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Dec. 14, 2020

Digital's Impact on Recruitment + LinkedIn Advice

Digital's Impact on Recruitment + LinkedIn Advice

Ryan chats with Warren Beazley, Founder of Edison Hill Search and Search Consultant for CTOs and senior tech leaders

How has the digital workspace changed job recruitment? How important is your LinkedIn presence for getting noticed by recruiters? And what's technology executive recruitment been like in 2020? The answers to these questions and more on this episode of DWW.

Meet Our Guest
Warren Beazley is a dad, grandad, Partner and Cofounder of family-run boutique IT/Digital Search firm Edison Hill Search. Recruiting in IT since the mid '90s.

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Transcript

Ryan Purvis  0:00  
Hello, and welcome to the digital workspace works podcast. I'm Ryan Purvis, your host supported by producer Heather Bicknell. In this series, you'll hear stories and opinions from experts in their field story from the frontlines, the problems they face and how they solve them. The years they're focused on from technology, people and processes to the approaches they took that will help you to get to the script for the digital workspace inner workings

warrants the digital workspace works podcast. Do you want to give us a brief introduction? Sure. Thanks,

Warren Beazley  0:37  
Ron. Yeah, it's so great to be here. So my name is Warren Beasley, I'm the co founder of Edison Hill search. We're a family run boutique recruitment firm specializing in technology. Yeah, we're UK based. But we essentially what we're clients and candidates all over the globe. Now, due to good old technology.

Ryan Purvis  1:03  
Yeah, I would say that the old geographic location issues have all gone away, as long as you can connect on a team's resume. You can do business, you're right.

Warren Beazley  1:13  
And there are still some great people out there doing the job that I do that still use that as their differentiator, and good for them. But essentially, unless you're, I guess, a high street location, which at the moment is going to be pretty difficult. You're right, it's that that element has certainly been removed from the equation.

Ryan Purvis  1:37  
You want to tell us a bit about what you think the digital workspace is and what it means to you? Sure,

Warren Beazley  1:42  
I think the the best way for me to describe that is to give it a comparison to what it was like when I first worked in this job back in the 90s, which was an analog desk phone. A to be polite, an antiquated mobile phone that really did was Michael's syntax, and you could play snake on it, as well. And if you're old enough to remember that,

Ryan Purvis  2:12  
but it was an Alcatel.

Warren Beazley  2:15  
It was a Nokia. And it was it the Motorola razor. And these little Star Trek flip phones that were quite popular as well. cues for the fax machine. Yeah. And when I first worked in recruitment, we had these asix index cards that had the names of your clients on and the names of the candidates on and you basically either take them home with you, you'd look away in a drawer, so no one else got access to them. We gradually then started to migrate that information on to a I see a very sort of easy word antiquated again, but very basic CRM, which was essentially a database of candidates and a database of clients. And I guess I'm gonna find negative in for digital workspace, but it will be a trail transfer that it's not really a negative, but when when you left the office, and the hours that we did back then were literally a half, seven, eight o'clock in the morning, till eight o'clock at night, when you left the office, you left the office, there was no way you were contacted. That was it. And you came in for some great surprises in the morning. Some very good and some were not so good. So the digital workspace to me now essentially means that and although the pandemic has really accelerated the, the shift across for some organizations, it means that myself, my colleagues were working 24 seven. So you know, you can be on calls with clients and candidates, literally 24 seven, the database that we have now the CRM, well, that's now the basis of all of our marketing efforts across social media utilizing data analytics, we're no longer just individuals who make phone calls. We're now individuals that have to use digital to create a brand for ourselves as individuals, not only for the company, but as individuals and it's a very powerful thing to allow you to use digital to, to really create a footprint out there in terms of what it is that you do and how you differentiate yourself. So, you know, the perception that you know recruiters will own it, you know, we have a database of names of people have contacts. Digital has really allowed us to expand on that catching on AI in video technology, you know, it is a real seismic move that we've had, which essentially makes my job easier, which means I can add more value to my clients and my candidates as a result. And I

Ryan Purvis  5:18  
think in your space, will you be offering a more white glove service than the common recruitment, I mean, in the nicest way, was really just trawling through lots of CVS for job postings. And you still have a black book of some sort. So you ate your pants.

Warren Beazley  5:36  
Yeah. And that's something that we still use the traditional use of a CRM for. But because with digital, your reputation is so far more delicate now than it was 25 years ago. What people send think about you is heard much more loudly than it was back then the level of inbound additions to the you know, usual phrase, the black book, is also greatly increased off the back of using digital, to enhance your reputation, and to enhance what it is that you actually do. And obviously, social proof, which is also something that the digital and the Internet has allowed us again, to be at the forefront of people's minds when they when they make decisions. And that's really what recruiters are now because of digital, which is the market is creating a brand and essentially making clients and candidates comfortable with dealing with.

Ryan Purvis  6:48  
Yeah, I would have added the word PR to that. Not so much public relations with personal relations.

Warren Beazley  6:53  
Oh, that's a great phrase. Yeah, I may use that wrong, if that's okay. Thank you.

Ryan Purvis  7:01  
And then coming to Maine about sort of amplification of your profile, due to technology, you see the results on something like LinkedIn, where, you know, it'd be somewhat of my peers, for example, or in a different industry, they'll be sort of painting what they've been doing internal organization, but externally, so I don't know, you know, some some awards ceremony, the head for the career apprentices, or finishing up a really big project and how they partnered with Microsoft, Oracle, whoever the partner is. Yeah. And it's not a direct. Look at me the Great I Am, it's more indirect. We're doing stuff here, using, you know, make cool stuff or solving a cool problem. Yeah. But it's almost future future setting to the next role. It's a well, if you don't know what I did go look at my LinkedIn profile is there's 100 posts about how awesome I've been involved in things.

Warren Beazley  7:58  
Absolutely, it's a great place to keep a repository rather like GitHub repository of code. And the great things that really clever people can do with it. ninten can be a repository of individuals, I guess, career track record, really, their achievements, what they're proud of, and how they want to be perceived to, to the market. I think the most powerful thing that LinkedIn does, is it allows you, allows people to see you to see what you're really like, the other staff, you know, those award ceremonies, those achievements are kind of a fluffy thing around the edges that will support a decision for somebody to want to work with you. But ultimately, that decision, in my opinion, starts off with somebody liking and liking what they see as a person. And I think that digital has a real big part in that. Absolutely.

Ryan Purvis  8:57  
I'm curious I mean, he looked at this latest feature from from LinkedIn, which ties in with all the other social media platforms now that you can post your, your story, post a picture or, and be followed, like you were on Instagram, or Facebook or whatever. And if you see a spike, okay, so

Warren Beazley  9:13  
I would probably spend a good five or six hours a day with LinkedIn open in front of me. So I'm in it all the time. When you say a story, you're talking about a post that you can share across.

Ryan Purvis  9:31  
It's a new feature now if you if you open up the app. fact I'll show you so. So right on the top, here on the top, there you go. You see my name, you see the podcast extension. Now if you hit the plus sign, you can obviously put your image wherever it is where you can add an image or you can record a video and images are very much like you could with all these other social media more more and more informal social media platforms that say okay, It's been around probably about a week or two. It's kind of a summary of the forum's I mean, as security seen it, because

Warren Beazley  10:07  
if you go onto my profile, I think it's on because I'm, I'm using my phone now to, to have this chat with you now mine. So I've only got my desktop and they are different, albeit Saturday, but they are different, I think. Yeah, the allows you to upload media gallery to your profile. Yeah. Okay. So I know, ironically, there's been a, there's already been research on on that in terms of the traction that you get, depending on the type of media that you add as well. So I mean, the general rule of thumb with LinkedIn is don't take anybody away from LinkedIn, as well. So if you've got a video and you've got it, it's on somewhere like YouTube or Vimeo, don't put a YouTube or Vimeo link on make sure you have an intern and an embedded LinkedIn link on there. But now, I think that's what I'm doing already. But you can see what I'm not a marketing expert. And I'm I'm a recruiter, because I couldn't answer that question.

Ryan Purvis  11:14  
is cool, I just thought I just wanted to, because actually now looking at your profile, I didn't see that that box is obviously a mobile first feature. And probably when you when you post a picture, because where I was gonna go with is, I always see. And I always try to keep my LinkedIn posts very much about the work I'm doing and which mostly publishing the podcast and stuff. But I do see other guys sort of posting our way for a walk today. And I saw this beautiful view. And it's got almost nothing more than the view. And that to me, personally, is something that should probably be sticking to a Facebook or Instagram or whatever. But if you're taking it that I've ever walked in, I saw this beautiful view, and I had this great idea, which you know, save the business 10% because we can outsource to, you know, our payroll, for example. Sure, yeah. Yeah, that would make more sense to me. And I just wanted to look to those sorts of things.

Warren Beazley  12:10  
I think that since certainly since Microsoft, got involved with LinkedIn. And, you know, I think they changed their algorithms nearly as often as Google do. Five years, maybe less than that two and a half, three years ago, if you posted something on LinkedIn, which was on going for a walk today. Oh, look, there's a squirrel up a tree. What a lovely view, isn't that a pretty dog, you know, you will be hounded off of the site and been told to take your post to Facebook or Instagram or wherever that's changed. Now, whether that's changed because Microsoft has influenced it, or whether that's changed because of the market is on the periphery that have influenced it. But absolutely, now LinkedIn is more aligned with the type of content that you would see on Facebook, they want to know about you. Yes, you can tie that into what you do professionally, and how that impacts on other people. But ultimately, they want to be more of a In my opinion, anyway, this is a debate this isn't, you know, passed on, that they want to be involved in a conversation. That's the basis of LinkedIn, whereas before, it was discussing very, you know, very finite, technical or business related issues. And now, there's a definite move away from that. Whether you like it or not, that's definitely the case. And they will reward you on on the basis of that, you know, that they actually pay people to review posts, not just algorithms that review posts, actually, people. So if you notice, if you've put a post on LinkedIn, and you'll see who's liked it 90% of the people that like it are in your first level of connections. Yeah, it's when you start seeing that post become more popular. And you see second and third people liking it, is when somebody has actually said this post now is worth getting out into the wild and network and only happens within 4872 hours of you putting that post out there. Yeah. And the most successful post I've had and I've experimented with it, are posts that what I would call fluffing posts. I literally experimented holding my stepsons, new dog. And I thought, well, I'm going to post it on LinkedIn to see what happens. And I thought I put a really good interesting post on how AI is going to impact the future of investments in tech startups. It got a fraction of the likes and the traction, then my fluffy dog. So that wasn't because I love putting pictures up of donkeys just to prove my point but let's Many people in my business as well would disagree with me. But I do think that's the way it's going.

Ryan Purvis  15:07  
So for future guests, as we were talking in our pre call with her, and she said she was so tough, because that morning, she written some post, put it on, and it made it into LinkedIn short, you have to do like the interpreter tutorial daily. And she made because she happened to him. And she said nude on purpose like that she didn't design it to get there. But the thing she wrote about it was obviously right in time for something else that was going on. And it was

Warren Beazley  15:34  
I heard a guy interviewed yesterday, who's specializes, in his case, his sweet spot is trying to make your post go viral or as viral as possible. And he has a client that created a post, purely by accident, had it on LinkedIn, had over a million would have been commented between views. absolutely blew him away. He's next post as it doesn't. Yeah. So yeah, there you go.

Ryan Purvis  16:06  
Yeah, and it is a funny thing. But I mean, this is a LinkedIn dissection. But no, but you know, you put some, some things you put up there, and you actually Wow, this is gonna be amazing. And this is before I started putting this podcast up, but an article you read, or you might write something, and you get, you know, a couple 100 views, maybe 1000, you'd like but this was not the thing that would get the views. And then you write this thing that is, you know, like, you put some sweat into it, you read the chapter, there's always a white paper in something, and your mom and your brother, Peter, thumbs up, and no one else even looks at it. And you're like, how does that work,

Warren Beazley  16:40  
I couldn't have put it better myself. on this axis, you tell me the more time you spend on you know, researching a post, you know, if you're brave enough to want to use something like Canva, or you want to pay somebody to, to make a poster that really, you know, very, very professional. Compare that to the hits and likes and traction, you'll get to the I go back to the fluffy dog scenario, you know, it's crazy. But that's it, that's how it is. That's what we got to work with. So I do take all that down to digital to the Internet, and the impact it's having across the periphery of not just emails, not just your CRM, but across all aspects of my job, why I have to do now, compared to what I did, back in the 90s. And it really is, you know, night and day difference. And

Ryan Purvis  17:32  
you change is inevitable. I mean, how changed, obviously, was was something we've had sort of pre pandemic, but now going into, I guess the hopefully the middle to end of this pandemic, I mean, your change drastically, as the markets sort of held its breath. As the markets held its breath waiting for this madness to to go? or what have you, what have you had to do differently?

Warren Beazley  17:56  
I think, from a very selfish perspective, and so it's, it's allowed me to be more reflective, to actually see where me as an individual can add value to other people. So, you know, I'm certainly not doing a plug for Warren, as you know, is, is pretty hard. But I wanted to give something back, you know, I did some pro bono stuff. It allowed me to use digital and technology to get in front of people that were struggling. And you know, don't get me wrong, it's been tough, but there are plenty of people that were swapping me, you know, that having it worse, and I wanted to have that opportunity recently, you know, in the past nine months to, to do something, you know, to give something back. And actually doing that, and looking at the perspectives changing slightly, I think as has had an impact on the type of posts and the type of brand that is being created, albeit by accident, as a result of that. So yeah, Digital's been really important during this period, and, of course, working remotely, which is the obvious impact. It's really, it was gonna happen anyway. But the really stubborn I'll use these sweeping generalization, they're really stubborn bosses out there that refuse to trust their employees, their teams to allow them to work from home and I get it some roles you have to be in the office, but for those roles that you don't, I think it's proven to them that absolutely, you know, if you trust somebody, if you allow them, that length of rope, most people can't hang themselves, but most people actually embrace it. And technology's allowed that to happen. It's a really good thing.

Ryan Purvis  19:56  
Yeah. It goes a little beyond does embrace it. I think they've become even more loyal.

Unknown Speaker  20:03  
Absolutely,

Ryan Purvis  20:04  
because of trust.

Warren Beazley  20:07  
And I'll totally agree.

Ryan Purvis  20:09  
I mean, I found that when we moved to the UK, almost nine years ago, I was working in a role before that, where, you know, I worked from home, probably three to three days a week, four days a week, but you were seeing customers, and you were driving around, around all that kind of stuff. And you had this integrated way of working where you, you know, you might sleep late, because you will take them up before you might go, it's golf balls and go see the customers or join causal flow control on how your work was done as long as you were delivering. And I mean, because as a sort of sales, pre sales, you know, the results were you earn as well, because you're getting commissioned or not, what have you here, and then I went to sort of switch over to the corporate world. And I was given the sort of dogma were you gonna be in the office five days a week? And and, you know, be in as early as you can, and try to leave as late as you can. You know, not that that was the actual message. But the underlying message was, was that it was complete shell shock to my moving countries having to deal with with a different culture, but it was, it still fascinates me up until now, everyone's kind of going, Oh, we can work from home. We can use the tools that have been around for $4 a decade. Yeah, that's been I mean, haven't you you've fleshy looking ones. But this was valuable for 10 years.

Warren Beazley  21:26  
I you know, that's, I think that's a real powerful thing, really, is that, you know, the trusting Absolutely. The seed of the paradigm shift in the workplace that we're living through now. Yeah, it's, I just hope you haven't got shares in read your soul. We were because I don't think these guys are gonna come.

Ryan Purvis  21:53  
It's funny you say that? So there's a lot of financial conversation. Oh, of course. But so so we were going to be work with me when I joined Harlow. And we left. And at the time, we were discussing it how how obscene. And I mean, this in the last way that we were the model was I mean, they had more buildings in New York than JP Morgan had at the time. And and if you look at their business model, it was pretty much all the same guys is what Amazon used to run on, which will they still do, but now they're making a fortune of money as opposed to be in debt. But they were running such a tight model where the income didn't match to what the expenses were, but the point where we're supposed to get it, and they probably wouldn't. But they're probably decimated. But I would look at the other way around with regions, I think they are probably want to look at because they've been around for so long, they're still an established brand. They own a lot of the buildings, where it was raining a lot of the buildings,

Warren Beazley  22:50  
I think you'll find ruggish lease pretty much everything. Already. They're part of a bigger group. Who is? Yeah. And we've, I mean, I've had first hand experience of working in several breeders offices, and their actual staff on site are phenomenal. Yeah, really, really, really good. But unfortunately, they're never under so much pressure. And the impression I get is I get paid a lot for what they do, and the pressure that they're under, you know, that they are the the flag bearers of that organization. But, yeah, they must change now, but certainly five years ago, you know, they were, they were quite proud of the fact that I would speak to divisional managers, you know, where they said, No, we don't know anything in this building. We don't own a table, a phone, a photocopier, is leased. And that that was that that was that was their business model. And frankly, again, this isn't a conversation where we're gonna talk finance or not, people like Regis, but but they hadn't. Should we saw that haven't come out of this except that this period, shiny, we're just to say the very least, but I'll leave that one there for a conversation another

Ryan Purvis  24:15  
hour. Yes. They call for it. I've been involved in I mean, one of the guys that asked a question about joining, you know, changing the cutting the lease for the full office floor, and they were looking to go change office space. There were a couple people said, Well, you know, avoid this one, avoid this one, avoid this one, because the contracts are atrocious. Yeah. And you'll end up locked in and you can, you can do nothing about it. And I've seen I mean other we just, you know, 10 minutes walk from us, which would probably work for me if it's an office, but I also noticed in my little village that is about two or three. So in formal working groups that have set themselves up inside a subnet of other businesses

Warren Beazley  24:55  
are well

Ryan Purvis  24:56  
and you're looking at spending, you know, 50 bucks, maybe 100 bucks a month to have access to a desk and a meteor. But it's a little bit of what you What's your brand? You know, for me, I don't need a post on my phones because, you know, there's only one phone number one mobile. People there might be that still, and you just got to find the thing. And I think that's what I've found interesting. For a lot of people switching over, that we're not gonna go back to the old normal, which is, which is the corporate life and nine to five and and often. It's this other thing, which is still to be defined, I think, which is a hybrid, it's more probably more interim roles. Not necessarily the economy, but a combination of this. I don't know what you're seeing a lot. Well, I

Warren Beazley  25:41  
think, you know, it's, it's not so much the new normal, it's, it's the next normal phrase around what you just said, it's going to be a hybrid, we're going to take things from what we've been forced to do in the last 10 months, and adopt them as as as mainstay habits, if you like, of working so. I yeah, I think that there are really very few things that you can say about this pandemic, that have been having a positive impact. This is definitely one of them. The the change in sentiment around work, I don't know what it's gonna look like in a year from now. Yeah, I don't know what's gonna look like, you know, next summer, I really don't think anybody that suggests otherwise will be would be fooling themselves. But what I do know, is actually so we're not going to be going back. You know, it's gonna it's gonna continue. In that sense. I'm when I'm speaking to clients and candidates. Now, I can say that there's not there's not been one job that we've we've worked on across the firm that has required anybody to be in the office. We've had offers made for C level tech candidates, where they haven't met the new employer in person.

Unknown Speaker  27:10  
Yeah.

Warren Beazley  27:12  
And I've started to miss you haven't met in person. So you know. I forget what that happened this time last year? Okay. That's a bit of a question to say, because there's a lot of things that wouldn't have happened, that we wouldn't have guessed was happening this time last year, but now, so you know, the future for me, aligning it with digital what away from the work place scenario. In terms of the job I do, is that is really going to be centered around AI. And the impact that's gonna have them on industry, and big data and data analytics, which are all kind of interwoven. Yeah. One requires the other, you know, in a lot of instances. But for the for the time being, and I'm referring to AI is very much been a digital thing. I don't think there's an AI algorithm out there yet, that can replicate what people actually do in terms of those human interactions. When when that time comes, which may be my last time it may not be, then, okay, maybe my days of the job, it may be numbered, but right now, yes, it makes my job more efficient, allows me to get in front of more people allows me to speak to more people, it allows me to engage with more people. But those golden moments in what I do, are still relying on on the human touch. I haven't yet been replaced. But it just digital just makes my life so much easier, and will continue to do so.

Ryan Purvis  28:57  
Yeah, I think I think that's the thing that I've seen in the market is that there are a lot of people obviously now looking for roles because of the pandemic, the business only may have cut them or, you know, mostly the business might have gone. And they tried to apply for stuff and they ended up in this soul destroying application thing where you're applying for jobs on or whatever the job sites are linked to. And you're not even getting a decline during a acknowledgement beyond the message from the service saying you received your job. And you sort of know, being technical, you kind of know that what's happening is it's going to some sort of filtering system, which is probably doing some sort of word matching, then discard you keeping you in or it's getting to someone who's being paid and you know, low cost area to process if it doesn't actually and it doesn't read the CV really doesn't understand it. But this kind of goes No, no, no, yes. But it is. And you really are, are actually going to the old way of doing it, which is define the relationship to say hey, listen guys, I'm available. This Anyone know of any work is going on and bypassing that system, that ecosystem because the other thing you have is, some of these, some of these jobs are put onto another hiring portal, which means you have to re enter your whole CV or re into your LinkedIn profile. And the minute you see that you're like, Ah, you know what, I don't want the job that badly. I got to apply another 100 jobs with easy apply on LinkedIn. post my details in my you know, because I've seen about, you know, one whatsapp group a month created in a network because people want to communicate and cut out the friction of getting a job. Yeah, and help good people find good roles?

Warren Beazley  30:37  
No, absolutely. I think my my industry has a big part to play and to bear a lot of the responsibility for that. And the absolute minimum level of courtesy that anybody should expect if they've been engaged in the process is a phone call, to be told. It's different if they're applying for a my opinion in the way that it's different. If they're applying for a job. And they haven't got through to CB submission stage. And they're, they're told electronically without application that wasn't successful. But if there's an interest in the application, for the very worst, no update, but using digital to tell somebody that they're not being considered anymore is a criminal. You know, there is like courtesy, that that needs to be extended over and above. Digital, yes, it makes our life a lot easier. But Shuman, essentially is really are the bane of my life as a recruiter. And it's surprising to me how much ghosting which is the phrase, which is used a lot now goes on, not only from candidates to recruiters, but the way recruiters ignore, or the recruitment process ignores candidates, it's really frustrating. I wish I wish we could we could solve it overnight. But it's, it's gonna take a while if you just could do it. Well, that'd be great. But it can in some, in some respects, you know, we'd be the email thing that the click of a button, it can sometimes make the problem worse as well. So yeah, overall, it's had an absolutely massive, positive impact on my job.

Ryan Purvis  32:43  
And what are your plans for 2014? What are you what are you we know the predict the future, but what do you guys need to do?

Warren Beazley  32:51  
Personally, I think it's about positioning yourself in a way that people can see the value that you really bring. And that's all around marketing. Now, there are several ways that you bring that to the table. But for us, it's all around digital, there's no other way that we market ourselves. And that's going to be a big part for us next year. And, you know, it's how people make decisions now. And we are essentially, we are a sales organization. And, you know, our, our commodity, and I include myself in this commodity, which is people, we're working with the most unreliable commodity on the planet. And so we need to make sure that we do everything. Absolutely. Right. And that includes how we market ourselves and how we position ourselves as well. So yeah, next year, for us is big about branding is going to be big about marketing and make sure people know where to come to, and know exactly what they're going to get from us before they even you know, send us that email or make that phone call. How are we progressing? that we're not there yet? But it's a journey. And it's not an overnight, you know, pay per click process. It's very much a drawn out reputation. Keep doing the right things, which is, you know, come for us. It's content for us. It's commenting on people positively. Liking stuff, doing this sort of thing as well. is most definitely the one for

Ryan Purvis  34:33  
so anyway. sonae saying that the soco do activity? I mean, are you are you looking really at one platform via LinkedIn? Are you looking at publications trade publications?

Warren Beazley  34:43  
No. That's a really good point. So we openly promote ourselves to journalists within the technical trade press. So if they want a quote or if they want an opinion from us around a particular subject matter, and we will list them, then that we will use that as well. But I would say that if we went back five years 80% of our time and money was spent on with Google, in terms of marketing. Yeah. And I'll include email marketing campaigns in that, as well. I would say now 80% of our time, and money is spent within LinkedIn. Interesting,

Unknown Speaker  35:34  
interesting.

Warren Beazley  35:37  
Study, very powerful platform. And they are my theories that when they realize that they have people like me by the short and curlies, excuse the back, you know, where that will leave us? I don't know. But now it's a very powerful, very powerful. So if used correctly, absolutely.

Ryan Purvis  35:59  
Yeah, a friend of mine runs a podcast. And he did this, he built his business on Facebook, and he put out a post must be about three weeks ago, where he's deleted his facebook account completely. from him, he sold his business for for a lot of money. So that was his core business, he's got completely broken up with Facebook. And and based on that, I finally pull the trigger to get on Facebook as well. And, and I feel like I'm going to get over everything except for maybe Twitter and for LinkedIn. Because it's becoming like, you only need one or two, not all of them.

Warren Beazley  36:33  
But there is so much noise out there. Although there certainly was two years ago, there's so much noise out there. And that social media branding space, you know, depending on which books you read, would be another technique that you could use for another particular platform. And I think people like that they want to have someone they can rely on, they're familiar with? Yes, of course, you know, there is going to be changed. And you have to embrace that, you know, digital allows you to do that. But you know, you're quite right. I don't use Facebook at all. Now, I only use it for people to contact me, I don't do anything at all. on there, either, you know, for myself or professional. Come up, come right off of it. With me, you know, in fact, I don't know whether or not there's some sort of a correlation or calm or connection with LinkedIn and Twitter. If you do a post on LinkedIn, very easy within LinkedIn for you to add that onto Twitter as well at the same time with a click of a button. They are the only two really that I use.

Ryan Purvis  37:40  
Just you mentioned, serum today, what do you guys use your CRM? And do you tie that in with a social media presence?

Warren Beazley  37:48  
Yes, so we although we're a small phone, we actually have three cell rooms that we're currently working with at the moment. We have a very intuitive data laid GDPR compliant platform, Scottish company can fire fish. But I I base most of my CRM, a day to day movements and diary around my colleague was using a globally well known platform called borgholm. But he's just moved on to something called I'm gonna pronounce this wrong. It's called loxy. Or loxone, which is essentially integrated. LinkedIn, and allows you to create pipeline sales pipelines automatically, seamlessly and move somebody from both the candidate and the client from through the different stages of the process. It's a very interesting platform, but they've got I've not been brave enough to move on to it. Yeah, I'm still using firefish. But yes, of three very different CRM that we have within the business bullhorn is something that we're going to move away from anyway. And we've decided on that completely. So it's locked. So I think it's locked. So and I'm firefish that that we're using right now.

Ryan Purvis  39:20  
It's only visible from the past time. That feels like

Warren Beazley  39:27  
yeah, they used to have restriction that you there was only a certain amount of whether we're going to do business with agencies that are a certain size, I believe. That's no longer the case. Or obviously they're now trying to get business from wherever your site. So good application, they're pretty much I might say well, much of a muchness, because that's been unfair. Ah, the core job that they do. I don't think a lot of them have been intuitive enough and have embraced The real power of digital, and how people are using social media now within their day to day lives. And I think one of the biggest organizations or groups of organizations are really feeling the pain of that. Other job boards, you know, who's, and I hate to say, they're not listening, but their days are numbered unless they do something drastically different to position themselves and to provide value to me, the end clients, candidates and recruiters, because at the moment, they don't really, they are trying, I think that you know, that they're doing a lot to try and find a way to to add value. And obviously, that the competitor is, is LinkedIn. Admit that, but that is their big competitor, and they're just not. Not really the the force that they were in back in my day, Uncle Albert now during the war, but but when I first started, it was just absurd. Yeah, it was. And now, well, you know, things developed online and think industries mature, and then things change. And it's just, it's just the corporate journey, the corporate process. But yeah, it's, it's interesting, because I could have foreseen This, I think, but a lot of them didn't. And even the likes of indeed, they were very social, very sort of, in line with with digital with how they present themselves. I still don't think that they've got a an offer. That's and have much longevity. Giggle job hasn't really done it, either. They've tried to get in on the act. Of course, you want you want to make sure that all your jobs are indexed on Google. But is it really providing real value? I don't think it is. Microsoft or LinkedIn? That's for sure. But But I definitely got it. At the moment. They're doing something really meaty, right?

Ryan Purvis  42:13  
Yeah, I agree with you there. I mean, I think if you host a job on a job board, you're obviously looking at some level of a resource here. You need you need 10 developers that then a C Sharp Experience of Java, whatever it is, yeah. And you prepare to get, you know, 1000 responses on your word session, that kind of stuff. But But always look at those roles. I mean, yes, you might, it's like buying a lottery ticket. You don't win if you don't buy tickets. But you've also got to know the odds of winning are, are so low that you can't be calming outcome. And then I think this is where LinkedIn is really, you know, starting to kill off those competitors that made fixedness in the sense that you can easily apply to a role, just with your profile, which for for most people is what you're looking for, just as you know, everything's in my LinkedIn profile. Just look at it.

Warren Beazley  43:08  
You're right. It's very easy to to do that. And I think that LinkedIn, I've deliberately made that as as easy as possible, and obviously that monetized it their business. But yeah, that they are ahead of the curve, that's for sure. Okay.

Ryan Purvis  43:31  
We're running out of time here. Is there anything else you wanted to share before we retire?

Warren Beazley  43:35  
Not really? No, I'm just, it's good to. I guess, I think I mentioned the word reflective, it's been quite an interesting chat, Ryan, to actually stand back and look at where we are in the impact in the industry that are recruiting it in digital that's heard on the job that I do, but also on the jobs of people from outside of our organization, or the industry, as well. So it's, it's been a really interesting chat. And delighted that I've been able to share my, my thoughts on so thank you.

Ryan Purvis  44:16  
I appreciate that. I think when we first chatted, you offered yourself up to a one hour business coach. You sent me a martini form, which I'll be honest, I didn't fill out but I did have a good read on. And I think that's something we can share as well. Yeah. How would you want people to get ahold of you and get in contact?

Warren Beazley  44:34  
Oh, sure. So the easiest thing to do is to go to my LinkedIn profile. Yeah. And I think what I would say to people, both clients, people that are looking at how they recruit, what they don't like about it and how they want to improve on it, but also candidates as well. We may be a crossroads in their career. It's my job now. More than just finding jobs for people. I offer myself as a consultant, somebody that can offer advice. And my LinkedIn profile allows people to to contact me in that in that way to the call through calendly, another great digital innovation, good old phone number, which is down there, or simply DM me through direct message me, sorry, through LinkedIn, or drop me an email, as well. And all those details are all on my LinkedIn profile.

Ryan Purvis  45:33  
That's great. I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you for being on the podcast has been good.

Warren Beazley  45:37  
Enjoyed it? Well, and we can do it again.

Ryan Purvis  45:40  
For sure, for sure. Thanks. Thank you for listening today's episode. Hey, the big nose producer, editor. Thank you, Heather for your hard work on this episode. He subscribes to the series and rate us on iTunes or the Google Play Store. Follow us on Twitter at the DW w podcast. The show notes and transcripts will be available on the website www digital workspace that works. Please also visit our website www dot digital workspace that works and subscribe to our newsletter. And lastly, if you found this episode useful, please share with your friends or colleagues.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Warren BeazleyProfile Photo

Warren Beazley

Founder of Edison Hill Search, Search Consultant for CTOs and senior tech leaders

Dad, Grandad, Partner and Cofounder of family run boutique IT/Digital Search firm Edison Hill Search.
Recruiting in IT since the mid ‘90s.