How important is your digital profile to your treasury career?

Right, first of all, hello, everyone, my name is Mike Richards. Thank you for the very kind introduction there. I've known Francois for many years and actually, I know I don't look old enough, but we used to work together, Jean Marc and I, at Robert Walters, where I first started the Treasury Division many years ago. Been in treasury recruitment now 22 years and that's all I've done. Specialist treasury recruitment, treasury analyst, a group treasurer, on an international scale. So recruit right the way across from the us, through Europe, right the way across to Asia Pacific, if anyone wants to go to Taiwan at the moment, I've got a lovely job out there for you. Now, just to give you a quick outline, it's quite unusual that you've got a recruiter standing up here to talk about how to retain and develop your treasury teams. And also I'll cover a bit, as we said there, about having an effective digital profile and what it means to your career, because both those might seem separate subjects, but they're actually interlinked. Very much so. But again, if I was sitting there wondering, why is a Treasury recruiter going to tell me about keeping my team? Surely it's in my interest to move them on? I don't mind if you move them on. My kids do need shoes, so please feel free. But I spoke at the International Treasurers Conference last year in Munich and I shocked the audience and hope to do a bit today when I said to them, if you're using us or coming to us, you're actually in the wrong place. What you should be doing is trying to look after the staff you've currently got. If someone does resign, yes, you can call us, but if it's got to that stage, we should be used as a necessity, not the go to resource. What I'm going to explain is our treasury talent matrix. These are some of the steps you want to take if you want to develop your current team, if you want to break down and qualify the needs of your team, assess the effectiveness of your positioning in the market, which we'll come on to, how you prepare yourself for any future changes that might happen within the team and determine your outgoing proposition, if you like. First step, as we got here, is profiling. How can you get what you want if you don't know what you need? If what you've already got within your team, what's lacking currently, identifying the missing skills. What actually does good look like to you as a treasurer? As a Treasury manager, define what you need. First of all, this is before you even get to any recruitment Stage, what's your sell? This is about how you promote yourself, your team and your offer to your market. But your market doesn't just have to be external. We were just talking there, Francois, mentioning about motivating the guys internally. It's your point of difference internally as well. Does everybody know what treasury does within your company? Do you go out and spread the word? It's the reason someone would join you or stay with you. If you want to attract someone internally, they want to know what treasury is, things that might occur, such as team culture, supportive environment, clear goal setting, great leadership, hope. There's a few here today that's all going to make you stand out from the competition. And this is also very much closely linked to your digital profile, which we'll talk about shortly. Next stage planning. So you've got your dream team in place. It's all brilliant, big. But tomorrow morning, you walk in, someone's going on maternity leave, someone's leaving, they've got a promotion internally, someone hasn't perhaps worked out as you wanted. What are you going to do? You can hope for the best, but plan for the worst. I'm sure many of you here spend a lot of your time planning for the dangers your company may face, but do you do the same for your teams? Do you actually look around and say, well, what if Bill leaves? What if that lady goes on maternity leave? What's going to happen? Take a moment to actually think about that as well. Prospecting. This is a time when you're, what's your go to market strategy that might actually be that you're looking at, not just external? What about your internal options? Now, one of the ways that I describe this, one of my treasurers recently, he always struggles to get treasury accountants. It's the bane of his life. So what he's actually done is taken action and actually he goes out and they run a workshop, it's about once every or three times a year now, where he approaches the strongest accountants within the company and he gives them training on Treasury. They get to know treasury, it also helps them understanding what they're doing. But he's manufacturing his own treasury accountants for the future. And actually what happens is when they actually have a vacancy, they're able to say, oh, actually, you know, selfishly enough for him, as he said, it also gives him the best accountants because he can get to know them. And he says, I want you. And then when other people apply, he's able to politely say, well, I think we need to keep coaching you. So if you do need to look externally, what resources do you have? Is there internal HR you can use? Are there a recruitment team? If you need an external agency, you can call myself, you can call Jean Marc, we'll give you advice. But you want to keep building that treasury team. Now, we talked there or mentioned about LinkedIn. Now, a strong digital profile is a key element when attracting staff, but also you want it for yourselves. And any effective digital profile of yourselves is your virtual handshake for when you're going to go meet banking partners or someone else. So there's the four stages and you will send out all these slides later on as well to people. So how important is it having a powerful headline on your LinkedIn profile? Now, what I want to do. First of all, let's explain what I don't want to see. Are you a passionate, Calm down, people, Creative treasury specialist? Could everyone put their hands up if they're treasury specialists in the room? Show of hands, please. Any treasury specialists here? There you go. Whose focus on a strategic outlook with an uncanny eye for detail. Just to give you an idea, these are the top five most overused words on LinkedIn. Give a practical example. I was going up to the ACT Conference UK conference the other day, sat next to a lovely guy, said, oh, you're Mike. Can I look at. You know, we went through LinkedIn profile and things and bless him, I had the slides for today's presentation. He got his out and we put it. And I said, and we drew lines across. He went, yeah, there are three or four words you're going to get. And literally, he said he was a creative treasury specialist who looked at strategic matters. Basically, these are all candy floss for the eyes. Sweet for a moment, but instantly forgotten. What I'd rather see individuality through a better, more powerful headline. Maybe it's keynote speaker, maybe it's group treasurer. Working capital optimization is your forte. Make it interesting. What you want to do is make sure that any of these are going to attract someone to join your network and actually you're going to be part of that network and it's going to help you develop your career, your network and everything else. Your summary. I don't want your summary to say, I manage cash, liquidity and fx. That's what every treasury professional, I hope, does very well in this room. And if you don't. Yeah, don't send us your cv. What I want to hear instead is your so what moment? Why are you different to the person sitting next to you? What makes you stand out? Your top three achievements. These might be you've de risked your balance sheet, FX exposures in 20 countries. Save your company going bust twice. You implemented the latest TMS, say, 50 hours a week, pay for yourself three times over. Put that in there. Tell your story now. Make sure it is just your top two or three. You don't need to write War and Peace. We've already read that. It was a long book. Make it a nice interesting beginning, start and end. So one of our favourite bits, have a photo. Now, I'm not going to make people put their hands up if they've got photos, but if you don't, please put one on there, but make it appropriate. You're 21 times more likely, they estimate now, to make a connection, if you actually have a photo. So I was speaking at the Belgian Treasurers Conference and there was lovely Patrick, who's really good friend, lovely guy, and he said, mike, I don't have one. I'm not very photogenic. Look, I'm not being funny, but look at this. And I said, right, Patrick, when was the last time you walked into a bank meeting, went, hi, I'm Patrick, how are you? I'd like you to help us. It's your virtual handshake. You don't turn your back to those people in the room. You want them to get to know you. Also, events like this, if you see their person, oh, I'm connected on LinkedIn or I know you. It really works. Now, what kind of photo? These photos you're going to see now have been licensed for public consumption, but they're all remade photos. These come from real profiles, but you might spot the model in it a moment. But there was a reason, because a lot of these people, we couldn't then just put them up, name them or shame them if it ever came up on things. So you're not a bunch of flowers. We've all seen that. It's really annoying. It's like, unless you're a florist, don't have it up on there. Yeah, Mr. Mean and I have got the links to these people. A lot of them still haven't changed their photos. We just remade it. We looked at it and it was, oh, yes, buy high, sell low. No, the wrong way. Yeah, love that selfie. That is just dreadful. It's. It's out of focus and it's even got me in. It can't be. Can't be that good. Squashed head. Actually, it's come out quite well there. What this does usually, yeah, is like on different devices, once you put it up there, check it on your phone. 70% of people, right. I think it's 80% now, is accessed through your mobile device. When it goes up there, if you do it and you suddenly like you're this really squeezed person or flipped round, you need to change your photo pretty sharpish. Yes, you will connect with me. Yeah, cute kid, but it's not Facebook. That's where that should be. You know, this is your virtual handshake, not his. He doesn't need a job yet. He's generation. What is it? Generation Y. Whatever. Yeah. Zed. Yeah. All yours are very weird. This is a remade one as well. Just wrong on so many levels. And I have got the original links. There is actually a photo missing here. We can't actually publish it. And the reason being, I did make it was the funniest one we had a while ago. And it's a guy and we remade in the office and he's turning around with. He's kissing this little toy and it's like, it's really funny and he's obviously done it at some staff party or everything else. Unfortunately, we could never publish it because he's one of my clients. He's a head of Treasury. I will share which company it is, but only over a beer or two. When I say appropriate, friendly, smiley, approachable professional. Not down the pub, not having a laugh. Beer photo. Please stop those right. Recommendations. I always get asked, but people do, people trust recommendations, Mike. So we'll do a quick show of hands and I will get you to do show of hands. You may have heard of the very little known website called Amazon. Could you put your hands up if you ever bought anything from Amazon? Right, great. Keep them up, Keep them up. Could you check or could I check with you? Have you ever looked at the recommendations? The star ratings on there. Keep them up if you have. Brilliant. Could I ask you to keep your hands up if you know that person? So you've believed a total stranger to buy your new camera? Well, the reason being 92% of us want to trust our peers and it's a great platform, you know, as long as you check through and it really helps. But who should you ask for recommendations? Well, we come back, so who should you ask? People have said, well, do I ask the guy sitting next to me? No, don't ask the guy sitting next to you because they're bound to give you a decent. Well, hopefully they give you a decent recommendation. Otherwise you're not buying them lunch tomorrow. Ask a previous boss or ask someone that's worked for you. Why? Because they can give insight to what you're like either as a manager coach, as a peer or as a manager yourself. And that's going to add value. Connect wisely. People have said to me, and in fact we were just talking about it earlier, we saw someone, there was lots of connection requests for someone, they said, oh God, I can't bother, bothered, don't worry, I only connect someone if I feel I can help them. Now, it might be that if they are in the country that we don't cover, then we don't, don't worry, they don't get the bitter taste of rejection and say, no, he didn't connect with you. But what I would say is, if anyone wants to refuse my connection request after today, I have got the delegate list and I know where you will work now and I will hunt you down and make you connect. I won't, don't worry. I'm not allowed to France for I had to go. Right, chat over here. Coffee, strict beer, Sam, talk there or first of all, mention about LinkedIn. Now, a strong digital profile is what makes you stand out. Your top three achievements, these might be you've de risked your balance sheet, FX exposures in 20 countries, save your company going bust twice. You implemented the latest TMS, say 50 hours a week, pay for yourself three times over. Put that in there, tell your story now, make sure it is just your top two or three. You don't need to write War and Peace. We've already a key element when attracting staff, but also you want it for yourselves. And any effective digital profile of yourselves is your virtual handshake for when you're going to go and meet banking partners or someone else. So there's the four stages and you will reread that. It was a long book, make it a nice interesting beginning, start and end. So one of our favourite bits, have a photo. Now, I'm not going to make people put their hands up if they've got photos, but if you don't, please put one on there but make it appropriate. You're 21 times more likely, they estimate now to make a connection if you actually have a photo. So I was speaking at the Belgian Treasurers Conference and there was lovely Patrick, who's really good friend, Lovely send out all these slides later on as well to people. So how important is it having a powerful headline on your LinkedIn profile? Now, what I want to do, first of all, let's explain what I don't want to see. Are you a passionate guy? And he said, mike, I don't have one. I'm not very photogenic. Look, I'm not being funny, but look at this? And I said, right, Patrick, when was the last time you walked into a bank meeting, went, hi, I'm Patrick, how are you? I'd like you to help us? It's your virtual handshake. You don't turn your back to those people in the room. You want it to them to get to know you. Also, events like this, if you see their person, oh, I'm connected on LinkedIn, or I know you. It really works. Now, calm down, people. Creative treasury specialist. Could everyone put their hands up if they're treasury specialists in the room? Show of hands, please. Any treasury specialists here? There you go. Who's focused on a strategic outlook with an uncanny eye for detail. Just to give you an idea now, what kind of photo. These photos you're going to see now have been licensed for public consumption, but they're all remade photos. These come from real profiles, but you might spot the model in it a moment. But there was a reason, because a lot of these people, we couldn't then just put them up, name them or shame them if it ever came up on things. So you're not a bunch of flowers. We've all seen that. It's really annoying. It's like, these are the top five most overused words on LinkedIn. Give a practical example. I was up, going up to the ACT Conference UK conference the other day, sat next to a lovely guy, said, oh, you're Mike. Can I look at you? You know, we went through LinkedIn profile and things and bless him, I had the slides for today's presentation and he got his. Unless you're a florist, don't have it up on there. Yeah, Mr. Mean. And I have got the links to these people. A lot of them still haven't changed their photos. We just remade it. We looked at it and it was. Oh, yes, bye. High. So low. No, the wrong way. Yeah. Love that selfie. That is just dreadful. It's. It's out of focus and it's even got me in. It can't be be. That's out. And we put it. And I said. And we drew lines across. He went, yeah, there are three or four words you're going to get. And literally he said he was a Creative treasury specialist who looked at strategic matters. Basically, these are all candy floss for the eyes. Sweet for a moment. Squashed head. Actually, it's come out quite well there, what this does usually. Yeah, it's like on different devices, once you Put it up there, Check it on your phone. 70% of people, right? I think it's 80% now. Is accessed through your mobile device. When it goes up there, if you do it and you suddenly like you're this really squeezed person or flipped round, you need to change your photo pretty sharpish. Yes, you will connect with me. Yeah, cute kid, but it's not Facebook. That's where that should be. You know, this is your virtual handshake, but instantly forgotten. What I'd rather see is individuality through a better, more powerful headline. Maybe it's keynote speaker, maybe it's group treasurer. Working capital optimization is your forte. Make it interesting, not his. He doesn't need a job yet. His generation, what is it? Generation Y. Whatever. Yeah. Zed. Yeah. Audios are very weird. This is a remade one as well. Just wrong on so many levels. And I have got the original links. There is actually a photo missing here. We can't actually publish it and the reason being I did make it. It was the funniest one we had a while ago and it's a guy and we remade in the office and he's turning round, he's kissing this little toy thing. What you want to do is make sure that any of these are going to attract someone to join your network and actually you're going to be part of that network and it's going to help you develop your career, your network and everything else. Your summary. I don't want your. It's really funny and he's obviously done it at some staff party or everything else. Unfortunately, we could never publish it because he's one of my clients, he's a head of Treasury. I will share which company is. But only over a beer or two. When I say appropriate, friendly, smiley, approachable professional. Not down the pub, not having a laugh. Beer photo. Please stop those summary to say I manage cash, liquidity and fx. That's what every treasury professional I hope does very well in this room. And if you don't. Yeah, don't send us your cv. What I want to hear instead is your so what moment. Why are you different to the person sitting next to you? Right. Recommendations. I always get asked, but do people trust recommendations, Mike? So we'll do a quick show of hands and I will get you to do a show of hands. You may have heard of this very little known website called Amazon. Could you put your hands up if you ever bought anything from Amazon? Right, great. Keep them up, keep them up. Could you check or could I check with you? Have you ever looked at the recommendations, the star ratings on there, keep them up if you have brilliant. What makes you stand out? Your top three achievements these might be you've de risked your balance sheet, FX exposures in 20 countries, save your company going bust twice. You implemented the latest TMS, say 50 hours a week, pay for yourself three times over. Put that in there, tell your story. Could I ask you to keep your hands up if you know that person? So you've believed a total stranger to buy your new camera? Well, the reason being 92% of us want to trust our peers and it's a great platform, you know, as long as you now make sure it is just your top two or three, you don't need to write War and Peace. We've already read that, it was a long book. Make it a nice interesting beginning, start and end. So one of our favourite bits, have a photo. Now I'm not going to make people put their check through and it really helps but who should you ask for recommendations? Well, we'll come back. So who should you ask? People have said, well do I ask the guy sitting next to me? No, don't ask the guy sitting next to you because they're bound to give you a decent. Well, hopefully they'll give you a decent recommendation, otherwise you're not buying them lunch tomorrow. Ask a previous boss or are someone that's worked for you. Why? Because they can give insight to what you're like either as a manager coach or as a peer or as a manager yourself and that's going to add value. Connect wisely. People have said to me, hands up if they've got photos, but if you don't, please put one on there but make it appropriate. You're 21 times more likely, they estimate now to make a connection if you actually have a photo. So I was speaking at the Belgian Treasurers Conference and there was lovely Patrick, who's really good friend, lovely. And in fact we were just talking about it earlier. We saw someone, there was lots of connection requests for someone. They said, oh God, I can't bother bothered, don't worry, I only connect someone if I feel I can help them. Now it might be that if they are in a country that we don't cover, then we don't, don't worry, they don't get the bitter taste of rejection and say no, he didn't connect with you. But what I would say is if anyone wants to refuse my connection request after today, I have got the delegate list and I know where you all work now, guy and he said, mike, I don't have one. I'm not very photogenic. Look, I'm not being funny, but look at this. And I said, right, Patrick, when was the last time you walked into a bank meeting? Went, hi, I'm Patrick. How are you? I'd like you to help us. It's your virtual handshake. You don't turn your back to those people in the room. You want it to, and I will hunt you down and make you connect. I won't. Don't worry. I'm not allowed to. Francois to go. Right. Chat over your coffee. Strict. Beer them to get to know you. Also, events like this, if you see their person. Oh, I'm connected on LinkedIn or I know you. It really works. Now, what kind of photo? These photos you're going to see now have been licensed for public consumption. But they're all.