Marketing Begins At Home

Is your recruitment a branding disaster?

I have spent the last four months in a recruitment dance with an American company that has European headquarters in Paris. They still haven't hired for the role that we were discussing, and that's OK. Recruiting the right person is important, but running the process badly is very bad for the brand. Sadly, they revealed their real brand values during the interview process. And because they claimed that culture was the reason for not making an offer, I'm happy to tell you what I learned about their culture during the process.

First, their culture is very slow moving. Four months to go from first contact to deciding I wasn't the right candidate.

Second, their culture is very rude. They needed to be chased endlessly by the recruiter working the assignment to get them to move on to the next stage.

Third, the role had two bosses, and they didn't seem to be playing nicely together. One was in Paris and one was in the USA. They clearly wanted an intermediary between them but weren't prepared to agree on a candidate that could do this job. So far they have taken 14 months and still no candidate in sight.

In the end, I'm glad they didn't make an offer. The job was pretty cool, it was well within my capabilities, I would have loved living in Paris. But their real culture and real brand values didn't fit mine.

Sovereign Harbour Showers

We ended up spending a reluctant weekend in Eastbourne because our yacht engine developed a problem. The local engineers were very nice but couldn't get to us until Monday, giving us three unplanned days in Eastbourne. The marina is in the middle of one of the biggest housing estates I have seen in the UK. Everywhere you look there are houses and apartments, some just being finished, others up to ten years old.

The showers in the title refer both to the lousy English weather and to the toilet block for marina use. The toilet block was superb. Clean, spacious, not terribly busy, nice mirrors. They also had the radio blaring through the speakers, but everything can't be perfect. In fact the showers really did reflect the care and attention that the staff gave us throughout our visit. For the first time in 25 years, we needed to be towed into the marina late thursday evening. The staff who came off duty to run the workboat out and tend to us were fantastic. The lock team who manned the radios were sympathetic and friendly. They offered to order us takeaway if we were too late for the restaurants (but fortunately one did serve a very nice pizza and salad!

Sadly the state of the economy can be seen from walking around Sovereign Harbour. Boats, particularly motor boats are up for sale as people try and cut back. Shops were closed, including the chandlery. Now a chandlery that can't make money with a captive boat population of 800 plus is in a mess of trouble. The yacht club was pretty deserted, and the restaurants only did well when the sun came out. Lots of property for sale too. So it will be interesting to see how Sovereign Harbour does over the next few years. Showers ahead, methinks. Hopefully they will be the nice clean ones in the toilet block, not the squally black clouds that hung over us most of the weekend.