The right staff

When it comes to finding new staff, a publisher has a number of recruitment opportunities to choose from. Options include local and national press advertising, recruitment agencies, head-hunters, search and selection companies, graduate fairs, job centres, Internet sites and staff recommendations.

Not the least of these are word of mouth and networking, which remain the preferred methods for the more senior posts. "Filling positions by word of mouth is less about who you know and the 'old boys' network' and more about the fact that it's a small industry," says Cathy Wells, human resources (HR) manager of Penguin. "You know who's out there and can usually approach them directly."

Victoria Barnsley, c.e.o. of HarperCollins, says she likes to spot and develop talent, both from within the industry and outside it. "I appreciate that people from other media backgrounds can bring relevant skills and experience as well as fresh ideas." Networking continues to be important, as Stephanie Townsend, director of Judy Farquharson Ltd (JFL), says: "Apart from our Website and advertising, it's word of mouth and reputation. We've been recruiting for more than 30 years, and I've been in publishing myself for many years, so the old girls' network can help."

Speculative applications provide a good source for employers looking for people for entry-level or junior posts, the main volume of recruitment activity for most publishers. And publishers do not discount work placement students either. "We sometimes offer positions to students who have carried out successful work experience placements with us," says Jen LaPointe, HR manager at HarperCollins. She adds that applications for internal promotion are encouraged too. "We are keen to move staff upwards, or sideways, wherever possible, so we will also advertise on internal noticeboards where relevant."

Nevertheless, junior and senior positions are often filled through a combination of advertising, the Internet and recruitment agencies. "The method that we choose to recruit depends more on the type of job than the level of the job," says Rachel Stock, head of HR for publishing at Random House.

For most publishers, The Bookseller and the Guardian are preferred advertising channels for the majority of jobs, be they at junior or senior level. "These publications are generally respected and well-known places to look for publishing jobs, and they tend to elicit a large, quality response," HarperCollins' Jen LaPointe says. More specialist jobs are advertised in The Bookseller, while the Guardian is used to reach a wider audience. But Jo Wilcox, publishing recruitment specialist at agency Inspired Selection, finds that, "With a general ad the Guardian doesn't tend to get as relevant a response as The Bookseller."

Publishers and agencies will also advertise in whatever magazine or newspaper is most suited to fill a particular post, from specialist publications such as EL Gazette, PR Week, Marketing Week, the Grocer and Computer Weekly, to local newspapers. HarperCollins, for example, has recently advertised for contracts assistants in the Legal Executive. "In any situation, we would always aim to use the vehicle most likely to reach the candidates we are targeting," Jen LaPointe says.

Many publishers choose to recruit through their own Websites, and the Internet is seen as a useful new option. "If a person wants to work for a particular publisher they'll go to its site," says Cathy Wells of Penguin (www.penguin.co.uk). "We have everything on there, from company information to details of benefits packages. It's where we like people to look." At present, Penguin does not use other Internet job sites, though Ms Wells "would not rule them out" as an option in the future.

Similarly, Rachel Stock says that the Random House (www.randomhouse.co.uk) and Transworld (www.booksattransworld.co.uk) Internet sites are often the company's most effective advertising medium. "Many people looking for their first or next job in publishing will use our Website," she says. "The general recruitment sites, such as totaljobs.com, are more suitable for non-publishing specific jobs that we may be looking to fill with someone who does not have a publishing background." TheBookseller.com is also a "good site", she adds, "although the jobs seem to stay on there for a long time". Others have started looking at the Publishing News site (www.publishingnews.co.uk).

Some publishers, however, are more doubtful about the usefulness of the Internet in this respect. Jen LaPointe says HarperCollins does not recruit using Websites as a rule, though many vacancies will automatically be placed on the Internet as part of the package when advertising in the press.

Pearson Education has used quite a range of other job sites, and is about to add its vacancies to its own site (www.pearson.com), although it has been posting them on the company's intranet. "We have advertised positions on totaljobs.com, monster.co.uk and reed.co.uk with some limited success," says Barbara Maurer, HR manager for Pearson Education. "But we would not at this point rely on that medium alone."

James Richardson, group personnel director at Macmillan Publishers, says: "Our experience is that Internet job sites are only effective with certain specialist jobs. For us, this means particularly IT jobs, editorial jobs on Nature, the specialist science journal, and applications for our graduate recruitment scheme."

It is the recruitment agencies that are the most evangelical about the Web. "There's no doubt that the Internet is the new recruitment channel," claims Stephanie Townsend of JFL. Jo Wilcox says that it is Inspired Selection's main tool. "We post all our vacancies on our site [www.inspiredselection.co.uk] and encourage our candidates to register with the Vacancy Update Service, where they can receive notification of new vacancies in their field as soon as they arise. There are people registered with the service who we have yet to meet; they are keeping an eye open for their next move and will contact us as soon as they see something of interest."

Using agency help

When it comes to using agencies, publishers are selective. Cathy Wells says she uses agencies for Penguin "when she has to" but that it represents a "significant cost". Similarly, Jen LaPointe says that agencies are rarely HarperCollins' first resort, "because of the often significant costs involved". But Stephanie Townsend of JFL argues that publishing recruitment agencies are far cheaper than other industries. "Our rates are competitive, and when one considers that non-publishing recruitment fees can go up to 24% of starting salary, publishers should count themselves lucky," she says.

Jo Wilcox says that, like other publishing recruitment agencies, Inspired Selection's fees are only payable if they successfully place a candidate. "We do not charge anything if we are not successful and we have a generous rebate scheme if a placement doesn't work out. Compare this to advertising—a company can spend a fortune on an ad and get no response, or get the wrong person who leaves after a week."

Most publishers agree that agencies do speed up the recruitment process and help target specialist candidates. All the main agencies including JFL, Inspired Selection, Meridian and Astron deal with most UK publishers, whether large, medium or small. "We find that using agencies is most valuable if a strong relationship and understanding is developed between the two parties," observes HarperCollins' Jen LaPointe.

Rachel Stock of Random House adds: "We use agencies when it looks as if we will attract a good core of high-calibre applicants for a particular type of job, mostly administration or secretarial roles. In these cases, agencies will know what type of person and skills we are looking for and can help reduce the amount of time spent shortlisting applications."

Enticing graduates

Graduates are another obvious source of the right staff. This is especially true of graduates from dedicated publishing courses such as those run at the London College of Printing. "We have links with, and visit, the colleges that offer publishing courses, because they have graduates who have already decided they want to pursue a career in publishing," says Rachel Stock of Random House.

"A qualification from a specialist publishing course shows that the students are committed and have a grounding in how it all works," adds Cathy Wells of Penguin. Other specialist courses are useful too, says Jen LaPointe of HarperCollins: "If specialist skills are required for a role, we might target specific universities and colleges—such as for design or production."

Publishing companies attend university career fairs when they can. Penguin, for example, works with sister and parent companies the Financial Times and Pearson to recruit at the university "milk round" for their graduate schemes. "Recruitment here is usually about us trying to find business-focused graduates," Cathy Wells says. "It's here that we find our commercially biased students who want to spend three months each in finance, sales and distribution, rather than those who want to take the traditional editorial route."

HarperCollins is looking to strengthen its links with universities in the coming year. "We want to ensure that we are able to attract the best and brightest graduates," Jen LaPointe says.

By contrast, agencies do not usually undertake the milk round. "We find that graduates from other disciplines tend to know that they are interested in considering a career in publishing and therefore approach us," says Jo Wilcox of Inspired Selection. The agencies do, however, keep "an eye open" for science graduates, as they do a lot of work for STM and specialist academic publishers.

Otherwise, no single subject area is more favoured than another when it comes to filling general posts, because the bigger publishers cover such a vast array of subjects, as Jen LaPointe of HarperCollins points out. "Arts subjects such as English literature, languages and history often seem to produce graduates who are keen on entering the publishing world. But sometimes publishers need quite the opposite, such as an editorial assistant to work within maths and science in secondary education, which would ideally bring a maths or science degree." In addition, for the more general jobs, "personality, skills and experiences" take precedence over subject knowledge, says Rachel Stock of Random House.

Despite the plethora of recruiting opportunities, finding appropriate job candidates can be a headache. Even though all publishers agree that there are still plenty of "bright young things" banging on their doors, filling posts for more specialist or experienced posts can be a challenge. "There are some positions that may prove harder to fill than others," says Rachel Stock of Random House. "In these cases we may have to consider why and rethink our recruitment plan or the job."

Barbara Maurer says that Pearson Education sometimes experiences problems filling "more senior positions, such as senior development editors, acquisitions editors, and editors in chief", as well as having occasional difficulty sourcing candidates for particular roles such as maths editors. "It can be more difficult finding quality candidates for more specialist areas such as cartography," agrees Jen LaPointe of HarperCollins.

Why this difficulty in finding the right people at second jobber to mid-management level? Apart from the fact that it is always harder to find specialists in any field, Jo Wilcox of Inspired Selection says that people have begun drifting out of the industry. "It has become more difficult for companies to recruit experienced staff, because a lot of people have left publishing to go into related media jobs or dotcoms—although the dotcom candidates have started to drift back."

Better off elsewhere

Better pay elsewhere is a significant factor, she says. Also, because the publishing industry has become more dynamic, it has become crucial to get the right experienced and commercially minded staff; meanwhile, the field publishers have to recruit from is narrowing as companies merge and acquire other companies.

As James Richardson of Macmillan says, "My perception is that many of the people who used to be focused on working in publishing are now considering a wider range of career options. We have fewer to choose from than we used to. But there are still many talented people who want to work in the industry." Rachel Stock of Random House agrees: "While we do not have a problem attracting candidates, we do have to compete with other industries to ensure that publishing remains a career choice for talented people."

When it comes to salary and benefits packages, publishing steers away from exciting enticements—compare this to the world of fast moving consumer goods, where one company recently offered new graduate employees a brand new Mini each. Instead, publishers try to compete on salary and more traditional perks, such as contributory pension, subsidised private medical insurance, season ticket loans and discounts on books, as well as training and career progression. Some offer bonus schemes (Penguin), subsidised restaurants (HarperCollins) and free PCs (Random House), not forgetting "a pleasant working environment, a range of possible development opportunities and a supportive culture" (Pearson Education).

"Publishers, mainly the small and medium sized, are getting better at offering the right things," adds JFL's Stephanie Townsend. Which is just as well, because as Jo Wilcox of Inspired Selection points out, "fewer people are prepared to work in publishing just for the love of it".



Caroline Sylge is a freelance journalist.