Get the most out of social channels like Twitter and LinkedIn • Use social media as a tool for brand building and attraction • Create and market relevant branded content
Nicky Coffin and Wendy sit down for a conversation on overcoming business obstacles in the third episode of the Predictive Recruitment podcast.
In the episode, Nicky discusses:
• The nature of growth and change in a successful recruitment career • Employee investment and the difference between coaching and training • The importance of having a support network as the business owner • How to push your agency forward
Kai Murray joins Wendy McDougall on the second episode of the Predictive Recruitment podcast for a conversation on growing and scaling your business effectively.
Kai, a former recruitment agency owner, now a business coach extraordinaire, provides expert insights on how you can:
• Identify what’s holding your business back • Break through that wall and scale with ease • Create a great multiplier when selling your business
Today at Firefish HQ we’re proud to announce the pilot episode of our new podcast is live and ready for you to listen to!
We are thrilled to have the brilliant Greg Savage on board for our maiden voyage, and we took some time to speak with him about his upcoming speaking events in the UK alongside discussing what he thinks the future of recruitment looks like.