Ten Years of Recruitment in Two Minutes

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Recruiters, recruitment leaders, recruitment marketers – I normally have a rule of creating an “interest generating statement” at the top of all of my recruitment blogs… but to be honest I have no idea how to start a blog about ME with something that may interest you! Apart from, perhaps, the lessons I have learned about recruitment and business.

I’m celebrating my 10th year as a business owner / consultant / Mum. It was a weird start. In 2008 coming back from mat leave to no job (during a recession).

Having a 6 month old baby on my lap whilst signing up to Companies House, getting a logo designed, thinking of a business name – perspective was created!

It’s Been a Varied Recruitment Journey

Starting a business and swearing to never work in recruitment again… well that worked! Within 1 year, I’m exclusively back in the recruitment “zone”.

Telling my husband (and from 2009, business partner) that social media is pointless in recruitment, and asking him why he feels that having a training product in Recruitment CRM is a good idea.

Dammit – why is he always right?

Ten Valuable Recruitment and Business Lessons

Celebrating my 10th year has taught me some valuable lessons – and in no specific order:

Partnerships and advocates are key: Volcanic, Adapt, Bullhorn, UK Recruiter, APSCo, Broadbean, Greg Savage, Only Marketing Jobs, Cube19, Recruitment International, Undercover Recruiter (and more) have been beyond a help in getting my business to be recognised as an impartial leader in recruiter success training, CRM adoption, and recruitment marketer success.
Having a Whippet in the office has been a massive help! He’s actually the MD (Managing Dog!)
Hiring on values, not CV – a massive lesson that I took a little too long to learn! The team I have now impresses me every day!
Not being afraid to build my product around my clients‘ needs. Again, thanks to them for being such great advocates of what we do, and pushing us to grow and develop products (Awards Marketing/ Adverts Training / Digital Marketing Mentoring) which we felt were already covered by other suppliers, but turns out that the Barclay Jones “spin” was much-needed!
My experience of recruitment, although nearly 20 years, has been varied, energetic, passionate – but on the whole the first few “formative years” of “boiler room” style recruitment has set me up to empathise and own problems which recruitment leaders often feel isolated by.
Data is still the life blood of a business – it was in 2000 – albeit in a different format. 2019… let’s hope recruiters really begin to “sell it” again.
There is not enough “talent” and passion in our space – or at least enough than I can hire to help me drive forward the businesses of my clients. Hence we are going “online” in 2019 – bringing a platform to help recruiters and their leaders and marketers have more access to my team and I. BUT this will simply complement crucial face to face coaching and mentoring to boost the online world we’re creating. My team are awesome offline and online!
Winning awards – hard work but bloody worth it. Don’t let any negative Nick tell you that being an influencer, being the best, demonstrating your values / approach / skills is not important – it’s the reason we do what we do… surely?
The market still suffers from a lack of respect for itself – this is reflected in lower fees and a lack of real marketing to help candidates and clients understand the value recruiters add. I’m on a mission to change that!
Passion sells – I’ve not run out of energy for the sector. I’m known for a “no shit” approach – which to be fair masks a genuine love for the industry and a “you can do better” with my clients. Paul said once:

Lisa knows her stuff – she is not scared to challenge what we do. She is clearly passionate and won’t accept anything less than great.

And a final lesson – and this is a message to all budding recruitment leaders. BEFORE you name your business – abbreviate the name and really think about what it may mean to others… Barclay Jones – the website for that abbreviation is NOT going to get a backlink in this blog! ‘-)

Here’s to year 11, a few more half marathons, more time at the Brownlee Track, more love for the industry and a happy team and client / partner community, copious amount of gin! Oh! and a new website, learning portal, content writing product, more staff… and another year of telling people:

Yes! this is actually my natural hair colour!

(It really is!)

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