Yes, we always talk about recruitment because that is what
we do, we are a recruitment partner. Even so, we still understand that the best
way for a firm to operate is to make the working environment, both literal and
metaphorical, as welcoming and open as possible in order to retain staff.
Retaining employees just makes sense. If you have invested
time and money in a new candidate and they are out of the door soon after, you
have spent precious resources and you have nothing to show for it.
Losing employees means losing part of your knowledge base
and it also means you are losing productivity. If your business has a revolving
door of staff, that does not make for a cohesive team. The atmosphere will be a
tense one, as, with each team member who leaves, their responsibilities fall on
the other members of the team. Resentment can set in. This is not a prime
situation for new hires to enter. It can become a vicious circle.
So what can be done about it? Well while markets can take
some of the blame and the generally accepted amount of turnover is under ten
percent, the main cause of turnover is job dissatisfaction.
To counter this, it takes effort but at the end of the day,
that effort is really worth it. It takes making steps to understand your workforce.
What are the pressure points? What are the annoyances in their roles? Do they
feel appreciated? Have you fostered an atmosphere where they can air their
grievances or problems without judgment?
Respect in the workplace is key. Nobody wants to be disrespected.
Pretty much everyone wants to come to work, do a good job and be rewarded in
terms of money and also in terms of gratitude. The gratitude thing is a two-way
street, as, when you give it, you get it back. A happy workplace is also a
healthy workplace. There are less sick days. And it all comes down to respect.
Respecting your workforce’s points of view and experience pays off many times
over.
As a continuation of that, allowing your staff to be
creative, share their ideas on how things can be done better and to vent
frustrations. What would you do if a team member had a business idea that
utilised things they learned at the company, or perhaps, the company’s
technology. Bad companies would either deny them further access to the tech or
bring in lawyers to maintain that the idea is the company’s because it was
originated on company time. A good company would enter into a partnership with
the employee, as long as the idea is good of course.
Companies can also incentivise the work in accordance with industry
standards, offer rewards and perks. These kinds of steps take little effort but
can demonstrate that the company is empathising with their staff in order to
make their company as enticing as possible.
The work-life balance must be respected. If your employees do not have time for leisure in their lives, some way to let off steam, there is a greater chance of burn-out. If a team member burns out, they are no good for your business, and they are no good for themselves either. This is where the responsibility of the company comes in. Just because you can work your employees to death, does not mean you should. The action that makes most business-sense is to allow your workers to have enough time to engage in activities outside of work, so that they do not feel like they have nothing else to live for. If you are made aware of staff who are overworked, they should be allowed some time off or at least a re-examination of their workload.
Curious about how Zenshin Talent can help your organisation? Contact us today for a no-strings conversation about your needs and our experience.
Inclusive and diverse workplaces don’t just happen overnight.
By rights, they should, but they don’t. The hold of ‘this is the way we have
always done things’ is a strong one and it will take a bit of effort to change
things.
If you wish for your workplace to reflect the world we live
in now, representation and equality have to be baked into your hiring policies.
Whether the diversity is religious or racial, around sexuality or gender, or whether
your employees have disabilities or are neurodivergent, what is required is an
open mind and an appreciation that every person is different and may having differing
life experiences and viewpoints.
Experience and knowledge vary from person to person and can lend
a diversity of skills which will benefit the company in the long term. These
acquired attributes, and the need to find them in prospective candidates, will
drive future growth and adaptability.
Innovation will speed up and business decisions will become less
theoretical. A more inclusive workplace results in greater work satisfaction
and higher staff retention. And all it takes is a little work to start off with.
Unpaid internships create a situation whereby only those from
higher socioeconomic backgrounds can afford to partake in such an invaluable
opportunity. Targeting internships at those from lower socioeconomic
backgrounds and those from diverse backgrounds helps the next generation get a leg
up and also helps you discover them before your rivals do.
Whether its via your website, your marketing collateral or during
interviews, it is always important to convey a sense of diversity and
understanding. Your branding should reflect how the business as a whole views
diversity and the values that candidates should come to expect.
Swiftly becoming a trend is the idea of ‘blind recruitment’.
Some companies require the candidate to submit a photo of themselves but we
feel that that is quite unnecessary. Blind recruitment takes it a step further,
so that the candidate’s name, address and educational record are not to be
viewed by hiring managers. This weeds out any unintentional bias in the recruitment
process.
Job adverts should also be double-checked for signs of any
bias sneaking in. If we look back into the not-so-distant past, specs have been
written with language that brings to mind whether the job is viewed as
masculine or not. There may have been unnecessary requirements of education
which could be viewed as exclusionary. Whatever the past mistakes, we must make
sure not to continue to make those same mistakes into the future.
Where the candidates are sourced from can help. Job boards
have been used previously as the go-to place to find candidates, especially for
contingency recruitment firms. Spreading the net wider can help deepen the
experience well. Utilising your workforce’s networks can also help.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to a change of
mindset which leads to a change of work culture. It isn’t difficult but it can
require some soul searching. Does the colour of someone’s skin matter really,
when, after getting to the heart of what your organisation values, they are a
match in those terms? Many companies are shooting themselves in the foot when
not tackling long-held assumptions head-on.
There are recruitment partners who can point you in the right direction, if needed, and the results will help ensure a strong future for your company.
Curious about how Zenshin Talent can help your organisation? Contact us today for a no-strings conversation about your needs and our experience.
It is about finding the perfect combination for everything to fall into place
Previously seen as a sop to do-gooders, diversity is now
understood to be a key asset to a business by a lot of businesses. Others have
not been as quick on the uptake of this understanding. If you prioritise the effectiveness
of your organisation, it would be wise to pay heed to the facts.
Companies lacking diversity often fall into rote ways of
thinking, treating the world as an already homogenised place, missing
opportunities to grow and lacking understanding of different viewpoints.
When we talk about diversity we mean that a variety of ages,
genders, abilities/disabilities, religions, ethnicities and sexual orientations
are represented. Quite a few businesses still find it a struggle to imagine how
these individuals may fit into their workplace.
To take this seriously, and be take seriously by your
candidates, you must reckon with out-dated policies. Take religion, for example.
Do you have a policy whereby those of differing faiths can take time off during
the day, or during the year, in order to praise or respect their respective
deities? If asked about this subject, can the hiring manager answer questions
to ease any doubts that the candidates might have?
Diversity is not about ticking boxes. Diversity is about
respect. Promoting inclusivity must lead from the job spec and job ad to the
outreach to the interview and onboarding stages. Have you thought about the
image your company projects within its commercials or website or literature?
Why go to the trouble, you ask? It is common knowledge that
businesses with diverse workforces make better decisions and problem solve more
efficiently. As the world becomes more diverse, the brain trust that comes with
a diverse team cannot be underestimated. How much second-guessing does a
business do? How many mistakes are made due to misunderstanding? How much of
your resources have you poured into mistakes or fixing mistakes? Life doesn’t
have to be that complicated.
Keeping a clear head and remaining focused on the important
part of recruitment is paramount. Recruitment is subject to outside beliefs,
which means it is not a sober and strategic mindset that is motivating the
hiring decisions, but one of emotion and stereotyping.
The way to counter this is two-fold:
Expertise. Engaging with a Specialist Recruitment Partner is important. They can guide you. Being from outside the business means that they can objectively assess the needs of the business and identify blind spots that those who have been within the company for a while cannot see. All you need to do it make your recruitment partner aware of the plan you have and they will be able to build diverse teams. But before you do that, you must understand…
Data. Do you know what your current ratios are? How can you begin to tackle a problem if you do not know exactly how bad the problem is? HR need to be set the task of reporting back your diversity in order for you to assess and plan how you will improve.
Businesses that pride themselves on keeping that competitive edge need to embrace diversity. Enlarging the skillset of a business by exploiting the varied experiences of a diverse team means innovative ideas are brought to the forefront, cultural understandings are greater and adaptability is improved. When working with a business that is clearly committed to reflecting all walks of life, employees there are happier and more secure in themselves. And isn’t that what everyone wants?
Curious about how Zenshin Talent can help your organisation? Contact us today for a no-strings conversation about your needs and our experience.
Accountability is the degree to which responsibility is
taken or given. Partnership is a formal agreement between two or more parties.
They’re also two words that can almost always explain why
your recruiter has not delivered what you required. Exclusivity goes a long way
to explaining the difference between the dedicated and the undedicated when it
comes to recruitment.
Before delving deeper it’s important to clear up what
exclusivity means. Yes, a dictionary would define it as something restrictive
or perhaps as exclusionary. Exclusivity means so much more than this and is
also much more positive than that kind of description gives the impression of
it as.
The simple fact is, in recruitment, exclusivity is freeing.
Whilst you are engaging one recruiter for a set period of time with an
agreement to pay portions of the agreed-upon amount when certain targets are
hit, it does mean that more energy is committed to finding you candidates you
need, within that time, and for those payments.
We all know the standard way things are done in this space:
multiple contingency recruiters are set the task with no payment upfront, they
all agree, they weigh up how much time they can dedicate to the task before they
give up because it is costing them money to search and they look, sometimes
successfully, most times unsuccessfully. Rinse and repeat.
In the system above, there is no real accountability. There
is an illusion of accountability. It is an unspoken rule that recruiters will
try, and if they fail, some other recruiters will be found to complete the
task. The impetus is on the employer to organise waves of recruiters, none of
whom can dedicate a lot of time to the search, and to keep going until the job
is done. This leads to a lot of job board searches and communications with
candidates who are actively seeking jobs, as going deeper to find prospects is
a much more time consuming task.
Specialist recruitment partners work in a different way and
they are not afraid of accountability. In fact, they thrive on it. But how do
you select that recruiter?
It comes down to three things:
Specialism
If there is no specialism, how can you differentiate one
recruiter from another? Why go for a recruiter who does not have the time or
inclination to really learn about your business? Knowing a partner has the
knowledge already to operate on the same level as the candidates you are hoping
to hire really gives great peace of mind.
Track Record
With specialism comes a strong track record. The hard
lessons that a contingency recruiter may learn while working for you have
already been learned, so they hit the ground running. They are also operating
on a totally different playing field to the contingency recruiter, in that they
have not ever been allowed to shy away from the challenge, so the experience
they have is genuine and hard won.
Passion
The drive and enjoyment of seeing that job right through to
the end. The love for the sector your company is in. These things cannot be
forced or faked. The candidates you really want, can sense this.
Add to this, the fact that specialist recruitment partners will work with you to perfect job specs and strategy including cooperatively reworking the plan if a course of action is not producing results, means that you will be getting a lot more for your money than you were previously.
Curious about how Zenshin Talent can help your organisation? Contact us today for a no-strings conversation about your needs and our experience.
It really adds up to treat your team like human beings
A business which conducts itself with purpose and
professionalism naturally elevates itself above the competition. A relentless
drive to increase in size in order to satisfy shareholders can serve to reduce
the people who work there to figures, robots even.
Whether a company chooses to take this route or not, will
define its future. Thankfully, more companies are adopting the path towards a
mission that is not just based on money, but on treating employees with
respect, acknowledging that they hold the keys to the future of the business.
Seeking meaning through actions is what humans do, and work
is no different. Yes, we all want to be sufficiently recompensed for our time,
and perks are nice to have too, but the realising of potential and a sense of
contributing meaningfully are major factors in the long-term mental well-being
of employees. Allowing workers to learn and grow means the good of the company
goes beyond fulfilling the goals of the business but can emerge out into the
society around it, benefitting those who may be outside of the immediate area
of influence.
When it comes to recruitment, it is easy to spot employers
who are engaged. It can be as simple as hiring managers replying to emails or
responding to candidate resumes in a timely fashion. For all the sound and fury
surrounding the search for new prospects to fill job roles, if what follows the
flurry of activity is the metaphorical sound of crickets, a specialist
recruitment partner starts to begin to understand why the hiring has been a long
drawn out process so far.
But just because an employer isn’t engaged with these issues
doesn’t mean they don’t want to be. It can be difficult asking for help when
you don’t really know what kind of help you need or how to go about starting
the process.
Finding support throughout this can be hard, if you are
starting from scratch, as an organisation has either made steps towards being
responsive and responsible, or it hasn’t. If it hasn’t, then it can feel like
an uphill struggle. All companies make noises about listening to their
employees but the difference between intending to do something and actually
going through with it, is huge.
Processes and systems need to be in place, and putting them
there takes time. Companies can and do change but change is often slow-paced.
Relationships can be complex and there may be a lot to unpack.
Having an experienced specialist recruitment expert onside
can help greatly. They will have experience of sorting the strategy for
onboarding new candidates within your sector, will possess knowledge of the
values shared by all of the different generations you may be recruiting and
they can promote your new way of doing things to the candidates as if they are
an external observer.
Within Data, AI and Cloud, it is important to view new
technology as a way to enhance the potential of your workforce rather than a
way of enslaving them to an omnipresent company presence. There will always be
doubters who misunderstand the aims, or those who are old-school who attempt to
mould what is happening to fit their standard worldview. Specialist recruitment
partners are outside and have a better overview of how things are going and
where things may be going wrong.
Responsive businesses will treat all the people in and
around the business with dignity, pays fairly, challenges and reassesses its
values in the face of criticism, develops an environment of accountability and nurturing
where people can thrive and will help the company thrive, in return.
Companies must adapt during these times. Showing
appreciation, encouragement and consideration is not a weakness. Getting fully
involved in the recruitment should not draw you away from your current
responsibilities. If you have the right help on your side, these problems will
not even be a concern anymore.
Curious about how Zenshin Talent can help your organisation? Contact us today for a no-strings conversation about your needs and our experience.
With recruiting budgets increasing and priorities shifting,
2022 looks set to be another wild ride.
Will the talent shortage continue? Will the demand continue
unabated? We thought we would look into the predicted trends for the year
ahead.
The drive to hire the very best during a time when all of
the obvious quality candidates have been snapped up, means that there is a
reassessment of what makes a prospect suitable. Qualifications that are
relevant but not necessarily degree level are now causing recruiters to
reprioritise what is really important. This may include years of experience and
the requisite soft skills, the latter being regarded as unimportant by most
recruiters in exchange for hard skills.
Diversity is also coming into focus as it has been found
that those who are underrepresented usually have great soft skills and the
diversity happens naturally when this is taken into account, so it is a win-win
for everyone to view recruiting like this. Add to that, the fact that those
without a degree are likely to remain with a company for a third longer than
those who do.
Diversity should always be an integral business strategy
component. DEI is important to job seekers and they expect to read about it on
job specs or hear about it during preliminary chats. Businesses should expect
to answer tough questions from candidates who are no longer accepting a little
bit of ill-thought out corporate text regarding this issue. They want to know
where the investment is going.
Of course, remote work or hybrid work are still going to be
a reality for a lot of workers in 2022. Amongst those seeking jobs, flexibility
is the emerging priority. More and more job ads are including the amount of
flexibility. With hybridity came fatigue, with workers struggling to adapt and
adaptation is now becoming a major focus. It has been a steep learning curve
and it will level off in the near future.
Data, AI, Cloud and IT demand will continue to be very much
in demand. Job vacancies are still rising and going unfilled. UK tech
investment was at £18bn during the middle of 2021 and that will remain.
Companies will, however, be ready for the uncertainty as opposed to the way
things were in 2020 and 2021. Long term planning is the name of the game now
and, as ever, it will be interesting to see where we are at the end of the
year.
Reskilling was something that was on few organisations’ radar
before the pandemic but it is now important due to factors such as power
swinging to the employees rather than the employers when it comes to the job
market, the need for more skills especially within IT, Data and digital realms
and the ethos of the new generations who want to stay with companies and make a
difference, seeing a focus on professional development as a step in the right
direction.
Companies benefit from lower turnover of staff, with those
who are committed and mobile within a company staying twice as long as those who
are not. This is a job for recruiters, whether internal or external recruitment
partners, and also HR, who need to find ways that make sense for internal
mobility.
Companies being genuine is something a lot of candidates are looking for. In response to the pandemic, candidates have reprioritised and are now no longer tolerating being seen as robots. In the past, businesses have been able to push this to the limit of acceptability and now there is pushback. Looking after an employees mental well-being was a hot button issue during the lockdowns and now we are out of lockdown, those employees are asking why they have tolerated this. Genuine care, attention and support show them that they are not just a number in a company.
Curious about how Zenshin Talent can help your organisation? Contact us today for a no-strings conversation about your needs and our experience.
