Don’t be a Sausage Machine!

 

Don’t be a Sausage Machine!

Don’t Make Your Clients Jump Through Hoops to Fit the Way You Work

 

In these strange and difficult times, I believe we are all looking for just that little bit more from the people we do business with.

We want to know that they care, that our business is a priority to them, that they will give us their best. Of course, we want to know that their business is well run and ethical, and that they look after and value their people. More importantly, we want to feel that they are going to look after us and that they are going to be easy to work with and to value us too.

When we are considering who to work with, we factor in the fact that we want to be understood, appreciated and treated as individuals don’t we? To be listened to, to know that their particular service is what we need in our business, and what will work for us- not a one size fits all.

I can hear those system and process geeks out there saying “ you have to have a process and a system” “ things need to be uniform” and yes they do to a point but don’t make your clients feel as though they are being pulled into  your sausage machine.

Show your prospective clients that your systems and processes exist to ensure that they get the very best service they can. Also show them that you can flex to suit them. Or maybe you can’t or won’t and that is your choice and you will exclude people from working with you.

This came to me as I was recently considering becoming a customer of a particular brand and the hoops they made me go through to “ get on board” and their strange way of communicating made me feel as though I had to fit in with them. They didn’t use any of the existing comms tools that I use and I use a lot!

Efficiency is one thing but not at the cost of your clients’ comfort in your process, ease of use for your clients and reassurance that it will work well for them.

So don’t be a sausage machine!

 

Call me for a chat about recruitment. I love to chat about all things recruitment.

Jayne on 077 484 02587. or email me on jaynej@betterpeopleltd.co.uk or book a slot in my calendar

https://calendly.com/jjbetterpeopleltd

 

 

Does Your Recruiter Love You?

Does your Recruiter Love You?

10 Reasons Why You Should Care About How They Feel About You?

• To make sure that they give you the best applicants – with 10 times more people applying for jobs at this time – you want them to work through all of those to find those hot ones for you.
• So that they work hard to understand you and your business which will help them find the best people for you.
• So that they don’t measure their success based on the number of CVs they have sent you.
• So that when candidates ask them questions they can give them top level detail about why your business would appeal to them over others and be part of your external marketing and message – they should be promoting your business.
• So that the candidates you interview are real contenders for the role which saves you time and money.
• So that if there are difficulties – they can have an open conversation with you and rectify things quickly
• So that they go the extra mile for you – digging deeper to find you the best people
• So that they can offer specific solutions and create a recruitment service tailored to your specific needs
• You want them to be able to write great adverts so that they can attract those hot applicants for you.
• So that when you give them feed back they work on it, take it in and use it to inform an even better selection process for you.

If you are not talking to your recruiter, chances are you are not in a mutual values based working relationship.

You deserve more – they deserve more.

Talk to them, ask them questions, do they want to improve the relationship?  If they don’t turn out to be the kind of people you want to work with – find recruiters who are –  Chuck ‘em!

If you want to talk about your recruitment or what to consider when building a Preferred Supplier List – give me a call on 07748402587 or email me on jaynej@betterpeopleltd.co.uk

 

 

Recruiting Statistics related to Finding Quality Candidates

 

 

Finding Quality Candidates

I read some recent articles in Glassdoor and Undercover Recruiter about difficulties experienced by organisations employing and hiring in the UK currently, and found some of their stats interesting.

1 | The average cost-per-hire in the UK is £3,000.                                               

 ^{this does not include add on costs such as NI, licences, equipment. training, bonuses etc.}

2 | The average length of the job interview process in the UK is 27.5 days.

3 | 76% of hiring decision-makers say attracting quality candidates is their number one challenge.

4 | 88% of hiring decision makers agree that an informed candidate is a quality candidate.

5 | The top benefits of hiring informed candidates are:

• Better employee retention
• More productive employees
• More engaged employees

6 | 75% of hiring decision-makers say it’s easier to attract top talent when they know of or about your organisation.

7 | Top barriers or challenges hiring decision makers face when recruiting quality candidates:

• Lack of quality of candidates
• Budget constraints
• Trouble competing with compensation and benefits packages at other firms
• Knowing where to advertise jobs to attract the right people
• Attracting millennials.

8 | 76% of hiring decision-makers report a concern or challenge in attracting and hiring passive candidates, as they have grown wary of aggressive contact through networking sites (e.g. LinkedIn) and respond at a much lower rate.

9 | When making a decision on where to apply for a job, 84% of employees/job seekers say the reputation of a company as an employer of choice is important.

So what do we take from this?

Attracting, screening, and hiring the right candidates is no easy feat.

Recruiters who know all about your organisation, your plans, your culture, vision and values, benefits and prospects are going to be more likely to attract candidates that you will want to employ.

What’s more, once an informed and well briefed candidate becomes an employee, they’re more likely to be productive and engaged. It is therefore sensible to work closely with your recruiter to ensure that they are the right one for you and that they have all the information they need to promote your business and to ensure that they are only submitting informed,  high quality applicants.

The right recruiter who is well informed about their market place will be able to help you understand the points of appeal of other employers in your sector so that you can adjust your benefits and employment package to become as attractive as other employers with whom you may be competing for quality candidates.

A good recruiter will be able to tell you why good quality candidates are choosing other businesses over yours.

So if you would like a conversation about how effectively a professional recruiter can attract those quality applicants that you are looking for – please contact us today.

Better People Ltd – 01491 836632 – Jayne Johnson

These statistics are from recent articles found on Glassdoor and Undercover Recruiter so do look there for other useful and interesting recruitment related information and guidance.

 

Attracting Better People for Your Jobs

Attracting Better People to Apply for Your Jobs

 

How many of you have struggled to attract the right people for your business?  Found yourself Interviewing candidates because they were the best of a poor and very disappointing selection of applicants?

This article is about APPLICANT ATTRACTION – THE ART OF attracting good people to apply for your vacancies and making sure that you get the best candidates to apply for your jobs. 

Why Me? I have been in recruitment for 35 years recruiting for my clients here in Oxfordshire Buckinghamshire and Berkshire and in London too, as well as  working hard to source great staff for my own business too.

Let’s start with the “WHY”

 

WHY

WHY do we need to work hard to attract those good candidates?

In our geographical area there is very low unemployment which means that employers are competing for good candidates and usually competing for the same skills sets.

The most recent estimate of Oxford’s unemployment rate is 3.1% for the period up to March 19. This is below the national average of 4.3%. So there are many more jobs than there are people. Which means we do have to work hard to get them to apply for our jobs rather than other company’s jobs.

 

HOW do we attract these great candidates?

If you are looking for people with the right skills AND the right attitude, we have to write really great job adverts.

When you write your advert – You need to be thinking about your recruitment campaign as part of your branding, part of your outward messaging  Are you happy for your job advert to be part of your business’s message to the world ?Is it aligned with your company purpose and values? Does it represent your business in the very best way it could?

When your target candidates look at loads of jobs on- line and search through the job boards, why do they apply for yours? Why would they apply for yours? What is making your job stand out?

That’s what this is all about.

 

How do we write a good job advert?

Job Adverts are exactly that – advertisements designed to attract people to apply – Applicants…  a Job Advert is a marketing tool, with compelling reasons for them to choose your job rather than another job, with a clear call to action – a great positive instruction about what to do next. APPLY for this job now!  Send us your CV now! We can’t wait to hear from you!

Your advert has to describe the job using simple clear language and it usually best not to use specialist jargon and acronyms as that will deter a lot of people.

Your advert needs to say as many positive things about your business as possible. It needs to send out a positive message about what a great work place you have.  It definitely needs to be truthful and accurately represent what you are looking for of course.

 

You may feel that you don’t have much to offer in terms of benefits or extras to make your organisation and your job more attractive… perhaps you do though. Perhaps you have Free parking – a huge benefit in this area. You might be able to offer slightly flexible working with staggered start and finish times, work from home options, discounts or bonuses or rewards, offer a cycle to work scheme, perhaps you have won an award, are you Investors in People or do you have  some other similar accreditation? Perhaps you pay for people to do an exam and gain a qualification.  Perhaps you have a CSR policy to be proud of? Offer a volunteer day? Perhaps your staff retention is amazing..… all of this needs can be included in your advert.

Make your website interesting to prospective employees. What do potential candidates see When they look at your website? Do they see photos of people smiling?  Do they see any information about “working for us”? Do they see photos of people enjoying their work? Do they see team members winning awards or being recognised for an outstanding achievement? Does it say anything about what you offer your employees?  Or do they just see pages and pages of widgets, descriptions of your services and price lists and some very boring dry Job Descriptions on your Careers Page…?

It is proven that Millennials consider more than money when they are choosing which companies to apply to.

So back to HOW we do it – We have to put together a short, concise really attractive, compelling advert cta. Use words carefully, demonstrate flexibility, talk about things you are proud of great customer feedback, the opportunities for learning and progression.   Talk about how you are growing  –  mention how the right attitude will be considered above specific skills.   Describe the job, of course but just give a top line “ job purpose outline” then a short list of “ Ideal candidates will be:” You want to attract as many as possible so that you can choose the ones that you want to interview from a really big bunch!

Your advert has to represent the job purpose accurately -whatever the main job function or job purpose should be clearly understood from your advert.

Of course, you need to make sure that your advert is not discriminating in any way – has it been written with a bias towards either men or women? Towards older or younger applicants?  This is illegal of course! As is discrimination towards any of the protected characteristics.

Yes, do include everything I have mentioned, but  keep in mind where most of us do everything these days –  is on our smart phones, on the move and that includes job applications. We are all usually logged into lots of different apps at the same time, keeping track of Whatsapp messages, looking at Facebook, checking out John Lewis sale in my case, Googling directions AND looking for a new job!  So, we do need to think about how that should affect our online content creation and that includes job adverts.

Someone said to me recently that when we write content, because of the way we all access that content today, that content needs to be written to target the reading age of a 9 year old !  

Important note here is to react quickly to applicants – they will be snapped up by other employers if you don’t!

 

WHERE TO ADVERTISE

I speak to firms who tell me that they have been advertising for their job for ages with no response. When I ask them how they have been doing this they say – “well we put the job description on our website months ago and have had no response at all.…” It is no surprise that hasn’t worked. It’s a bit like me putting a job description   on my front door…..as far as I am aware, my postman and my Amazon delivery man are not looking for new jobs!  You see the point – candidates are not going to randomly choose to look on your website for a job unless they have been directed there or specifically want to work for you.

As any marketing people will tell you – you need to go where your target audience are hanging out – You need to advertise on the online job boards – national job boards such as Reed, Totaljobs, CV library and Indeed. – Average cost of about £120 per advert except Indeed and they have a Free option.  So that’s another reason to make your advert work – you want to get your moneys’ worth!

Look on the job boards like Reed, Totaljobs and CV Library and see what other peoples’ adverts look like and which ones you would like to apply for. Which one’s appeal to you?  Which businesses look like great places to work? What do they tell you about the business who is recruiting? Great place to work or just another job?  Which ones sound dry and dull?  Don’t copy those dull ones!
Social media is useful too – get into the groups where those people are hanging out… get your advert in front of them.

Choose where and which platforms to focus on – which social media platform is going to work best? We focus our adverts in certain Facebook groups because we know the demographic of those Facebook groups and who we are going to attract.  We wouldn’t necessarily concentrate on Facebook to attract a £70k Mergers and Acquisitions specialist. That would definitely be a Linkedin focus. Although all our ads go on all 3 – Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter and then we put together specific applicant attraction campaigns according to the job.

The majority of our candidates come to us from job board adverts even though we have our own dedicated recruitment website, we still only get less than 2% of our new applicants from there.

 

So we have covered the Why and the How and some Where as well. I hope this helps to highlight, why we have to work hard to ATTRACT Applicants to apply for our jobs, what we have to do to make our jobs appealing and stand out and how quickly we need to react to people  once they apply.

It only remains for me to wish you luck with attracting the very best candidates for your business. If there is any part of this process that you would like to talk about or learn more about, then please do contact me. email me jaynej@betterpeopleltd.co.uk or call me on 01491 836632 or 07748402587