tfpl blog

New Years Drinks with CLIG and TFPL

Author: Tracey South
TFPL Intelligent Resources, Recruitment Manager

TFPL sponsored the City Legal Information Group New Year drinks on 19 January at Shaw's Booksellers in Blackfriars. The event was well attended and it was a good opportunity to have a drink and network with fellow members and the committee to discuss possible topics for future talks. We all look forward to a prosperous 2010 for the legal information professions!

TFPL Tigers: A Triumphant 3rd at SLA Europe Annual Winter Warmer Quiz

Author: Susanne Ostelund
TFPL Intelligent Resources, Recruitment Consultant

Billed as - a unique opportunity to meet and get to know information professionals in an informal setting as you battle for supremacy in general knowledge. Did SLA’s Europe Annual Winter Warmer live up its words?  I would have to say that the answer is a resounding yes. 

This was my first outing to an SLA event and could there be a better way then to join in on a battle of the little grey cells?

First and foremost, congratulations to Team Oliver’s Wisemen for its win, leading from the very start and right up until the tense and nail biting end.  Team Gav, claimed second place and Lucy Frost, Head of Training at TFPL guided our team through a myriad of questions ranging from the easy, not so easy to oh the team was very quiet (add shoulder shrugging and a lack of pen on paper action).

So did the Tigers have a winning plan? Not really, other than not to say “it is on the tip of my tongue”.  Our mixture of general knowledge, music and TV show recollections allowed us to do one thing we had set out to do – finish higher then our MD, Darron Chapman’s team. 

The levels of cheering and banter were perfect and the pizza was tasty. 

Following on from the quiz, there was ample time to catch up with fellow attendees – most conversations started with: “what was the answer..?”

Thank you to Quiz Master Tony (aka Steve), you kept us thoroughly entertained; also, thank you to City Tavern for taking good care of us. 

Pictures from the event can be viewed by clicking here. 

Well done SLA for your excellent quiz night.  For further information on SLA and its events, click here.

I look forward to future SLA events!

Recruitment Demand feels “Steady as we go” in 2010

Author: Julia Hordle 
Director - Corporate Intelligence Recruitment

• Big picture view essential for Knowledge workers in 2010
• Innovation and process harnessed together are productive
• Employers striving to finding global/local balance

It’s definitely time to blog a little on the feel of the market place this year – inevitably, everybody asks...

The simple replacement hire is almost non-existent at the moment, as firms need a clear purpose to hire to justify head count. We are seeing a need for experienced heads with a portfolio of hard, transferable skills – project design, product development, the development of research & knowledge-based products and services – a steady stream of tangible products and outcomes required, derived from real business need. 

No matter where the demand is from, the common requirements seem to be these – evident client relationship management skills and an ability to research, analyse and present a business case, all in addition to the core foundation skills of the job itself. 

But there is also another factor all clients are looking for which doesn’t typically show up in the brief your recruitment consultant is given or the job description itself – and that this that potential employees must fully accept an organisation’s right to manage resources in more than one location and to contemplate change, with or without open consultation with its workforce. 

For this reason, I thought it was worth thinking about the visceral response of “at risk” individuals to the prospect & consequences of outsourcing and off-shoring.  

Understandably, organisations have had to look to cost reduction as a response to the uncertainty of trade confidence over what is now a prolonged period of global credit crunch. Make no mistake, your organisation will be continually looking for opportunities for cost reduction. Down sizing, M&A activity, automation, relocation of services all amount to a shake-up of the status quo. And this search for efficiencies doesn’t stop after the first functions have been resourced elsewhere. International firms have no choice but to look for the optimum location for cost as well as proximity to market, and a decision to offshore depends on the balance between the two.

As an employee, don’t be despondent if your career choices look compromised for the present time, and try not to allow sentiment to cloud your judgement, even if (understandably) you have an emotional response to impending change. Although many “vanilla” roles have been outsourced, one way or another there are still opportunities for knowledge workers with a commercial outlook and excellent communications and project or programme management skills. There is a clear demand for individuals with an international outlook who have taken responsibility for linking up or responding to the needs of more than one office and a variety of local cultures and client interest groups. 

If you are senior enough to have been involved in business and user needs analysis, then your fact-finding and primary research skills are definitely transferable – within your current organisation or outside it.

In the insight community, the overlapping disciplines of analysis & consulting, primary & secondary research, intelligence, how far can you push research beyond what already published?

In Knowledge & Information Management, how well do you really anticipate the needs of your customers?  How fresh is your thought leadership support, how tailored your content & web channels, how streamlined the library & information services?

In Records Management, how much could you help your organisation control risks, and keep the integrity of its audit trails? 

In Publishing & Content Provision, how much intellect is really going into your sales cycle and product feedback, or are you sales force on a treadmill?

The point of these questions, is that with the boundaries between disciplines becoming more blurred, it is people who can see what’s required and provide change and bridging solutions who are thriving.

Think about it this way. In a buoyant recruitment market, you might leave your current firm because their pace of change is too slow for your ambition. In this climate, it can work the other way round – your organisation’s ambition can leave you wrong footed. 

Because roles are evolving quickly, it isn’t always easy to identify alternative posts, if you face redundancy. But you can insure yourself against it by continuously stretching yourself and improving your skills, and by having “Plan B” and “Plan C” in place. 

If you find yourself affected by phases of transition (consultation for redundancy, for example) or corporate planning for finite timeframes, your best plan is to keep all your options open, no matter how much residual resentment you have about the changes afoot. Feeling you have a choice is important to your morale. Having seen some very good friends in the industry suffer through the aftermath of redundancy, there are a few tips:

• It is important to keep your “soon to be ex-employer” and your viable referees on your side. Many new opportunities come through old firm recommendations, and you should not queer your pitch.
• For this reason, no matter if you have had differences of opinion with colleagues, you need to work hard to maintain positive channels of communication with you old customers, line management and HR professionals
• It is never too early to contemplate alternative lifestyles and careers. This is not quitting, it is a deliberate option for widening the choice of next steps. It is also a method of consciously choosing to remain in your current niche
• Be clear about your own cost base; many people find the experimental aspect of taking contracts and testing new opportunities refreshing to their professional as well as their private life, but setting out on a year or so of contracting is a challenge to personal finances 
• Keep yourself positive by refusing to take redundancy personally
• Put any old prejudices to one-side – every opportunity is fresh and should be seen as new, even in a firm you are familiar with
• Go back to square one in developing a CV, make sure none of the good track record you have is lost through omission or false modesty.  

This brings me back to what you should expect from a good Recruitment Consultant. First of all, if you are in transition, you should expect more than short shrift. A good Consultant will help you dissemble your skills, and identify which are readily transferable. As your market value may well be in your knowledge and experience rather than in your skills on their own, make sure you have mapped these before you meet up. That way, there can be more time spent productively thinking ahead.  If you think you may be given a choice between redundancy package or new role, research the recruitment market before you enter negotiations into a settlement – you need to have a realistic idea of how long it is likely to take you to regain meaningful employment.

TFPL Intelligent Resources can’t create demand from nothing, but we do have an ever broadening outlook on the employment prospects for Knowledge workers worldwide. For us in 2010, we will be improving our coverage of specialised industry segments and also country and regional recruitment. A number of our Global clients report an inconsistency in the quality of recruits available for global roles in intended locations, and have had to think again. I think this means that for some enterprising individuals there will certainly be meaty international roles available in the UK, as well as for those brave enough to relocate.

Please respond to this blog with any anecdotes, supportive of these views, or contradictory – any anecdotal evidence of the state of the market is welcome!!

Break away from the "dodgiest dossier"

Author: Jason Ward 
Sales Manager - Publisher & Content Provider Recruiment, TFPL Intelligent Resources

On page 42 of The Times today, I read how an NYC based e-commerce start-up has used Twitter as a medium for job applicants who consider themselves "expert in social media" for a social media related digital marketing post.  Applicants have been provided with a clear set of instructions on how to respond (in such a way that demonstrates both their social media aptitude and their ability to follow instructions).

Using the normal method of recruiting: a CV along with a covering letter outlining skills, both factual and possibly fictional, our e-commerce start-up could be trawling through 100s of applicants for weeks on end. Their approach, however has been to use the media they want expertise in to filter out the wheat from the chaff. Could this approach be used for any role or was this a happy fit due to the nature of the role?

That got me thinking... so how about a sales role? How can you tell if someone can “do the job” and test that robustly as with this start-up in NYC?

• Read a CV and cover letter?
• Review their sales performance stats? So, who produced the stats... and the cover letter for that matter, how could you tell?
• Ask them to do a presentation, use psychometric tests? Both can be very prolonged and costly.

Think differently… make each approach to finding a new member of staff relevant to the role. For example, if you want a telesales person... Provide candidates with a date and make them call.

With a clear outline of the interview, you will be able to judge their telesales skills against your requirement by making them pitch for the job as they would for business. If they get past you, then they probably have what it takes to reach new clients in a meaningful way.

With the CV being described as the “dodgiest dossier”, a change in thinking is the way forward. Using competency matrix methodology, recruitment companies and organisations can filter applicants not based on how well an applicant can write a CV or a cover letter or perform at an interview but on how well they match up to best practice in your world.

Brave New World Re-visited

Just received the October 2009 issue of the Journal of the Society of Archivists (Vol 30, number 2) which is a themed issue devoted to Freedom of Information.  Guest edited by Margaret Crockett, the issue contains a range of articles on the Act itself and its application, the Code of Practice on Records Management, a useful literature review of the impact of the Act on Local Government, and an interesting reflection on governance and record keeping in Sierra Leone.

It's five years since the legislation came into force so there is now a considerable body of expertise and experience amongst the archives and records community.  New entrants to the field could do no better than to read this issue as a way of understanding the legislation, the key guidance provided for it in government, and accessing the rich literature that has built up around it.Well done, archivists!

One size fits all?

On reading the latest issue of the Library and Information Gazette I was interested in an article written by Tim Buckley Owen, CILIP trainer on the appropriateness of public access training for all learning requirements.  Public access courses can be invaluable when you need to get one or two people up to speed in a certain area and are also useful tools for networking with peers, sharing information and gaining a new perspective on a subject area.

However, we have found over the last year an increasing demand for more tailored training and have adapted our training delivery model to match this demand by offering customised onsite training courses and one to one or small group coaching sessions.  Areas where we have seen this demand increase have been across research training, influencing stakeholders and train the trainer training.  These are areas where individuals have had very specific objectives to fulfill, perhaps their research role is expanding into areas not previously covered or they are working on a specific project where they need to hone their communication and presentation skills further.

Our onsite delivery has seen increased demand in areas such as SharePoint and Records Management were new systems implementations and strategic changes have meant that whole teams have needed to be trained in everything through from the basics to more advanced methods and uses.

It certainly seems that in a climate where funds are scarce the demand for return on investment in training is much greater and hence the increase in demand for more tailored solutions.  Here in training we are keen to adapt to what our clients needs are and would be interested to hear any comments you have.

Digital Economy Bill and further copyright changes, what does it mean for you?

Since my last post on copyright the debate has heated up.  Currently Google, Yahoo, Ebay and Facebook have come together to oppose legislation, drafted in the Digital Economy Bill to increase the power to the secretary of state to change copyright law.  The legislation aims to stop copyright infringements taking place something which is all too easy in our new digital world.  However, the legislation that is causing this conflict is the ability given to closely monitor users on the internet in order to stop abusers of copyright from continuing to operate.  Google and the other internet companies are concerned that this ability is open to abuse to monitor people’s data usage regardless of whether any illegal behaviour has taken place or not.  Further details can be found at http://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallifestyle/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=27970  If this is the case, will we soon be looking into the wrong use of internet monitoring information like we currently are with the misuse of CCTV footage?

The Digital Economy Bill, as currently drafted, also poses a number of difficulties for libraries offering internet access to its users, because of the question of liability for copyright infringement. 

In addition, the Intellectual Property Office have launched the second part of consultation regarding proposed changes to UK copyright legislation which will be of benefit particularly to educational and research institutions. For further details please see http://www.ipo.gov.uk/about/press/press-release/press-release-2009/press-release-20091211.htm

Our resident expert in all things copyright, Paul Pedley addresses this and other changes to copyright that effect information professionals in his suite of training courses running next year.  An introduction to copyright gives a thorough grounding in update issues affecting the information professional and how to deal with them.  The more advanced digital copyright builds on the initial course and goes into further depth on copyright issues; Web 2.0 for copyright specifically looks at how social media is affected by copyright legislation.  Paul’s recent course on Digital Licensing covered discussions on how libraries are being affected by the new Digital Economy Bill and the concerns it is raising in addition to advice and tips on how to negotiate and re-negotiate licenses for copyright.

It’s a wrap… 2009 is over and we are looking forward to seeing the emerging trends for 2010

A big topic last year was SharePoint and its various uses and failures.  We have had quite a flurry of training needs that came through, particularly just before the end with more interest seen in our more advanced courses.  Our trainer Marc Stephenson noted the following topics of conversation in the courses

top 5 issues are:

1 Our budget for records management will be/has been cut, can I make SharePoint do the job?

2 How do I get user permissions right?

3 How can I tell if IT are making all the functionality available to me?

4 What kind of information management resources do I need to run SharePoint?

5 Do I really need to use Office 2007 to make the best use of SharePoint 2007?

Are these also issues for you?  What will we see with the launch of SharePoint 2010? 

 

I think the year will definitely see SharePoint stretching its lead as a key topic for information professionals to get to grips with, closely followed by making sense of and utlising to its best in the workplace the new social media technologies.   We have added new courses to the schedule in this area looking at social media uses in knowledge management and as a tool for information professionals to make their work smarter and easier with Steve Dale and Phil Bradley leading the courses in this area.  I would be interested as always to hear your comments, whether these are key areas for you or whether you find others more pressing.

SharePoint 2010: what it means for information professionals and their organisations

I recently made a trip to Microsoft for a workshop on SharePoint 2010 at their campus in Reading.  The picture I took away is of a shift in focus away from development to configuration (and there's a hell of a lot more to configure), illustrated by the following:   

• Complex (or simple) records and document management policies (compliant with DoD 5015.02, amongst other things) can now be configured into the system at and across every level and site location, or simply determined ad hoc.  It looks like a complete EDRMS is on the cards with hierarchical (file-plan like) structuring, automatic document ID numbers and-all with a highly intuitive and attractive browser (any browser) based user interface. 
• Developers will no longer be needed to come in and hack into your SharePoint in order for it to communicate with other databases and systems.  All of this can be configured out of the box without any knowledge of or ostensible use of code.
• As a result of the above and because the development engine, Visual Studio 2010 (sold separately of course), is integrated into the Central Admin area I think that significant investment on bespoke coding is a thing of the past. For example, .NET coding can as easily be published to SharePoint 2010 as a document might be through a standard CMS. In addition to this, the .NET coding language is relatively easy to pick up for quick learners, which systems admins usually are.
• My opinion is that outlay in development will revolve around (app by app) bespoke applications development which has been readily facilitated through the provision of APIs meaning that apps can be built and rolled out through the Central Admin (or the ‘back office’) development tool-kit.

On cost, for organisations that have made a sizable resource commitment to MOSS 2007 already, the prospect of further investment in SharePoint 2010 might initially be a turn off[*].  If however they are persuaded by the additional functionality (particularly in what was formerly business intelligence, the records centre and mySite) then they still face the requirement to upgrade their hardware to x64 (currently it is x32). This x64 backroom hardware is needed to effectively accommodate technologies such as ajax which make for seamless and smooth user operability on the client side but demand significant resources from the servers to that end. This demand scales up with increases in user numbers and user activity, which will be a significant consideration if organisations start adopting SharePoint as a “full featured business platform”, as Microsoft is touting it.

Additionally, upgrade/migration from MOSS 2007 to SharePoint was not something that was readily covered and I suspect 2007 users may be in for a rougher ride, price-wise and technically, than they might otherwise have expected.  This may be a particular issue to those organisations that invested heavily in 3rd party bespoke development of the product.

So, how significant is the advent of SharePoint 2010 to the information professional? Well, we have always known that information architecture, information governance (inclusive of its pillars such as policies, rules etc) and sound information management in general are critical to the success of any electronic information system deployment.  And, with the removal of significant functionality barriers in SharePoint 2010, the continued importance of this cannot be stressed enough in giving systems administrators something to consider before bending to every whim of their users. 

It is therefore critical that the advice of the information professional is heeded at the highest levels of management and engendered into the IT psyche.  The blueprints of a successful implementation should be drawn up, highlighted, championed and followed from the very beginning, lest the onset of “SharePoint Sprawl”, a symptom of poor information architecture and a lack of information management forethought, generally; and one with which many, if not most, MOSS 2007 implementations contend.

If you have information management concerns around your deployment of SharePoint, or any other system, contact us for expert advice and solutions.

Authored by Shooresh Golzari, tfpl consultant.

[*] Recent conversations with clients and SharePoint integrators indicate that this is true.

TFPL Connect International 2009

On 30 November, a large group of information, knowledge and records professionals from UK, Europe and America came together at TFPL Connect International for a discussion with an international panel of KIM experts. The event, kindly sponsored by Alacra got got off to a good start with a glass of champagne and the chance to catch up with colleagues.

The main session had a BBC ‘Question Time’ theme with TFPL Consultant, John Davies, directing questions from the audience to Natalie Ceeney (CEO, The National Archives), Doris Springer (Global Information Services Manager, Bain & Co) , and Morten Nicholaisen (Vice President, Global Sales, Dialog).  The panel demonstrated their ability to handle a wide range of questions with wit, humour, a willingness to share valuable experience and knowledge, and a knack for stimulating discussion.

The first question threw the panel in at the deep end, pointing out the UK’s relative lowly position in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report and asking for the panel’s views on how KIM can help improve this positioning.  The panel advocated improving knowledge sharing at the organisational and national level, suggesting that UK had some way to go making public information readily accessible. Even within the UK, there are differences between England where ‘we make [information] available what is necessary’; whereas ‘the Welsh make everything available’.  Of course, this stimulated discussion about the need to educate people about what is available and the key issue of personal information and data security – the need to keep the private ‘private’.

The theme of demonstrating the impact and value of KIM was touched on several times during the evening – a topic that won’t go away!  The consensus was that the needs of the business must dictate the focus of KIM activity – the challenge is ensuring the KIM skills are used effectively.
 
In discussions that ranged across topics such as social networking, fee versus free information, the change needed for business models in regards to supplying information, reductions in resources and change in working patterns, a number of interesting points were made by panel members and  participants alike.

Natalie Ceeney suggested that the corporate sector, while at a low point in the recession, will soon start to make small steps in to recovery  The public sector, however, are at the starting point of their recession as they anticipate public spending cuts.  The immediate outlook for the public sector is bleak.   Natalie also argued that the new generations of workers will require more flexibility in the way that they work and are likely to have ‘portable careers’.

Morten Nicholaisen predicted that information vendors will need to review their business models to reflect an economy where money is tight and where people feel there are more choices ad more free information.  It will come back to issue of ensuring that  ‘quality and effectiveness’ are explicit; that the fact that ‘free’ may be costly in  resource, time spent and risk is well understood.

Unsurprisingly, social networking, with its advocates and detractors holding, many different opinions about its value and different thoughts about its future, stimulated a lively discussion.  Stephen Fry’s public withdrawal from Twitter, and equally visible rejoining 24 hours later, raised a question from the floor “was he a saint or a sinner?”  The reaction ranged from those who understood the concept but didn’t see the value to themselves, or where the time came from to interact with a variety of networks and communication tools, to others who felt that this is the future (and the present) of work and play.  Discussion around the potential business benefit of social networking tools and their use by individuals to support individual networking was concluded by Hazel Hall, a convinced Twitter user and advocate of its potential for the KIM community.  Hazel made contact via Twitter with someone she wanted to meet, discovered they were on the same train and exchanged seat numbers.  In a very short time she had gone from “I would like to meet this person” to working with him on the train.  

As the chair wrapped up the panel discussion it was clear that this session had only skimmed the surface of some of the key challenges and opportunities facing the KIM community. As we move in to 2010 we are sure that some of these topics will feature in more depth at future Connect events and the TFPL Connect Conference.

It was great to see so many professionals across sectors taking part in the networking that followed and the conversations carried on well into the night over drinks and canapés.

Lucy Frost