Start them early

They say that the children of today are more at ease with technology than generations who have gone before them. I can believe it when I see how they zip around the computer as if it were something as simple as a colouring book. They use computers in nursery schools now and I think it’s a good thing.

It is also said that children are much more susceptible to learning in the first five years of their lives and it has been suggested that languages should be introduced at a much earlier stage within schools to take advantage of this fact.

Bearing all this in mind, I am an avid believer in starting the learning process at a young age, but I think you can take things too far! Look at these photo’s of the youngest members of Eximium Limited hard at work on their latest project.

It’s just too cute.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Make sure that you advertise the job in the appropriate place. You need to aim it at the type of people you are looking to employ. A technical role would need to be advertised in a technical publication or on a website for technical roles. Advertising it in a local paper will produce very little, if any interest.

How to find the right people for your organisation

If you find you’re having trouble making your mind up, don’t be afraid to ask them back. Use the opportunity to talk about some more specific areas and get to know them better to see how well you think they would perform in your department.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Don’t take what they say on their CV for granted. Many people exaggerate the truth. Get them to tell you in their own words about anything which is important to you. A good way to do this is to get them to talk you through their CV. Part of the benefit to this is as much how they talk as what they say. It’s often enlightening to discover what people really know, despite what they have put on their CV.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Whilst some unstructured discussion is useful in an interview, it’s also important to have some questions prepared in advance that you can ask everybody and use as a direct comparison. Some of both styles works best.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Put the candidate at ease to get past their polished interview technique. You could walk them to their car for instance. Get them to relax. It can tell you a lot.

Further Dates for Business Link Seminars

As previously announced, I have been asked by Business Link East to run a course of 6 workshops called ‘Growing IT in Your Business’.

In addition to this, I’m pleased to confirm another 6 dates for my original Business Link Seminar ‘Getting Maximum Benefit From Your IT Systems’, as follows:

 5th Jun 09 - Chelmsford, Pontins Park
10th Sep 09 - Hatfield, Homestead Hall Hotel
16th Oct 09 - Bedford, Wyboston Lakes
24th Nov 09 - Ipswich, Holiday Inn Orwell
3rd Feb 10 - Cambridge, Villiers Park Educational Trust
30th Mar 10 - Norwich, The Forum Trust

Both of these seminars are part of Business Link East’s ‘Growing Business’ events programme. You can book onto any of the events within this programme online through their Events Booking Service.

Also, I’m delighted to say that Business Link have recently produced the video shown below, to introduce the type of briefings they offer, which features footage from one of my seminars.  As well as showing me waving my arms very enthusiastically, the video shows a general flavour of the events and includes some customer testimonials.

These briefings are really excellent and are all led by expert speakers.  I heartily recommend finding out what events are on in your area, and I hope to see you at one of my seminars soon!

How to find the right people for your organisation

If the role involves meeting your clients, use the interview to assess how suitable the candidate is for that type of role. Would you be happy with them representing your company in the same way as they represent themselves?

How to find the right people for your organisation

To save everyone’s time, ensure that your recruitment partner has confirmed the key attributes of the role, e.g. working hours, amount of travelling, salary etc with any potential candidate, before you see them for interview. This should avoid the situation where you find yourself  interviewing a candidate who is obviously unsuitable, e.g. they are not prepared to travel.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Make sure you know exactly what skills will be needed for the role. If this is an existing role, it’s always worth trying to learn from your experiences with the current job holder to help you establish your ideal replacement. What does the current person do well, what are their weaknesses and is there anything new you want brought to the role and or the team? It isn’t always easy, but try and think ahead to where the role is going and what further soft skills it might be useful for them to have.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Make sure you know exactly what tasks are involved within the role. Sit down with the person who does the job and review and update the job description. It may have evolved considerably from when the vacancy was last filled.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Read people’s CVs carefully.  They can give you a real insight into what the person thinks is important to a potential employer, and their communication style and skills, e.g. if the role demands attention to detail, then a CV full of spelling mistakes will tell you that they are not the right person for the job.

How to find the right people for your organisation

If you are looking for someone for a specific technical role, consider setting them a task to complete when they come in for the interview, although don’t just surprise them with it when they arrive!  Let them know of your intention in advance so that they are prepared for it.  Completing a task for you in this situation will show you how they perform under pressure and will give you a practical insight into what sort of person they are. You may need advice as to what to ask them.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Once you have been interviewed the applicants you like and you have a short list, don’t waste too much time trying to make the final decision, as you may miss out all together.  If you think that someone is good, it is likely that other employers will too and they may well be snapped up by someone else, while you are making your mind up.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Make sure you leave enough time to find someone who is right for the job.  You usually have at least 4 weeks notice before a current staff member leaves and if you don’t give the agency much time to find you the right applicant, many will just send you who they can find, which will make your job harder.  You will need to sift through more applicants which will make it harder to find people who are suitable.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Try to look for someone who you think will enhance your department.  Different personalities can have a different effect on your other employees. They can even make either a positive or a negative impact on the efficiency, morale and productivity of your department.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Think carefully about how much experience you really want the successful applicant to have.  Some companies ask for a standard 2 years experience, regardless of what the job is.  Are you unnecessarily discounting a potentially great applicant?

How to find the right people for your organisation

Be prepared to be flexible, particularly with experience or technical skills.  Soft skills are harder to learn, so be open to interviewing the person with slightly less technical experience if they have all the right soft skills.

Tech spending to drop in 2009

As with all other sectors, the technology industry faces a decline in spending in the current economic climate. A report by Forrester Research expects the decline to be in the region of 3%.

This will be the first decline since 2002, when spending on computer products and consulting dropped by 6%, which followed the same 6% fall as the previous year. Thankfully the Forrester Report does not expect the fall to last long and predicts as much as a 9% rise in 2010.

The Forrester Report says that the strengthening of the US dollar also plays a part in causing the technology downturn, as well as the recession.  Many technology purchases are made in dollars, which meant that the weak dollar boosted the technology growth rate and the now stronger dollar will have the reverse effect. In Western Europe, technology purchases using dollars will be down 7% and purchases using euros will be up 1% in 2009.

We at Eximium believe that good IT systems can save you money and increase productivity in any business sector and improving the efficiency of your IT doesn’t have to be expensive either. Sometimes, a minor change to a system can make a dramatic difference and we recommend that you don’t cut IT spending, without thinking of the benefits you could be getting from it and be prudent with the money you do spend, ensuring that your IT is working effectively for you.

For a free, no obligation consultation to evaluate your existing IT, click the following link;

http://www.eximium.net/factfind.asp

How to find the right people for your organisation

Listen to your gut instincts about people. They are usually right. If someone ticks all the boxes but doesn’t feel quite right somehow, then you are probably picking up some subtle clues you’re not consciously aware of.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Create an accurate job description listing as much information about the role as possible.  This will ensure that there are no surprises for applicants when you tell them about the job.

How to find the right people for your organisation

Make sure you are clear about what type of person you are looking for and what skills they will need, both technical and soft skills. Will they need to have strong communication skills, be a man manager, be customer friendly, etc.  This will ensure that the people put forward for you by your recruitment partner or HR department are the most appropriate for the job.

Tips for getting the most out of a consultant

Remember that you are in charge.  The consultant is being employed by you, so don’t let them bamboozle you with jargon, or steer the project in the direction they want to go, if it differs from yours.  Get them to explain anything you don’t understand and stay firmly in the driving seat of your project.

Tips for getting the most out of a consultant

It normally works best to stay focused on the issue in hand.  Usually, other matters surface as a project progresses, which aren’t directly connected with what you are trying to achieve, and it is easy to get side-tracked.  Try and treat new issues as separate projects.  It’s better to have one issue resolved and a list of others to look into, than a list of growing issues where nothing is resolved.

Tips for getting the most out of a consultant

Make sure you tell your consultant as soon as possible if the project is veering off in the wrong direction from where you would like it to go, or if they aren’t meeting your needs.  It gives them a chance to rectify any situation before it gets out of hand and get things back on track.

Tips for getting the most out of a consultant

It can be helpful to consider what aspects of the work members of your team could do instead of the consultant having to do it.  This is a way to maximise your spend on their time, by ensuring they spend it only doing what they need to do.  It also gives your team a closer understanding of the work so, when the consultant goes, they’ll understand more about what went on.

Watch Out - The Spammers Are Getting More Devious Than Ever

There has been a new wave of spam emails we want to make you aware of.  They come with an attached ‘zipped’ file (i.e. ending in .zip) and claim to be contacting you with regard to your account.  Some are more sophisticated than others and can be very effective at fooling you into thinking you are looking at a genuine email.

The more obvious ones appear to be contacting you as a customer.  They are informing you that they have sent you the information you will need to ‘recover your account’.   You may receive emails supposedly from your credit card companies, informing you that there has been some suspicious activity in your account and asking you to check the purchases on the statement attached.  Others are from bogus customers claiming to have made some amendments to the contract attached and asking you to review it. 

The most deceptive of these claim to be from a courier service regarding a parcel delivery.  They say that they are from ‘United Parcel Services’ and have a ‘UPS Tracking Number’ in the subject, very neatly tricking you into thinking at first glance that they have come from a legitimate company. 

Some example text in the body of the email is:

‘Unfortunately we were not able to deliver postal package you sent on Oct the 28 in time because the recipient’s address is not correct.  Please print out the invoice copy attached and collect the package at our office’

With Christmas around the corner, your staff are likely to be caught more off guard than usual and some of these messages even go as far as to notify you that you have 10 days in which to collect your parcel or you will be charged by the day thereafter.

Here are our top tips on how to deal with potential spam:

1. Be vigilant. Always check that you trust the sender of the emails you are opening. Even if you don’t know them personally, you are likely to know of them.

2. Treat all emails which you are unsure of as spam.  If the mail is genuine, the person trying to contact you will try again and it’s easier to cope with a slight delay than the potential after effects of a virus, spyware, etc.

3. Don’t use unsubscribe. Never click on the ‘unsubscribe’ link of an email you are unsure of as that is another way of opening the flood gates, as it notifies them that someone is at that address and susceptible to spam.

4. Never open an attached file if you don’t know the sender. Even if the file is zipped and it appears that the sender has been security conscious - this is potentially a ruse.

There are things you can do to protect yourself, minimise the potential impact that this kind of spam can have on your business, and even stop the majority of these emails getting through to you.  It is very important to have good, strong anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-spam protection in place.

For further information, please see the following link to our managed security service page:

http://www.eximium.net/managed_security_services.asp

The New Google G1 Phone

The new Google G1 phone went on sale in the UK last Thursday, November the 6th. T-Mobile has exclusively released the phone, which can be obtained for free on packages from £40 a month.

The G1 was successfully launched in the US last month and is up against the Apple iPhone, the Blackberry and other Smart phones such as the Nokia E61 (which Derrick Cameron, our MD, uses). It provides an increased speed for mobile users of the Internet and the quality of the pages available, using software Google has developed.  It apparently gives the phone the capability of a hand held computer by using an application called ‘Android Market’. Other phone manufacturers are expected to produce ‘Google’ phones, using the Android software over the next 12 months.

Analysts have said that the phone could potentially change the face of the mobile phone market, but say that it doesn’t have the same ‘cool’ factor of the Apple iPhone which has been a massive success.  One of our consultants, Jon Wilkes, certainly enjoys his iPhone, as Derrick does his E61, so we’ll have to wait and see if they can be swayed and if this will improve business people’s ability to continue to work when they are on the move!

Tips for getting the most out of a consultant

If you want to use their expertise, make sure you give them the opportunity to advise you on what you are trying to achieve and the manner of how you are trying to get there.  Don’t assume they will tell you anyway.

Tips for getting the most out of a consultant

If you have asked them to generate any documents or specifications for you, and you have a particular format in mind, give them a template to follow – this will ensure it is in line with what you wanted.  If you don’t have a specific format you need, ask them to produce a template showing you what they will produce, so you can comment on what they will provide and ask for any extra sections, etc.

Tips for getting the most out of a consultant

Give them deadlines to work towards, otherwise things might take longer than is necessary and this will cost you more money.  They might change later but it is always best to have something to aim for, otherwise your project might just flounder.