I was missing in action for the past few weeks on what was the first family holiday home to Ireland – even when it rained, it felt like heaven! Delighted to see the new blog is finding new bloggers every week now, keen to see how it will look at the end of the year. The HR Tech Europe team only had to call me once ;o), knowing I was under strict instructions from my wife to switch off everything to do with work …. laptop, phone and head! We have been in the midst of a recruitment campaign to fill our new office in Millennium Park, Budapest. Despite finding really talented people via every angle known to man,  Jerome Ternynck’s words from HR Tech Europe 2012 echoed in my ears – how do we take the pain out of recruitment?

Olympic fever seems to be everywhere now that the golf, tennis, football, horse racing etc is firmly tucked away. I must say, I really enjoyed being in London recently for the Economist Conference – the olympic buzz on the streets is clearly evident everywhere you go and I imagine the coming weeks will be bundles of fun for anyone fortunate enough to be in or around the games … as events go, it is the holy grail.

It did take time to get through the airport security, so wait for that in the news! I have a good history of working on major sporting events around the world and I think there were always security hiccups, really because they are understaffed or the experience needed was not hired. Late to the table on recent major news events focused on HR, Recruitment and the Olympics but how could I not mention G4S and ask some questions going forward like ….

Is the failure of G4S to recruit the required number of security guards for the London Olympics damaging to the recruitment industry itself?

The UK Culture, Media and Sport Secretary said: “We, of course, have been monitoring the situation with G4S,” he said, “and their management told us right up until last week that everything was on track and the moment that they didn’t we put in place a contingency plan.”

Nick Buckles, the CEO of G4S says he only learned “eight or nine days ago” that his company was struggling to fill the 10,000 vacancies it was contracted to fill for the Olympic Games. Is this fair enough, or the mark of a CEO somewhat out of touch with his own business? Speaking over the weekend Buckles said he was “very sorry” 3,500 troops had had to be drafted in at the last minute to make up the shortfall. He told Channel 4 he is worth his seven figure salary “99 per cent of the time.” Despite Buckles’ success for the rest of the time, however, his company now faces losses of up to US$50 million in relation to this one per cent failure.

Home Office ministers were warned about security issues surrounding the Games 10 months ago, however no investigations were made into G4S as a result.

Apparently (and perhaps more interesting for our HR and Recruit Tech Members), the reason G4S couldn’t recruit enough Olympic security staff is actually to do with a failure of its IT systems. Or, at least, so says an anonymous insider.

G4S at the 11th hour, admitted that it was unable to meet its commitments for security staffing at the London 2012 Olympic venues. As a result, the Army and the Police were drafted in.

Sunday’s article by Jane Merrick, Matt Chorley, Mark Leftly, and Brian Brady, which alleged the reason for the failure:

An insider said the root cause of the problem with G4S was its internal computer system, which had failed to calculate staff rostering.

Also to point out this piece of G4S PR, on its own recruitment computer systems are “highly innovative and effective”:

G4S’s approach…enable[s] candidates to search and apply for jobs and join G4S’s candidate community, which in turn provides access to forums, community groups, job seeker resources and a CV/resume builder. [It's] highly optimised for search engines and integrated with multiple ATS’s to provide consistent employer brand promotion and a seamless candidate experience. Artificial intelligence matching ensures job seekers are continually matched to the latest opportunities and are suggested to hiring managers as soon as a job is posted.

Marc Coleman is director of the Pan European HR Network. You can connect with Marc on twitter @HRNEurope or via LinkedIn. Our recent productions include: HR Tech Europe, Next Generation Talent, iHR Awards and Social Enterprise. To build  good-smart connections please visit the Pan European HR Network’s Groups on Linkedin (EMEA HR Directors, Pan European HR Network, Strategic Talent Management and HR Tech Europe). Do you have Facebook app on yoursmartphone? Simply like our Facebook page for key updates in our community!