Posts Tagged ‘Fuzion Communications’

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The Importance of Screening Job Applicants!!

February 26, 2024

An email I just received has left me staggered and it has prompted this blog post.

We are recruiting at Fuzion at the moment and our normal process is we list the role on the website and then we run an advert through the jobs advertising function on LinkedIn.

Despite a very careful job description and a request to attach a cover letter (a simple test of how interested the person is) you then are faced with a deluge of applicants, 95% of which are totally and utterly irrelevant.

Of course you will then also get a deluge of recruiters contacting you promising “perfect fit” candidates.

The screening of these applicants and emails takes quite a while and it is always made easier if applicants follow the instructions and write an intelligent cover letter.

Once I narrow down the applicants to a “possible” list I then test each candidate with an email asking them a few simple questions. Invariably these will include a general question such as “what interests you most about the role with Fuzion” and then something specific about them, maybe about some aspect of their CV that I need some clarification about.

I do this to get some extra information but also to test the person including their ability to communicate and to see if they are intelligent, to see if they are nice and how much they really want the role.

Sometimes I never even receive a reply , which shows that many people are just pressing buttons on LinkedIn and weren’t very serious about their application in the first place.

Depending on the responses I then decide who I should do a first “light” online screening interview and after that a deeper interview with other members of the team.

We don’t always get it right but for the most part the process has served us well and we have a really great team.

So, back to today and that email…

I received a response to one of my emails from an applicant who had a very interesting CV –

Based on my past experience, organisations or recruiters generally go through these questions on a 30 minute screening call. Is there a specific reason Fuzion does it on an email? 

I am available between 14:00 hrs and 16:00 hrs tomorrow and on Tuesday if you’d like to chat through the questions and proceed with my application.

Wow I thought, so I replied:

Hi X,

This is the most time efficient screening process for us.

Many thanks,

Greg

And while writing this blog I received a reply from this eager job hunting applicant:

Thanks for clarifying. However, this isn’t a time efficient process for me. Thanks for considering my application but I’d like to withdraw. 

All the best. 

Thanks,

Hmmm, I think there is a small touch of an attitude with this woman and she has done me and Fuzion a huge favour by showing me clearly who she really was.

My response:

Hi X,

You have just shown me how good my screening process is by demonstrating how much you were interested in the role.

Greg

Maybe we are approaching “full employment” and this attitude is probably a unfortunate by-product of this environment whereby some applicants think they are god’s gift to the employer world – they are not!

This is one of these another of those “you’ll never believe me when I tell you what happened today!” stories!

Greg

Greg Canty is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Management, Motivation, Personal development, Recruitment | 2 Comments »

When a big pay packet costs you too much

January 15, 2024

I’m doing a lot of job interviewing lately.

In Fuzion we are recruiting for a number of roles, and with candidates that are of interest I must ask them about their salary expectations/requirements. It’s a tricky question, but a very basic one.

“How much salary do you require to consider this role?“

It’s a very practical question and like the rest of us, the person needs to be paid appropriately, fairly and have enough to live on and hopefully some left over for the nicer things in life.

While we have to approach “pay” in this way there is an even more fundamental question that goes beyond the amount of money that you need to take up a role.

How much will this job cost you and is the pay sufficient for this cost?

How can a job cost you (and I’m not talking about travel expenses) you are probably asking.

Life is too short and every precious hour that you spend on this earth should be a positive experience, something that you can enjoy, that gives you fulfilment, comradery, that allows your passion to flow, that provides you with something valuable that you can’t get in other aspects of your life. This includes your work as much as other aspects of your life.

A long time ago I remember a boss of mine near the end of his career sharing with me that he hated his job and wished that he was doing something totally different. This guy was very comfortable and could easily have jumped ship so I asked him why he wouldn’t. He carefully explained to me what he described as “a fur lined mouse trap” -basically the package and perks were too good to leave so he was prepared to stay “trapped” as he called it.

Wow, what a huge price he paid for that time.

To take a job that is not right for you even if the package is great, is a hefty price to pay. While they might be paying you a lot, you end up paying the biggest price of all by not doing what YOU want with your precious time – you won’t get it back.

You need to #WinHappy

If you are interested we are a great place to work as long as you like doing what we do!!

Greg

Greg is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Motivation, Personal development, Positivity | 2 Comments »

Christmas Shopping with Micheál Martin!!

December 19, 2023

Last Saturday I found myself in the queue in Waterstones in Cork with a bunch of books and a game in my hands, Christmas presents for all and sundry.

The queue was moving fast as it always does (a well oiled machine) and the mood everywhere was light and jovial – while buying presents can be stressful I find that act of buying gifts has everyone in good spirits.

Behind me in the queue I heard lots of chit chat and the usual mentions of “Merry Christmas” between people inevitably bumping into others that they knew, all performing the same vital task. Hopefully we will be in that queue again next year, a year older buying presents for the same people.

One of the voices behind me sounded very familiar and when I turned around sure enough it was none other than our Tánaiste, and former Taoiseach Micheál Martin. He was chatting to some woman that he knew and it was just like any other conversation between any random shoppers, “how is so and so doing, haven’t seen them in ages, must meet up soon, say hello for me, Merry Christmas….”

One of the wonderful things about Ireland is that we will deliberately (I’m sure not always) leave that well known person alone to their moment of privacy and let them get along with the same every year human task of buying a Christmas present, and not bug them. No one was bothering him. Maybe they were close by, but I didn’t see security people for him and for this Saturday Micheál and I were the very same, two men in town buying Christmas presents for loved ones.

Micheál was relaxed, warm and friendly, comfortable in his own skin as he chatted and moved through the store.

Now, Greg being Greg I did want to say something to him but hopefully not bug him. He doesn’t know me but would probably recognise the face from all of the functions and Chamber meetings down through the years that I would have attended.

I reached out to shake his hand and without hesitation he reciprocated. I said “thank you for the great work” he has been doing on our behalf. I meant it and I wanted to communicate it. Politicians take a lot of flak from so many quarters and they should also be given credit for their service – I couldn’t think of another job as thankless as that one where everyone feels they own you 24/7. Despite the various challenges that we face as a country I think he has been great and always represents us superbly.

He thanked me for saying that and I quickly went on to ask that Ukraine gets the money and resources that it needs so it can keep fighting against Putin’s Russia and in doing so to make the world a safer place for all of us. He assured me it would happen and we both went off to continue with our shopping.

We should never take for granted that in this country of ours that this is still possible

Greg (the shopper)

Greg is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Christmas, Irish Politics, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Old Rockers, Roland and Brand Consistency

November 13, 2023

Roland

I couldn’t resist when I saw this gig announced…

Glenn Hughes formerly of Deep Purple, one of the greatest rock bands of all time was touring the UK to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their album ‘Burn’ .

The gig was at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London and my London buddy Roger agreed to come along with me and spare Deirdre the experience of having to “suffer” through four hours of standing and listening to a night of hard rock complete with long hair, 1,000 guitar solos and even a 10 minute drum solo!!

While I wasn’t going to gigs 50 years ago when I was eight years of age, I did start at 13 and Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy just hooked me and I’ve been a huge music fan ever since.

At that first Thin Lizzy gig that I went to, us boys wore our denims, our rock hero t-shirts and our leather jackets and this time at the Electric Ballroom while our gig uniforms were exactly the way they were, we have all aged more than a bit, but like Glenn Hughes who is now in his seventies, we still rocked !!

Glenn served up two hours of Deep Purple classics and while I never saw them in their prime at least now I heard all of those monster tracks delivered with precision 50 years later – I was in hard rock heaven.

Glenn Hughes

A huge shout out to Roger who declared that it was an “interesting experience”!!

In the spirit of great music and guitar heroes, Roger brought me to Denmark Street the following day which was famous as a haven for songwriters and record companies. Now it is famous for the collection of specialist shops selling instruments, everything for musicians and their rock star dreams.

One of the shops we couldn’t resist popping into was the Roland store – Roland are famous for keyboards, synthesisers and electronic drum kits and it was exhilarating watching potential purchasers sitting at the various instruments in display and putting them through their paces.

This of course included some young kids with their parents sampling the expensive equipment that might just be the next step to a career of stardom.

Before we left I noticed a display of t-shirts donning the famous Roland brand – wearing one of these would give me huge automatic kudos with the music fraternity even though my 7 years of piano lessons resulted in my 3rd teacher giving up on me with a break up note to my mother who was paying for my lessons “Greg is wasting my time, his time and your money “ .

That was very harsh !!

If she was a better teacher and inspired me more maybe I would still be playing and legitimately wearing one of these t-shirts (at least that is my version of the truth)

Feck it, I’ll buy a t- shirt, a very cool souvenir from my trip to London.

“Would you like a bag” the sales assistant asked.

“Of course” I said, and eagerly awaited a cool bag with that iconic cool logo to carry around London with me for the rest of the day.

My heart sank when he pulled out a white unbranded plastic bag and placed my t-shirt in it.

What a waste .. maybe they ran out of cool branded bags or maybe they just don’t value the little chance of their brand being carried around this bustling city?

I thought about Glenn Hughes and his flawless delivery of classic Deep Purple songs 50 years on despite being in his seventies and I thought about Roland and their iconic brand.

Put the t-shirt in a proper bag and give your famous brand the respect and consistency that it deserves

Greg (the rocker!)

Greg is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Brand Loyalty, Branding, Music | Leave a Comment »

A life of Mondays…..

October 16, 2023

If on your last day on this earth an angel appeared and offered you more time but the offer came with a big catch.

Each of those years was to be made up on Mondays and nothing else, Monday after Monday after Monday.

Would you take it?

Have a great Monday !!

Greg 

Greg is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Motivation, Personal development | Leave a Comment »

Spamming and the damage to your brand

July 31, 2023

Another one of these totally and utterly irrelevant cold “call” emails has cluttered my inbox.

They vary in style and content but the things they have in common are:

  • I have no idea who they are
  • There is no need for the services being offered
  • They all use this “cool”, familiar language

Here was today’s example..

Hi Greg,

Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to connect yet.

I understand; life gets busy.

I hope you don’t take offense to my persistence since I would love to learn more about the prospecting & outreach process in your company and see if we have any points of potential synergy.

(Company name) could help you accelerate your outreach efforts by automating the tedious manual tasks and spending extra time hiring.

Let’s jump into the demo and we’ll discuss everything?

Best,

Anastasiia from (Company Name)

In a world where we are all so busy, how can any company justify employing people to blindly harass poorly researched prospects and in doing so, damage their own brand?

Greg 

Greg is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Branding, Communications, Email Marketing | 2 Comments »

No I didn’t

May 17, 2023

No I didn’t bump into my neighbour and great friend Brian as I was popping down to the local store to grab some lunch.

No I didn’t ask him if he wanted to join me and Dee for lunch.

No I didn’t ask him what he fancied for lunch and no he didn’t suggest that he fancied a nice baguette because he had spotted some guy cycling and he had a baguette.

No I didn’t get a fresh rustic baguette in the store, a selection of salads, marinated chicken breasts and some pastries.

No I didn’t come home, set a table in the garden for lunch in the sunshine.

No I didn’t text Brian to say lunch was ready and no he didn’t come over.

No I didn’t ask Brian and Dee if they wanted some white wine to go with this delicious lunch in the sunshine and while they said no first, no they didn’t change their minds….

No we didn’t have a great chat in the sunshine, we didn’t polish the bottle of wine and we didn’t have coffee and delicious pastries after.

No we didn’t have fun and no we didn’t spend too much time chatting to stop us from being back at our desks for work at 2pm.

No, I didn’t tell you the truth…

Sometimes you just have the embrace the moment because it just might not come again!

Greg 

Greg is a partner at Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Friendship, Motivation, Personal development | Leave a Comment »

Is there anything else we should be worried about?

April 17, 2023

I was listening to a really popular Irish podcast and the podcast host had one of the countries foremost economists on the show.

As you would expect the economist was fielding various questions and giving his expert opinion on the Irish economy, fuel prices, the war in Ukraine, the ongoing stresses caused by Brexit and how these issues could affect various business sectors in the country.

It was an excellent review and for the listener they would definitely have come away with valuable insights.

Just as the show was about to wrap up, the podcast host asked the economist a simple question: “Is there anything else out there that we should be worried about?”

While it could be viewed as a great question and one designed to make sure that all bases were covered, I found myself getting angry with what I was hearing.

Let’s not look for “more” things to worry about – there is always something if you look hard enough.

Instead, look for the opposite ….how about asking about the great opportunities out there ?

Greg 

Greg is a partner at Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Change Management, Management, Personal development, Positivity | Leave a Comment »

New Baby. Mum. Dad. Parent. Career …

November 28, 2022

Hazel, my granddaughter was one year old recently- where did that year fly to?!

I’ve carefully watched Brendan and Ayla looking after this little treasure and it definitely seems to be quite a different scenario for parents today compared to when I was a young dad.

With the nature of their work (and some COVID thrown into the bargain) both Brendan and Ayla have been able to spend equal time with Hazel, enjoying every little change in her, and why not ?!

If you ignore their particular set of circumstances and imagine life as a “normal” working couple, things would have been quite different.

Ayla would have taken her 26 weeks paid maternity leave and then had to make a decision to extend that by another 16 weeks and then possibly another few weeks. All in all she could spend a year at home with Hazel unless she decided to stop working for a while.

Watching Ayla, I can only imagine how hard it would be for any mother to return to work after spending all of that exclusive time with their baby.

As for Brendan, he would have been able to take his two weeks leave at the beginning and that would be that – his daddy time would be when he gets home from work and weekends.

I can see how he has treasured the last year with Hazel and how amazing is that, but in truth he was one of the very lucky dads.

If you bring “work” into the equation in that normal situation, there would have been huge career disruption for Ayla, and not so much for Brendan.

On one side of the coin there is precious time with the new baby, but with that comes career disruption and on the other side there is little baby bonding time and no career disruption.

What’s the alternative, is there a better way, or is this the only practical solution to bringing our precious children into this world of ours?

Watching Brendan and Ayla with Hazel I think it’s only fair that society creates an equal opportunity for both to be parents and for both to share that precious first year.

Except for the obvious “biological” leave at the beginning, there should be an equal / sharing of the leave, allowing both to enjoy parenting and maintain their careers at the same time

While this might seem like a radical idea to us in Ireland, it is the norm in the Scandinavian countries, and you can understand why.

So, for all the Brendan and Ayla’s out there, maybe some day it could be like that for new parents in Ireland!

Greg

Greg is a partner at Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Caring, Family, Parenting, Personal development | Leave a Comment »

It’s time to hug again!

November 7, 2022

“Welcome” I said and I reached out to hug her to make her feel welcome.

Suddenly I had an aggressive finger being pointed in my face and eyes of fire glaring back at me.

“I don’t do hugs” she said.

I stood there for a few seconds quite confused, thinking this was some kind of a joke, until I realised it wasn’t!!

I was totally taken aback as this is a person we knew and would have considered to have had a “good” relationship with before this interaction, and in fact there would have been routine goodbye hugs the last time we had met.

This incident happened many years ago and at the time it totally floored me. My nature is to be warm and friendly and a “signal” of this would have been a hug, one of my ways of conveying a genuine welcome.

Instead of reflecting on what I considered to be the positive aspects (at least I thought so) of my personality, I did the opposite and ever since greetings have been cautious and it has brought out a much more guarded Greg. And of course then we had Covid, which added an even bigger barrier between people and how we greeted each other.

Walking the dog with my headphones on just this weekend, I stumbled upon an episode of the wonderful podcast, ‘Heavyweight’ called “Cody” , which touched on the subject of hugs and I am so grateful for what I heard.

Basically, a kid who lost his mum suddenly received a random, huge hug from his football coach who he barely knew and he claims that it changed his life.

He was lost and hurting and this hug was exactly what he needed from someone, in fact anyone, and his coach delivered just that.

Neither of these men were “huggers” but they both realised at big moments in their lives, the power of a genuine hug, and since then it is part of their daily practice to be generous with warm hugs to their friends and colleagues and also, not to be afraid to say “I love you” when it’s appropriate.

To the producers of this podcast, thank you and to anyone I have had an encounter with since that very odd interaction, I sincerely apologize for being guarded and I hope you were still made to feel welcome by me.

It’s time to hug again ….

Greg

Greg

Greg is a partner at Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1RR31K2m0l26KigU5SsdvQ

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Posted in Bereavement, Caring, Communications, Family, Friendship | Leave a Comment »

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