Recruitment – a chore?

Recruitment for many is a necessary chore, but it doesn’t have to be. Recruitment is needed for growth and to combat attrition however, it is often a process that is executed poorly internally and, indeed, by some agencies. Recruitment is a core management skill that is often not taught well, or at all. Do you remember your first time as an interviewer? It was probably as terrifying for you as it was for the interviewee!

It’s time consuming; imagine you are recruiting an Accounts Assistance position on Seek; you could expect up to 280 applications - a review of these applications would take about 70 hours, allowing 15mins per CV and notification to the unsuccessful. You get to a shortlist of 10 candidates; you ring them to arrange an interview and discover 5 have already found an alternative role as you took 3 weeks to review all the applications! You offer the other 5 candidates a face-to-face interview, not realising that 3 of them have been unimpressed by your candidate management to date and now the role sounds a little dull. 10 hours later you have interviewed the 5 candidates; you ring to offer your preferred candidate only to discover she has already accepted another role paying $10k more than you were able to offer. Surely there must be an easier way? Well there is Employee Matters …

We will write and place your ads to attract the best candidates and deter the unsuitable ones with the use of a screening questionnaire. We will respond to every candidate, acknowledging their application and protecting your brand. We will review the applications and questionnaires and formally advise the unsuccessful candidates. We will phone-screen the initial cull to assess skills, motivation and salary expectations to avoid you wasting your time at interview. Following this, we will provide you with the top candidates for interview. We can even complete your ‘right to work’, reference and background checks. We have years of recruitment experience and charge an hourly rate depending on your preference.  Let us work as your trusted internal recruiter, with no vested interest in getting a placement fee of 15% or more of the total compensation.

It should be expected that for most Managers the average time to recruit would be up to 50 hours, if done well.  With our skill sets and recruitment systems it would take an average of 25-35 hours for us and 4 hours of your time to interview the preferred candidates. Let us take away your pain, provide you with better screened candidate and help you hire the right people to build your business.

Tell me your thoughts, we would love to hear what you think?

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

Stressed out employees?

If you plan on hiring employees and you wish to retain them (and let’s face it, the cost of replacement in the current market is far too high not to), then you should consider an Employee Assistance Program (EAP).  During most people’s career, chances are they will experience some of life’s ‘bumps in the road’ along the way. These ‘bumps’ could be a death in the family, divorce, health problems or mental illness which incidentally, affects 25% of the population at some point in their life. A program such as this will also assist if the individual is struggling with an aspect of their work, say, a conflict with a team member or boss. Stress is a major issue for employees in our fast-paced society and using an EAP could be the difference between them choosing not to resign or take extensive stress leave.

80% of the top 500 organisations currently offer EAPs to support their employees in their time of need. Here are the top five reasons to implement an EAP service:

1.    Increase productivity – happy employees are more productive employees with a direct impact to your bottom line

2.   Reduced personal leave taken and reduction in attrition – employees receiving counselling are less likely to take excessive personal leave or resign, as they are being given tools to deal with their personal situation

3.   Duty of Care - as an employer you have a ‘duty of care’ to look after your employees and this should include their mental health as well as their physical health

4.   Right skills right time – most employers are not counsellors nor should they attempt to be. A trained counsellor or psychologist can provide the professional support required.

5.   Employer of Choice – most candidates would see this as a tangible benefit to their package - plus the view is that their employer cares

So how does the program work? The key to the success of the service is complete confidentiality. You will never know which employee uses the service. If you have sufficient numbers (10 or more individuals) you will receive an annual report that will advise the type of issues involved and some demographics confirming the benefit of the offering to your team. A counsellor will be assigned and, depending on the provider, they will either meet with the employee via phone or face-to-face. In the majority of cases, most individuals will usually only require a couple of sessions with a counsellor to have the desired effect. 

There are a number of providers around but I would recommend that you find one that suits your specific needs, budget and culture. If your employees matter to you, then I would highly recommend you invest in an EAP program.

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

Mums returning to work - how flexible do I need to be?

I had three children in three years – mad I hear you say! Quite possibly, but you don’t realise this when you are in the thick of it. I was very lucky to work for a progressive, professional services firm and I was able to return to work when the kids were a couple of months old; I worked two days per week from home. This was the best outcome for me as we needed the money, but I was physically close to my kids and still able to breastfeed. We had a nanny too (as anyone who has attempted to work at home with children will be aware that there is no other way!) I was part of a global team so a lot of my time was spent on global conference calls at 9 - 12pm or 5am - 7am in the morning, when my husband could cover the kids while they were ‘technically’ asleep.

Some ABS statistics that did surprise me in 2001 showed that men accounted for 65% of the full-time workforce and women 35% but, surprisingly, in 2011 the percentage breakdown remains the same. The story is different when you look at the part-time workforce in 2001; men accounted for 28% of the workforce and women 72%. In 2011, men accounted for 30% of the part-time workforce (more Dads sharing the raising of children) and women 70%. So I read into this that more women are returning to full-time work, when what I expected to see was an increase in part-time work available to women. I think that these statistics are disappointing when technology makes it so easy to work both remotely and flexibly.

With the introduction of the Fair Work Act in January 2010, all employers in Australia now have a formal process to follow concerning the timeframes relevant when responding to requests for flexible working from a parent with a child under 6. This does not mean that you have to grant their every desire but you do need to see whether working from home or reducing their hours is an option, even on a temporary basis. If you refuse, you must do so on reasonable business grounds. If you insisted that they return to their role on a full time capacity you may well be hearing from the FWA Ombudsman. You would need to prove that your business will suffer financially, without this individual returning to their full-time role.

Some examples of flexible working arrangements are:

·         Changes to hours of work; i.e. part-time or flexi-time

·         Changes in patterns of work; i.e. a compressed working week, or adjusted start and finish times

·         Working from home

·         Job sharing with another employee

·         Bringing a child to work

·         Office transfer

·         Self rostering
 

·         Leave variations; i.e. extended unpaid leave

Please let me know your thoughts and experience in the feedback section below.  I would love to hear from you.

In my experience, most employees who receive this type of flexibility work even harder for your organisation. So if you show your employees that they matter to you they will respond in kind!

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

Employee Matters Client Experience – Part 2

This is the follow on blog on the Employee Matters Client Experience. The intention of this document is to map the client experience that we wish all of our clients to experience during all of their interactions with us. In every phone call, message, face to face meeting, tweet, LinkedIn & Facebook interaction, we need to consider the following:

Be prepared for anything – everyone in business knows that things will go wrong at times. Clients need to be kept in the loop and advised of progress, good or otherwise, especially if there is a likely delay or problem. We own our client’s problem even if it is not our role or fault. We each aim to be their person that gets things sorted. If we can’t, we find someone who can

It’s all about the long term relationship – we are determined to build long term relationships with our clients. For Employee Matters ‘long term’ means ten to twenty years and beyond. We want our clients to recommend us without having to ask, however we will ask for referrals too! We would like our clients to be happy to write testimonials for us

Share our stories – everyone loves a story much more that listening to statistics or benefits; we share our experience with our client through real-life examples. We obviously do not mention names, as this information is confidential and our client must feel confident that our integrity is without question. Shared stories create shared meaning; it also helps the client to understand that it is not just them experiencing this issue; others have and we helped them!

A simple thank you – this is basic good manners but paramount to the way we act and do business. Manners go an exceptionally long way and will be remembered by clients for a long time. A simple thank you, either in words, a gesture, a note or a gift; it’s a great way to remind the client that they really do matter

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

Employee Matters Client Experience – Part 1

The intention of this document is to map the client experience that we wish all of our clients to experience during all of their interactions with us. In every phone call, message, face to face meeting, tweet, LinkedIn & Facebook interaction, we need to consider the following:

It’s all about the client – every interaction and all work that you do must be client-centric. We do not want to see the attitude or behaviour; ‘what’s in it for me or Employee Matters?’  All communication must be centred on the customer and we must ask ‘what’s in it for the client?’  Then we must ask ourselves ‘so what next?’ Everything is tailored to the client and their needs

Get to know our client exceptionally well - it is critical to know our clients well; we need to understand their thoughts, opinions and needs in order to best match our offering and target our level of assistance. We will ensure that we can just talk to them as opposed to selling to them. We share with them important information that perhaps they didn’t know; they will love us for that. (Having said that, building deep and successful relationships with clients takes time so we don’t rush the process!)

Listen more - talk less – when interacting with a client we should be listening 70-80% of the time and asking pertinent questions, when necessary. We practice active listening; this shows the client that we really are listening to them. This listening skill will build the relationship and give us all the information that we need to match our clients’ needs

Don’t over-promise – be realistic when stating what we can achieve for a client. If we can’t do it in the timeframe requested, we say so, and let them know the reason. We advise a more realistic or practical timeframe but ensure that we understand the drivers for the request; maybe we could get part of the project to them more quickly and then follow up afterwards. We never lie to a client.  We do what we say we are going to do; if we tell a client we will ring them tomorrow morning before 10am, we make sure we do just that. (Even if it is to tell them of a delay; bad news is better than no news)

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

What do the National Employment Standards (NES) do to my business?

So can anyone tell me who, in their current business, is entitled to redundancy pay? What are the new laws around parental leave? Do I have to hold a job open for two years? What does Flexible Work mean? Does this mean I have to let the individual work part time for five years? How will my business cope?

With the implementation of the Fair Work Act (1/1/10) and more specifically the National Employment Standards (NES), came a raft of changes to managing Redundancy, Parental Leave and Flexible Working. All SMEs need to ensure that their policies and procedures reflect these changes and have been updated and implemented accordingly.

So to give you a sense of some of the changes:

Redundancy now:

·         payable to anyone with more than a year’s service

·         not payable by “small business employers” (less than 15 employees)

·         you can apply to Fair Work Australia (FWA) to have the amount reduced

Parental Leave now:

·         there is no distinction between paternity and maternity leave

·         12 months continuous service prior to date of the child’s birth; this includes casuals who have been employed for at least 12 months

·         ability to request to extend leave period by a further 12 months ( 24 months in total)

Flexible Working now:

·         to care for children under school age or for children under 18 years old with a disability

·         examples of Flexible Working might be changes to hours worked, patterns or location of work

·         employers must have reasonable business grounds to refuse

So what should you do?

1.       have appropriate policies and procedures in place that remind employees of their obligations

2.      training about policies at induction and on an ongoing basis

3.      review all Redundancy, Parental and Flexible Work policies to ensure compliance with NES

4.      reverse-onus of proof in Adverse Action claims highlights the importance of keeping appropriate paper trials of disciplinary and performance issues

5.      ensure compliance with any obligations imposed by business policies

6.      ensure that managers have been trained to deal with requests appropriately

So make sure that in 2012 your policies and procedures are aligned with the National Employment Standards (NES) to avoid any issues with the FWA Ombudsman.

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

Will the yacht run aground? - Have I put the right people on the job?

A couple of years ago, I skippered a 52ft yacht with some ‘carefully selected’ friends around Croatia.  The reason I say carefully selected is that sailing can be a dangerous activity; you need to have a clearly defined leader and have people that, regardless of age or sex, follow orders, especially in a crisis.  Organisation and process are key so that you don’t kill each other. They also need to trust you; when you say ‘that water spout over there could very easily change direction and hit us, so put your harness on!’ You need to know that they will do as you direct. 

The trip had been fraught with challenges; although I had learnt navigation all the maps and radio announcements were in Croatian, which I could neither speak nor understand.  I had to go with my instinct a lot of the time which I am pleased to say was right more often than wrong.

We had engine trouble and eventually about 30 nautical miles from our marina were without an engine and under sail.  Night time was approaching and our help would not be arriving until the morning. The majority of the crew were inexperienced sailors, bar one other and things were starting to look a little grim; we scoped out a Bay to anchor in which was filled with other boats and short on space. The breeze was moderate but as those who sail will know, sailing into anchor with fickle winds is not for the faint hearted and a cool head was needed. I consulted the other experienced sailor and we briefed the crew explaining the difficulty and challenges of what we had to do. I told the girls that they were to remain down below, effectively and bluntly out of the way. I needed the guys’ muscles to whip the sails down as quickly as possible when told, to slow us down. Everyone was given a role and told it could change quickly, so to stay quiet and react accordingly when instructed. As we approached our anchor point, the winds changed and I was heading to shore quickly, the depth sounder was screaming out at us telling us that we were nearly going aground. At the last minute the wind changed and I was able to change course, lower the anchor at pace and get the sails down and finally, thank god, come to a stop. As is often the case with the sailing community, we had an audience and even received applause from the boats closest.  Unfortunately sounds travels really well on water! As my crew on deck sat down shaking and relieved, the girls leapt into action pouring everyone very stiff G&Ts.  They set ‘em up and we all drank ‘em! One crew member who had never smoked a cigarette in his life puffed his first - and last.

To me, this example clearly shows a team that was fully and unconditionally engaged; they were cohesive and supportive and all played their roles within the boundaries set.  This is the kind of team most employers would die for and one that all HR Managers should be finding for them. Getting the mix right matters!

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au