Previously I looked at a snapshot of recruitment and employment within the Marine industry and considered why now is the time to improve the way we work.

According to the British Marine Federation’s latest trend survey the most difficult vacancies to fill are Marine Engineers. However, the businesses that were surveyed also reported that they find it increasingly challenging to recruit sales staff including Sales/Product Managers as well as people for International and Marketing roles, Designers, Electricians, Electronic Engineers, Carpenters, Painters and Lawyers.

My own observation is that the technology and manufacturing processes used by the key players within the Marine industry have evolved to emulate those that are more commonly seen with the Aerospace and Automotive Industries. This has led me to question why the recruitment net has not been widened within the Marine industry to include industries that use the same technology and processes.

In an article on the Tidal Today website, I was interested to read how the Marine industry Growth Strategy (MIGS) aims to help the tidal energy industry though encouraging a collaboration with  “naval, merchant shipbuilding, leisure boat production and offshore renewable energy” companies:

• Collaboration – “parts of industries in the Marine sector have been working separately without benefiting from collaboration, knowledge sharing and interconnection “The aim of MIGS is to correct this so that industries can make the most of their synergies.
• Shipbuilders as role models – There are many areas where device manufacturers can benefit from the more well-established areas of the Marine industry such as shipbuilding that “could help them reduce the cost of installation and construction for new devices.”
• Cross sector know how – Tidal and other offshore renewable energy companies can learn a lot about the practical issues of areas such as subsea operations from other offshore sectors.
• Government funding heading Marine’s way – In 2012, it is expected that Marine companies and research establishments will benefit from more government funding to pay for Marine industry research. This will include the creation of a world leading centre for innovation, business and education in maritime engineering, engineering sciences and other relevant maritime disciplines.[1]

Allied industries are a good thing for recruitment and employment, offering individuals’ opportunity to have a career in a specific area whilst being assured of maintaining prospects for the future. It is promising to see that efforts are being made through initiatives such as MIGS to position the Marine industry as one which will attract top talent

I believe there is still more to be done outside of the existing Marine talent pool to safeguard the future of the industry by attracting young people through vocational routes such as modern apprenticeships.

With the right talent on board the opportunity to become a world leader in Marine Renewables is up for grabs.

In the next instalment of this blog, we’ll examine salaries and demographics within the industry and ask whether there are any trends which tell us more about employment prospects within the marine industry.

Let me know your own thoughts and observations on this subject by tweeting me @automationjobs or emailing me davehull@affinitysearch.co.uk

By Dave Hull

Bio:
Affinity Search Limited is a specialist recruitment company focusing on the Process Control, Automation, Energy and Marine industries servicing sales, engineering, managerial and executive positions throughout the UK & Europe. For further information visit us at http://www.affinitysearch.co.uk/ or email us at info@affinitysearch.co.uk

[1]Jeffries, E., (20th October 2011), ‘Combining shipbuilding and tidal stream know-how could create new business opportunities across key markets’, www. tidaltoday.com., [Accessed 2^nd November 2011.]

Most of us have found ourselves faced with the doom and gloom in the media about the state of the UK jobs market recently, but what does that mean for our industry? What does it mean for you?

Having recently read an article written by James Ward in the September issue of Boating Business relating to his findings on recruitment within the Marine industry, I felt inspired to look further into what these findings mean for those I work with in the industry, clients and candidates alike.

Before looking at the Marine industry, what about the UK jobs market as a whole

The unemployment rate stands at 8.1%, which is 2.57 million people currently looking for work in the United Kingdom. One could be forgiven for assuming that with an abundance of workers to choose from, employers are quickly able to find the right person to do the job.

Increasingly, employers are looking for applicants who can hit the ground running in a given job. Companies frequently require individuals who are already working within that specific role and therefore have an up to date knowledge of the employers’ products, working with the same client base.  This inevitably means that these individuals will be gainfully employed and we can therefore conclude that good candidates are just as hard to find as they always have been, if not more so.

Encouragingly, the Marine industry reports a consistent level of performance in its recovery from recession, according to the British Marine Federation’s latest trends survey. It is promising to see that the workforce numbers in the industry are in an upward trend for the first time in recent years, but the report also shows that 13% of respondents state that their company is currently having difficulties filling vacancies, an increase of 2% from the previous survey. This highlights that potentially better employment prospects exist if we solve common problems in the recruitment process.

What better time to do so, with the recent launch of the Marine Industries Growth Strategy (MIGS) which could see a £25bn Marine Industry by 2020? Mark Prisk, Business Minister and co-chair of the Marine Industries Leadership Council said, “Britain’s marine industries are one of our best prospects for high value, high skilled economic growth. That’s why we are launching the Marine Industries Growth Strategy to harness that potential and grow the industry by £8bn by 2020” [1]

In my next blog, we‘ll explore which roles present the major challenges to our industry along with what changes are afoot and thoughts on what can be done to safeguard the skills of the industry for the future.

In the meantime, I would welcome the opportunity to invite participation from readers of this blog by sending me your own comments on your viewpoint of recruitment and employment in our industry. You can do this by tweeting @automationjobs or emailing me, davehull@affinitysearch.co.uk. 

By Dave Hull

Bio:
Affinity Search Limited is a specialist recruitment company focusing on the process control, automation, energy and marine industries servicing sales, engineering, managerial and executive positions throughout the UK & Europe. For further information visit us at http://www.affinitysearch.co.uk or email us at info@affinitysearch.co.uk

With recent figures unveiled by the government suggesting 2.6 million people unemployed, and the picture looking bleak for some time to come, it’s good to know not all companies are standing still or worse – regressing.

Let’s be realistic though, success in recruitment is not easy, in fact it’s a challenge, but at Affinity Search it’s a challenge the team relish every day. You too could see your career take a new exciting challenging direction. With success comes fantastic financial and emotional rewards, the opportunity to take ownership of your career and control of your personal development.

Have you thought about changing your career?  Join us and become a Specialist Recruiter.

We are looking for:

• Recent graduates looking at an exciting and diverse sales career
• Experienced sales professionals looking to be rewarded well for their success
• Contingency recruitment professionals who want to specialise and develop a more proactive value driven headhunt method of recruiting
• Professionals looking to change career who have specialist knowledge of a particular industry

For more information go to http://www.affinitysearch.co.uk/work_for_us

Send your CV direct to iwanttowork@affinitysearch.co.uk

Post your CV with covering letter to Affinity Search Ltd, Suite 7, Hampton House, 23 Longbrook Street, Exeter EX4 6AD

Call Jon Salt (MD) on 01392 255700

Dave Hull is the newest member of the Affinity Search team. Having joined the company from a background of Project Management and Marine Surveying within the commercial marine industry, Dave looks forward to using his experience to assist clients within Marine Renewables to find specialised engineers.

While he’s not in the office, Dave enjoys running and spending time boating in South Devon amongst his other interests.

Dan North is the newest member of the Affinity Search team. Dan is a graduate of the University of Exeter and is looking forward to working for Affinity at such an exciting time for the company.

When he is not in the office, Dan is looking forward to continuing to explore Devon and finally mastering his saxophone.

Here at Affinity Search we are breaking the current trend of austerity cuts and are expanding. Have you thought about changing your career?  Join us and become a Specialist Recruiter. We are looking for:

• Recent graduates looking at a exciting and diverse sales career
• Experienced sales professionals looking to be rewarded well for their success
• Contingency recruitment professionals who want to specialise and develop a more proactive value driven headhunt method of recruiting
• Professionals looking to change career who have specialist knowledge of a particular industry

For more information go to http://www.affinitysearch.co.uk/work_for_us

Send your CV direct to iwanttowork@affinitysearch.co.uk

Post your CV with covering letter to the Affinity Search Ltd, Suite 7, Hampton House, 23 Longbrook Street, Exeter EX4 6AD

Call Jon Salt (MD) on 01392 255700

Bio.
Affinity Search Limited is a specialist recruitment company focusing on the process control, automation, and energy industries servicing sales, engineering, managerial and executive positions throughout the UK & Europe. For further information visit us at http://www.affinitysearch.co.uk/ or email us at info@affinitysearch.co.uk

Probably one of the most uncomfortable and sometimes daunting situations you might come
across during your working life is when you decide to leave you current employer in order to
pursue another opportunity elsewhere. There are many reasons for this, such as perceived
loyalty, fear of the unknown and fear of confrontation. It is important however to focus on the
reasons for you leaving this employment and to plan your exit.

Exit Strategy

Firstly confirm what your contracted notice period is (usually detailed in your contract of
employment), calculate any outstanding holiday entitlement you have and see if you are able
to offset one against the other to reduce the notice period.

Next compile a resignation letter addressed to the appropriate person stating your intentions.
Ensure the letter includes the date your notice starts and your anticipated end date. It is
important to construct the letter in a polite and professional way.

If you are in possession of company property, make sure it is ready to be returned. For
example ensure your company car is cleaned, remove personal information from computer
equipment and mobile phones and ensure documentation is up to date and presentable.
Once this is done, you are ready to resign.

Hand in your resignation letter as soon as you can. Be confident and assertive. You may wish
to try and negotiate an earlier release or offset some of your holiday entitlement against the
notice period. If asked why you are leaving, be positive and professional. You do not wish to
enter into confrontation, and remember your employer is likely to be asked for a reference.

Counter Offer Scenarios

Sometimes an employer will ask you to stay with the company when you hand in your
resignation. They may play on emotional sensibility suggesting lack of loyalty to the company
or colleagues or suggesting that leaving the company would be detrimental to everyone. This
is an unfair tactic and should be viewed with caution.

You may be offered some kind of incentive to stay such as a salary increase, more
responsibility or a promise of promotion, this is known as a Counter Offer.

Whilst at first glance this situation seems flattering and probably tempting, there are a few
things to take into consideration.

Consider first why you are being counter offered in the first place. Is it because you are
valued as an employee or are there underlying reasons? Generally it is cheaper and easier to
retain an existing employee rather than recruit a new replacement. Think of the recruitment
costs, potential salary expectations, changes in team dynamics and moral, and the cost in
time and money to put a new person through training etc. Is it because a change in personnel
could jeopardise a customer relationship or project?
Incentives offered as a counter to you leaving are going to be tempting, however these
incentives are unlikely to be so attractive in the longer-term. Consider what may happen when
you are looking for promotion or want to negotiate a further pay rise. How likely is it that you
enter these negotiations in a strong position? In reality, once you have accepted a counter
offer, the relationship you have with your peers and your employer is never the same. Your
employer is likely to view you with caution and question your loyalty from this point.

Research has shown that employees rarely leave their employment for short-term incentives
like small pay rises, so it is important to focus on the real reasons you have decided to leave
and try not to get seduced into short-term gain. Ultimately, if you do decide to accept a
counter offer remember there is a 70% chance that you will leave your employer or be asked
to leave within a year of initially resigning.

Purpose of a CV

The purpose of a CV is to provide a potential employer with a snapshot of your skills, experience and education, in order to assess you ability to perform a role within their organisation. Whilst a well-written CV will not normally secure you a job, it will almost certainly help towards securing an interview. Some interviewers will also use the CV as a script for the interview itself, asking questions relating to points of interest or reservation.

CV writing rules

Firstly there really are only a few hard and fast rules as far as a CV is concerned, and despite what some experts say, each interviewer is different and will have their own preferred style. The idea is to put across relevant information in a positive, concise and structured format that is easy to understand and compare against the requirements of the job function. Generally however, a CV must contain your name, contact details (home, mobile, email and home address), your previous employment in reverse chronological order, your education and personal details, (such as marital status and driving license etc). 

Content

Before starting your CV, it is advisable to plan how it will be structured in order to get all of the information across in an easy-to-understand, flowing document. Start with your name and contact details. Potential employers want to be able to see this information immediately. You then need to decide what is the most important information you wish to communicate in the next section. For example, if the job you are applying for is heavily focused on educational background, then this information is important and should be prominently positioned on the front page of the CV. If the focus of the role is weighted towards particular experience or skills, consider having this information in the most prominent position, perhaps in a bullet point format, or summary. Next, you need to detail your employment history. Ensure the dates of employment are accurate and your job title is clearly stated along with the name of your employer. Try to be concise about your job function, and make particular reference to any notable achievements and clarify how this benefited the organisation. For example, achievements could be related to how you made or saved the company money, or perhaps how you were able to implement a particularly good idea, which helped the company.
The secret here is to demonstrate to the employer your features (skills, attributes) and your benefits (how you use your features to the benefit of the employer/organisation). Towards the end of the document you can add any additional information such as personal details, additional non-work related information such as hobbies and of course referee details if you wish.

Language

Be sure to use language which is positive and engaging. The use of action verbs such as “achieved” and “developed” convey a positive image. Be sure to check the spelling and punctuation is correct and finally read the CV through carefully before sending it out, or better still get someone else to proof read it for you.

For further information and advice, why not call the Affinity team on 01392 255700 or visit us at http://www.affinitysearch.co.uk/

Bio.
Affinity Search Limited is a specialist recruitment company focusing on the process control, automation, and energy industries servicing sales, engineering, managerial and executive positions throughout the UK & Europe. For further information visit us at http://www.affinitysearch.co.uk/ or email us at info@affinitysearch.co.uk

With such close parallels to our traditionally recruited market sectors, (Process Control & Automation) we have recently launched a new division focusing on the Energy and Sustainability industries.  Areas of particular interest at the moment include the onshore/offshore wind, solar PV and energy management sectors.

Affinity operates a fully proactive recruitment methodology combined with an ongoing focus on developing our professional networks, insider knowledge and expertise in the energy industry. We aim to offer the same high level of service we are known for within the Process Control & Automation sector, to the rapidly growing Energy market.

Our belief is that, with fierce competition to attract talented Candidates in the Energy market, it is becoming increasingly important for companies to partner with professional specialist recruiters who have the skills and the tenacity to proactively seek out the best and brightest Candidates. Beyond this, Affinity believes consulting with our clients on the best approach in order secure those Candidates is as important and uniquely this is embedded as part of our Service.

If you would like to know more, please contact the team at Affinity.

Bio.
Affinity Search Limited is a specialist recruitment company focusing on the process control, automation, and energy industries servicing sales, engineering, managerial and executive positions throughout the UK & Europe. For further information visit us at http://www.affinitysearch.co.uk/ or email us at info@affinitysearch.co.uk

Obviously Affinity is new to this, so finding our feet may take a couple of postings, but bear with us as we get into our stride.

I’m sure over time we will be able to offer useful advice and interesting articles as well as news on what we at Affinity are up to.

As a job seeker you can expect information on upcoming jobs and industry news as well as expert advice on everything recruitment related.

Employers too can expect advice on how to find the best talent for their organisations (ala Affinity) as well as the latest ideas on employee retention & engagement.

…So watch this space and we’ll keep you posted.The Affinity Team.

Bio.
Affinity Search Limited is a specialist recruitment company focusing on the process control, automation, and energy industries servicing sales, engineering, managerial and executive positions throughout the UK & Europe. For further information visit us at http://www.affinitysearch.co.uk/ or email us at info@affinitysearch.co.uk