Is a degree worth the paper it's written on?

A recent report has shown that one in eight university students are now awarded a first-class degree, nearly twice as many as a decade ago with nearly half (48%) achieving a 2:1. The increase in firsts is fuelling fears that the system has been devalued in a similar way to the A level examinations after a report from the Quality Assurance Agency found degree grades were becoming virtually meaningless.

So, how do companies ensure that they are not missing out on top graduates? Whilst interviews and ability tests can be a guide, these do not provide the holistic assessment required to identify an individual's potential to develop over 5-10 years. Graduates do not have the work experience or current skills that one can assess for more experienced hires. With degree qualifications becoming the same, an assessment centre becomes even more vital.

Its not just about identifying the best...

The top 10% of graduates is highly in demand and your company needs an edge to attract and recruit them. If you are able to attract this elusive cadre to your recruitment event - how do you know they will say 'yes' when you make your offer?

Quest Partnership has 20 years experience in managing graduate recruitment with differing degrees of support and outsourcing. We have found the vitial ingredient in attracting the best is to build a strong relationship with candidates from the outset - from the initial online application through to the job offer. Everything you do, or communicate, says something about your business and how you might manage a new graduate's career.

Research shows that a more objective assessment centre approach is not just the best way to predict future job performance, but is also much more likely to lead to acceptance of your offer. Employers of Choice are the ones who show they are serious about their people, by being serious with their recruitment.

If you are interested in discussing your current or future graduate recruitment, do talk to us obligation free.

Losing it: Mismanaging Information

Assessing and Recruiting Information Managers

When governments talk of a need to be transparent, we don’t normally expect this to mean sharing all our personal information with thieves and fraudsters. As the Ministry of Defence admits this week that the personal data of some 600,000 applicants to the armed services is lost on a stolen laptop, one wonders whether the Government has any individuals’ data left that isn’t now in the public domain. It would be unfair to blame the whole public sector, as of course the Freedom of Information Act cannot be applied to private sector businesses. However, blaming individuals such as the hapless MOD staff member who is facing a court martial is disingenuous. This is a systemic problem, and the fault for this lies solely with the management and poor strategic vision of these organisations.

Our experience is that clients tend to take the secure management of data and records very seriously. The Research Councils in Swindon commissioned us to construct a recruitment exercise to select Records and Information Compliance Managers within their organisation. This was actually before the Child Benefit records debacle of last year, and the fictional simulation exercises we applied now seem all too prescient.

It was quickly apparent when looking at the roles, that the management of information is not a simple case of establishing protocol or procedure. It requires a strategic perspective that focuses on organisational systems and impacts on staff psychology at every level. Any conception of the information or records manager as a completer-finisher, librarian type is wholly wrong. An information managers needs to be a change agent, just as in any other transformational management role.

Information is the lifeblood of any organisation and the emergence of new information technology is increasing at a rapid pace. Just some emerging issues include data that is now distributed amongst third party, online providers like Google, who already provide shared calendars and mail servers. Such external provision is a practice increasing as companies take advantage of the cost savings from outsourcing IT infrastructure. Social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook present further problems, as the amount of personal information that staff provide on these pages can be used to compromise security and passwords.

Our recruitment methodology used to recruitment information and record managers focuses not just on technical skills e.g. understanding the Freedom of Information or Data Protection Act, but also on assessing the organisational change skills required to embed culture into an organisation. If you need help in assessing best people to take your information management strategy forward, contact Quest Partnership now.

The Key to Keeping to New Year's Resolutions

It’s that time of year again when many of us will be starting our new year’s resolutions. Unfortunately, one year on, the success rate for maintaining resolutions is just 12 percent. So the odds are against us! For those of us who have just started on our new resolutions – what can the psychologists contribute to this area?

According to eminent psychologist Albert Bandura, there are certain types of people who are more likely to succeed. Bandura talked about self-efficacy - one’s belief in their own capabilities. So people with high self-efficacy approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided, therefore helping them to build stronger commitment.

Richard Wiseman, a professor of psychology at Hertfordshire University, has conducted a mass experiment on 10,000 people to uncover what is the key to successful resolution keeping. He proposes five useful tips. Firstly, only make one resolution or choose one aspect of life to improve, to increase your chances of success.

Wiseman also suggests planning your resolution in advance of New Year’s Eve, as the extra time will allow you to really think through what you exactly want to achieve. Another tip is try to avoid repeating previous resolutions, or at least use a different technique. This is because your self-belief or self-efficacy in your ability to succeed will be lower. So for example if the latest diet craze did not work last year, try a different technique altogether such as planning to exercise more.

The research also indicates that any resolutions should be kept specific e.g. instead of stating you will do more running, you should plan your precise schedule of the times, dates, places, and lengths of your weekly runs. Finally, give yourself a reward for any achievements such as buying a treat if you manage to cut down on smoking or lose a few extra pounds.

However, even if you do fail then this may not necessarily be a lost cause. Richard Koestner, a researcher at McGill University who specializes in goal-setting and self-regulation, says that "even though people fail, and they feel bad, they still usually learn something."

"The key is to know that it takes people an average of six or seven attempts to be successful. If you don't keep your resolution, learn from what you did this time, and see what you can do different next time."

Best of luck with keeping to your New Year’s resolutions!


You can take part in Wisemen’s current research on new year’s resolutions by clicking the link below:

http://www.psy.herts.ac.uk/wiseman/resolutions/opening.html

Is there a Psychopath in your office?

When we think of psychopaths, disturbing images of Hannibal Lecter or Norman Bates will probably spring to mind. However according to a new book entitled “Snakes in Suits” by Professor Robert Hare and Paul Babiak, psychopaths may already be working in your very own office.

Professor Hare, an expert on Psychopathy, claims that Psychopaths are impulsive individuals who lack empathy and remorse for others. They are extremely controlling and crave power and prestige. If this might sound familiar to you, then Professors Hare and Babiak suggest that psychopaths often rise to prominent positions within organisations, take high risks, cause conflict and then leave the company in shambles before moving onto the next high profile role. Some have suggested that one may be the former Daily Mirror tycoon Robert Maxwell, who stole £400m from pension funds to help his ailing companies.

The challenge is to spot these psychopathic individuals in the first place. Psychopaths interview well and often charm their way into an organisation. Yet particularly with senior appointments some companies will use little more than an interview to select their key people. Therefore we should think more carefully about how we recruit our senior roles to ensure that we reduce the risk of hiring the next Hannibal Lecter.

You have been warned!

Time = Money? - Depends on how you earn it

'Time is money'. But do you think of time as having a monetary value? According to Sanford DeVoe and Jeffrey Pfeffer at Stanford University in America, your answer could well depend on whether you are paid by the hour.

If someone sees their time as having a financial worth, then it follows that any time they don't spend earning money is essentially lost revenue. DeVoe and Pfeffer found that of over 10,000 employees, those who were paid by the hour were significantly more likely to say that, given the choice, they would choose to work more hours for more money, rather than fewer hours for less money. This held true even after controlling for a raft of factors like current weekly income and number of hours worked.

The findings have implications for how we are paid and for the modern drive towards flexible working arrangements. You might think that the option of an hourly rate and flexible hours would free you up to spend more time on what really matters to you in life. But these results suggest such an arrangement would lead you to view time as money, making it hard to resist working longer hours.

Man Flu? - Men are more resilient than you think..

Thwarting those who might have us believe that Man Flu is a real phenomena and potentially costly to industry - researchers seem to have shown that men actually have a higher tolerance to pain than women.

Esmeralda Garcia and colleagues used a device to apply pressure to 12 pairs of pressure points on the bodies of 12 men and 18 women. Nine of these pairs of points were the so-called 'tender points' used to diagnose fibromyalgia (chronic diffuse pain), on each side of the body.

As the pressure on these points was increased, the participants were asked to indicate when they first experienced pain, as distinct from unpleasantness or discomfort. Men showed greater pain thresholds at all three of the pairs of control points and two of the pairs of tender points.

Quest Duty Consultant suggests that it could be more a case of blokes being macho about it and holding out longer.... ?

UK Jobseekers Dream of being Own Boss

Entrepreneurship is the key to career and life fulfilment.

Dragons look out! it seems we are a nation of budding entrepreneurs. A poll of over 2000 jobseekers, which was undertaken recently by Reed Employment this month, reveals that the dream job for the majority of respondents is to own their own business.

The survey also revealed that professions such as medicine and law are being shunned by jobseekers who want more financially lucrative careers in the fields of accountancy and banking and finance.Perhaps surprisingly, accountancy was actually the third most popular career choice and banking and finance was the ninth most popular choice, scoring more highly than law.

Science was only chosen as a dream career by a handful of respondents, lending strong support to this month’s CBI report that the worrying decline of science students could have a long term detrimental impact on the UK economy.

Money was considered the most important factor in choosing a career today according to 68% of respondents. In fact, financial rewards were considered a bigger motivator than career progression, which was selected by just fewer than 40% of respondents.

Just 6% of respondents would select a company because of its corporate social responsibility programmes and only 2% stated they would be swayed by an employer’s brand image. Shame for companies, given how much money is spent on these aspects of promotion.Interestingly, the least favourite jobs were politicians, plumbers and dentistry.

Top Ten UK Jobs
1. Business owner
2. Pilot/astronaut
3. Accountant
4. Teacher
5. Air hostess/cabin crew
6. Writer
7. Vet
8. Policeman
9. Banking
10. Law