Matchsticks- Igniting Successful Futures

Been there, Done it !

I love to hear of other people's success stories and I love it even more when they ring me to tell me. Having a passion for people really helps when you are in the search and selection industry and I know it sounds obvious but I have had personal experience with recruiters who don't. The ultimate reward in my job is when a candidate loves their job and is really benefiting from the whole experience.  For those of you who know me then you will have heard me say " If I could do this job for free then I would". Unfortunately Natwest Bank thinks very differently to me but it is one of my dreams.

I remember getting my first thank you card from a candidate and what really made it even more perfect was that she sent it to my home address. I still have the card as it really does sum up for me what it is that I am really striving to achieve. I could tell you a few more stories that might bring a tear to even the toughest of eyes with regard to helping people get more from their working lives but I won't as this is not supposed to be about me. This blog is about you and how you, have helped us, get closer to achieving our goals.

Tom and I often describe our roles to that of Doctors as we get to know so much about each and everyone of you and take pride in the fact that we are allowed to have such personal information. Of course with the Data Protection Act it is very safe to do that but we still treasure it all the same. We don't want to spend the entire conversations with you talking shop but love to hear about your holidays, children, hobbies and sometimes just get your view on the world. We also give the same information back as after all it is a two way street and that way you get to know us a bit better. Some of our clients relationships are close to 15 years old ( i know what your thinking, she can't be that old!) which really makes me feel honoured and we continue to learn more about each other as the years go by. I know that I can't be all things to all people but my goal is that I learn something from every person I meet and so far it's been excellent.   

At Matchsticks we are constantly thinking of new ideas to demonstrate our appreciation to our client base and this is where you come in. I have tried a few things over the last five years and so far the most successful has been something where it doesn't involve us or work ( sounds perfect). Our referral scheme is our way of saying Thank you

If you feel that you have received a great service from us and would like to recommend a colleague to us, or you feel that your company could benefit from our unique service offering  then please give us a call today or even email us. When that referral becomes a placement or paying client then we will send you a case of wine or a self development hamper, the choice will be yours. So pick up the phone today and start building your cellar via Matchsticks.

Going back to success stories, I have come across something this week that is very fascinating and has been created by someone who truly has "Been there and Done it" . I was listening to Simon Woodroffe (Founder of YO Sushi) interview Richard Duvall ( Founder of Egg ) on my PC yesterday as I am going to see them both speak at a seminar in Bristol this week. Richard Duvall and his team have just launched a fascinating company www.zopa.com that takes a very different approach to lending and borrowing money. They have a great statement on the front page of the website that says" People are better than Banks" and then goes on to describe why. I think the concept is excellent and very inventive.

I will be covering the Great North Run this week as Lee completed his run( hooray) and will be updating me on the 13 mile marathon.

Have a great referral week- The Matchsticks Team         

                           

Get Fired with Enthusiasm

Moving to Bath has been one of the most courageous things we have ever done and so far we are loving every minute of it. We haven't just moved house but have moved our whole lives down here and that means our business as well. When we started to tell people about the intended move the responses varied from " are you mad" to " well done and good luck" and a few varieties beyond that but with more expletives on the end. Answering those comments initially made us think and on a few occasions tested our own understanding as to WHY we were doing it. It wasn't long before we came up with a joint reasoning and after a bit of practice it began to sound like an elevator pitch or mission statement. I know a lot of people still think we are a "BIT MAD" but can understand our motives behind it.

Risk versus reward, that's what it boils down to, in a nutshell ( have never tried to boil anything down to a nutshell but willing to try). My personal level of risk is probably a little higher than most, so far I am pleased with the outcome and I have learnt many lessons from the risks that didn't get the intended reward. I guess that's the point to all of this, the intended risk must also have an intended reward and that in my experience is where I have come unstuck. According to the "Guru's" the reward must be greater than the risk and not the other way round, however, the risk must feel greater than the reward initially. These guy's charge fortunes for those type of analogy's!! Quite simply put " no pain, no gain" or "What will my life look like if I don't do it" !!!!

Riskometer - I thought this was a word that I had just invented ( eat your heart out Peter Andre) But alas it was Dr Frank Duckworth of the Royal Statistical Society (who with Tony Lewis invented the cricket scoring system now in use in Britain) He knew that people found it extremely difficult to judge relative risks. So at the RSS annual conference he presented a scale, similar to the Richter scale for earthquakes, designed to make the risk of various activities more obvious. This has been described as a riskometer, a term which has been independently invented by several people down the years in other contexts. Level 0 in the scale is safety, at least to the extent of surviving for a year; you reach Level 8 by playing Russian Roulette with every chamber of the gun filled (a dead certainty, as you might say). What he didn’t allow for was the inability of people to understand the logarithmic scale involved (thus making Level 4, for example, seem too close to Level 6); nor did he expect vilification from so many women, who pointed out that most of his examples were male activities such as rock-climbing or deep-sea fishing (At the risk of seeming sexist, I must say that he did provide some estimates of household chores, such as dying while washing up or vacuuming—these have a risk factor of 5.5.) So That's why I don't like washing up but love mowing the lawn with our new "sit on mower"

I digress, So it leaves me to explain that my risk level is about 6 and for an example starting our business, Matchsticks 3 years ago, would sit comfortably at an 8 but the flip side of this should be the REWARDOMETER. That's got to be a new word ! So in essence "be enthusiastic and get fired" meaning "get fired up" but not at the expense of losing your job, though if you do because the reward is greater then, please, give me a call and an up to date resume and I will rise to the challenge.

My final note is to wish one of my favorite candidates very good luck as he is about to take a mammoth challenge on Sunday and do "The Great North Run" for charity and namely The Heart Foundation. So please join us in wishing Lee Stokes all the very best for Sunday and hope he makes the 13 miles without any pain, just gain. If you would like to sponsor Lee then please do so by clicking the link below.

http://www.bhf.org.uk/sponsorship/sponsorpage.aspx?User=leestokes&SponsorshipPageID=9133

Have a great weekend and please feel free to email me with any comments

The Team a Matchsticks