You could almost hear the nation cringe. Baggs wasn’t short on self-confidence and arguably was short on common sense, but he also (believe it or not) had a point. A large part of my working life is spent engaging with clients and any number of other contacts over social media channels, and I’m by no means alone. Besides the fact that I’m a self-confessed geek, many of the businesses I work with have integrated social tools into their business models – especially in the creative sector.

Why? Because social media is more than just a passing fad; it’s a fundamental shift in the way in which we communicate with each other and the wider world. Ask Marc Zuckerberg – 600 Million Facebook users can’t be wrong. The ability to create content, whether in video, text, mp3 or any number of other formats, and distribute it to a worldwide audience through YouTube, Facebook, Wordpress, Hulu, Audioboo and other platforms means that for the first time there’s no real barrier to entry in getting what you have to say heard by millions. Building your own online brand has never been easier.

Take LinkedIn – described by many as “Facebook for Business”, the site allows you to build your own profile around your career, experience and expertise and lets you connect with other users to build a very powerful network of referrers, colleagues and even future employers; LinkedIn lets users advertise vacancies and is already full of recruiters looking for candidates. It is, in effect, your own personal website. If your profile is updated regularly, it’ll end up near the top of search engine results when users go looking for you. It’s worth spending time on. It’s far easier for a potential employer to look you up via Google than fall back on unreliable Chinese whispers from people who know you.

Then there’s YouTube –cameras are cheap and videos can be edited to a high standard and uploaded in minutes; more and more candidates are posting video CVs. Employers seem to like them – a survey for recruitment website Vault.com found that 58% of employers would watch a video CV.

As usual, the marketers are way ahead of the rest of us. In May last year, Brandrepublic reported on the story of Alec Brownstein – a copywriter who used Google’s Adwords pay-per-click advertising product to target creative directors in advertising agencies and find himself a new job. Investing 15c per click ensured that when agency power brokers googled their own names they got a message from Brownstein asking for a job. All but one of the agencies he targeted called back, and Young & Rubicam offered him a job. Brownstein played to the egos of Madison Avenue and won.

There are any number of attention-grabbing options open to the tech-savvy candidate, such as Facebook Ads, individual websites, Twitter feeds, video messages and so on. However, there’s also a flip side. If your current employer likes to keep tabs on you, who’s to say that they won’t come across your YouTube Video when a Google Alert can feed every link that mentions your name into their Inbox? Who knows if the “interesting” pictures on your Facebook page won’t factor into a decision on whether or not to employ you?

Broadcasting your intentions to the world at large isn’t always the best idea but at least some of the content which you put on line can never be held against you in a recruitment process and could lead to a discrimination claim or a breach of the Data Protection Act – Employers will normally need to tell you if they plan to use online vetting and the process has recently been made illegal in Germany.

Like anything else, common sense is the best filter on any online content and the best rule of thumb is not to do put anything online that you wouldn’t want revealed offline. There are risks, but the opportunities almost certainly outweigh them. With a little investment in time and perhaps a small amount of your own money, your CV could be doing far more than just clogging up a future employer’s E-Mail.

But who’s watching the watchmen? Social CVs can work extremely well for candidates, but employers may be distracted by a flashy presentation to the point that the wrong kind of person ends up in a tightly-knit team, affecting group dynamics and ultimately the business.

The only way to be absolutely sure of what you’re getting is to carry out real human due diligence on future employees, which is where Psycuity comes in. I’ve been tested by them and can tell you that the process works – their report on me was part of the raw material of several business plans and informs the way I work and look at any opportunity. It delivered real insight, and in a world where everyone can use technology as a sales tool, it can do the same for any business. Just because a candidate is “sociable” online doesn’t mean they will be in the office, and now more than ever employers will need to look more and more closely beyond a “personal brand” to the real person behind it.

Anyone who has been to Psycuity Tower’s will know that we have an office cat called Max. It’s been amazing to find just how many of our friends and customers have office pets including none other than Pets at Home who even have a “Bring your pet to work day!”.

Bard writes in the introduction “Anyone who has ever owned a cat has at one time or another been amazed at his pet’s natural abilities and wisdom.” He goes on to explain that to measure the overall intellectual development of your cat, there are four main areas of development that, when taken together, make up  your cats intelligence:

1. Co-ordination Skills – This includes the use of small and large muscles, how your cat moves and balances, his reflex actions, body sensitivity and control, and his preference for using one side of his body over another.

2. Communication Skills – This area of cat development deals with the pet’s ability to make himself understood or to get attention. cats are able to gain attention by using both their voice and their bodies. Communication skills measured here include voice level and intensity, and your cat’s ability to understand directions.

3. Reasoning Ability -This is perhaps the most difficult area to measure. It involves testing how your cat solves the various problems he encounters and how he adjusts to his surroundings. Your cat’s alertness, concentration and reactions to dangerous situations are also measured.

4. Social Behaviour -This includes a wide range of both personal and social skills that are developed and used by your cat. The way in which your cat gets along with you, other people and other animals is an important indication of your cat’s overall intelligence.

So the plan is to test Max in the next week or so and report back with results!

Specialists in traditional press and social media, Democracy PR needed an apprentice that had the ability to learn a completely new business almost instantly and could fit seamlessly into a small dynamic team.

Although Charlotte Morley had no practical experience working in a PR agency, our in depth psychometric tests immediately highlighted the qualities necessary to succeed in such a busy and creative environment. Her confidence in social situations, high levels of intuition, academic strength and immaculate attention to detail, were all visible through our tests.

Having also highlighted the areas where Charlotte may need encouragement and support, Democracy founder Jennifer O’Grady was able to focus in on her development needs, nurture her talent and develop her natural curiosity and creativity.

Reaching the shortlist of the CIPR award is a huge achievement that  puts you and your work in the spotlight – highlighting your success to your peers, your clients and your competitors.

 Well done Charlie, we saw your star quality from the start!

They discuss in The Psychologist that Mark Twain once defined golf as a ‘good walk spoiled’, yet for psychologists the Ryder Cup between the USA and Europe is worth watching because of the many different elements of psychology at play.

From the idea of home advantage through to the stress of competition, psychological factors play an obvious and important role. How might group processes affect team performance? When and how does stress impact on particular golfers? And what about the fans who will follow the tournament, especially supporters of either team  – what emotional and psychological experiences might be in store for them?

Performance under extreme pressure is as challenging in business as it is in sport and team players have to work on perfecting their own game whilst covering the gaps in their defence left by colleagues.

The first two games for England have shown the damage that performance anxiety can have on the end result.

At Psycuity, we understand the importance of the psychology of sport and its relevance to the world of business. Working with Sale Sharks and other sporting personalities, we know that unmanageable levels of anxiety can hinder natural talent and ability, making players become tense, rigid and prone to mistakes. (let’s not forget Robert Green.)

The key is self confidence. When you’re under pressure, people who have confidence in their abilities are more likely to have a positive reaction and thrive on the challenge. Worry and confidence are at opposite ends of the spectrum – when confidence is strong, it tends to crowd out worry.

It’s debatable if this is the best team that England has ever fielded, but a boost in confidence is exactly what the team needs.

Individually, players can try visualisation techniques (think Rooney, foot, goal, cheer), progressive muscle relaxation and cognitive restructuring.

Fans could try this – stop booing and demonstrate confidence in your team’s abiliIities to beat Slovenia. Cheer, stamp your feet, jump up and down and tell the lads that we know they can do it. The Kiwis have The Haka the South African’s have the Vuvuzella and we have three lions on our chest – so let them roar.

According to the report, just 59 of Fortune Global 100 firms have invested in recruiting staff specifically assigned to core social media and those in the role tend to be paid less than the equivalent positions in the traditional fields of PR, marketing and publishing.

 Financial services, petroleum and energy are flagged as being some of the slowest sectors to respond.

 Social media is here to stay, and although retail and telecoms have been quicker at bringing in inhouse expertise, we understand the resistance to take action.

Recruiting people into a role where the job description is continually evolving, evaluation is challenging and the experts are usually the youngest people in the room is enough to put anyone off and finding the right person who embodies your company culture and values is key.

 Finding the right person now will help you to build better relationships with your customer, attract new customers and help you to influence your own reputation – after all, no one knows the value of a proactive social media campaign better than Nestle.

The game, developed using some principles of psychometrics, could land you an interview at L’Oreal, but before you all go rushing off whispering ‘because I’m worth it’, the really interesting part for us is the pledge to feedback to each candidate on their performance (and suitability) for a potential career in one of five departments, ranging from finance to marketing.

The game is a bit too gimmicky and much too rigid to really understand the delicacies of placing the right candidate in their chosen career within a company culture where they will flourish. However, it’s a way of encouraging people to think outside or their predetermined career path and consider roles that perhaps they’ve never even heard of.

With looming cuts in the public sector about to reshape the employment market, Psycuity has been helping individuals at career crossroads and transferable skills to help find a new career path.

It was a brilliant event for owners of businesses to attend as TheBusinessDesk.com had secured Simon Showman, CEO of Ultimate Products as their main speaker. Simon gave a great account of his initial years working as an auctioneer, to creating his highly successful business Ultimate Products. He discussed his experiences of issues with products, funding streams, banks and the importance of quality control.

With specific regards to the area Psycuity works in, he passed on some advice he was given early on in his career that “A good CEO can lead a team, but a great CEO creates a team that can lead“. He went on to say that he “learnt the skill of investing in good strong people“. We agree enormously with this statement. Pick people who are naturally good at their jobs and who get on with those they work with. People should play to their strengths and we help them identify what those are.

Other speakers at the seminar were Montpellier’s CEO Robert Jackson and Pannone’s Head of Entrepreneurial Services Kay Kennedy. Robert shared with us his vital components for business planning – strategic, fiscal and business and went on to predict that VAT would rise to 20%, in line with the rest of Europe.

Kay gave a great account about how her business, and entrepreneurial firm itself, had made proactive cost cutting and group buying key to their business success, whilst maintaining the quality and USPs that made them successful in the first place. Kay and her team have worked with a lot of our clients and the feedback we’ve had from their entrepreneurial services offering is always first class.

You can see all the video content of the seminar here.

Ian Hudson with Phoenix Players

On Sunday 4th April we were lucky enough to sponsor the EPL match between the Manchester Phoenix and Peterborough Phantoms.