In the usual format, here are the employment statistics for the month of September 2011.

• Unemployment rate stands at 7.9% – up 0.3% over the quarter and 0.1% over the year.
• The number of people employed was 69,000 lower this quarter but up by 24,000 from last year.

Taking the stress out of the recruitment process.

Let’s face it, times have been tough over the last few years, so if your company has had a recruitment freeze or even downsized its team in one shape or form, it wouldn’t be alone. However, if you have been listening to recent reports in the media, times are a changing slowly but surely, so you may be thinking of dusting off your company recruitment procedures and policies and staffing, if the thought of recruiting fills you with dread, hopefully the guide below will assist you “6 of the most common pitfalls face when recruiting” plus ways to prevent such mistakes!

1. The Quick Fix appointment – Don’t rush into plugging a gap. Take this time as an opportunity to do a temperature check with your existing team. Do you have the right people in the right roles? Do you have an internal employee who has the skills to do the role you are recruiting for? Sometimes current employees can be overlooked when actually, this is an ideal time to analyse talent within the organisation. Promotion and seat changes can be a real positive and boost moral significantly.
2. Go straight down the usual recruiting process – Recruiting is expensive so before you have to dig deep to pay for adverts and agency fees, make sure you utilise your existing tools – advertise the vacancy on your website and intranet, look over CVs that have been sent in speculatively and maybe even suggest a recommend a friend referral scheme.
3. Failure to prepare – Preparing the Job / person spec is possibly the most important part of the whole recruitment procedure but you would not believe how often either one or both of them are overlooked at the beginning of the recruitment process. Without having these clearly defined, how confident are you that you’ll match experience and qualifications as well as devise a competency based interview plan that will help determine behavioural qualities that would fit with your organisation.
4. Use whoever is free at the time to do the interview – Choose your interviewers carefully and ensure they are adequately trained! Always have two people involved during the interview stage for a number of reasons. A) One person to take notes and keep the interview on track. B) You will get the best out of your candidate if you help them relax. With two different personalities at the interview stage, hopefully the candidate will strike up a rapport with one or more and you will be able to extract a true reflection of their character to establish a good team fit C) A discrimination claim can be submitted at interview stage so, note taking is crucial at this point.
5. Not preparing for the interview – Remember interviewing is a two way process, ill prepared and inexperienced interviewers show! If you want to attract and retain the best people for you business and of course stay away from employment tribunals this is one way of achieving both aims. T-CHAT have published a useful set of questions you can’t ask at interview stage which may help the less experienced interviewer.
6. Take the time to check – Once you have made your decision and chosen the successful candidate, make sure you have validated the information you have been given. Proof of eligibility to work in the UK as well as qualification checks should be undertaken at interview stage but it is essential that references are taken soon after to ensure there are no nasty surprises that rear their ugly head later in the day that could have been avoided.

When businesses grow over a period of time, we have to stretch ourselves further and become involved in projects that we often don’t enjoy or feel don’t necessarily play to our strengths. Recruiting new staff is often one of these. Not only is it time consuming but if the process goes wrong, it can be extremely costly as well as de-motivating for existing employees. Lots of our clients recognise this and often ask us to get involved in this process. This can range from the client outsourcing the whole recruitment project, we sit on interview panels and chair these or coach and develop managers in their interview practice and technique, we also create interview processes and stages, this can include 1st, 2nd stages, presentations, psychometric testing and of course writing those all important interview questions and job and person specs. We are happy to help at any stage. So for further advice on the do’s and don’ts of recruiting, check out the boutique recruitment page on our website or contact us!

Agency Workers again

A further reminder that the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 are now in force in Great Britain! (Northern Ireland will have separate legislation, almost identical to that in Great Britain, which will take effect on 5 December 2011.)

These Regulations will give agency workers the right to the same pay and conditions after 12 weeks’ employment in the same role and with the same hirer – so in fact the impact will not really be felt until the end of December in Great Britain, and early March in Northern Ireland. However, if you use agency workers for periods in excess of 12 weeks, then if you haven’t already started planning for this, you need to do so now! Note also that some of the new rights (the right to access to collective facilities such as canteens and crèches, and the right to information about vacancies) apply to all agency workers from day one – so these apply to any agency workers as from now.
Are we likely to see a decrease in the use of agency workers? We’ve read conflicting reports on this!

• On one hand, a survey of 200 HR practitioners by YouGov Stone for Allen & Overy found that a third of medium to large businesses were considering sacking temporary workers rather than paying out more to match the pay and benefits of permanent workers. Over half said they planned to employ more fixed-term workers, believing this to be a better option, and 37% said they would set up their own in-house bank of temp workers to “cut out the middle man”. Researchers estimated that providing equal benefits could cost UK firms £1.3 billion a year, with an estimated average cost per worker of between £1,755 and £3,722. Employers also face additional administration, as they are required to give information to recruitment agencies about the levels of pay and benefits for the relevant placement.
• On the other hand, the Recruitment and Employment Confederation’s Jobs Outlook report found that 83% of employers planned either to maintain or increase their use of temporary staff over the next three months and more than one-fifth (22%) of employers expect to increase their use of temporary workers over the next quarter.
  For a general overview on agency workers, contact us or for further details see:
• the amendment regulations click here.
• the BIS guidance click here.
• For Northern Ireland, the final regulations will be put before the Northern Ireland Assembly in September.

Sharon Reher, Reward & Performance Specialist

We have all seen the disappointing employment figures this week and the most common response during recessions (and there have been a few in the last decades), is to focus on cost management and headcount reduction.

We are now entering the third year of uncertain economics, and if you are fortunate to have kept your business competitive during this time, we would like you to spend some time thinking about who has helped you to get there.

Recognizing that the biggest cost for a business is the salary bill for our employees, it would be easy to start thinking about how to prune this and trim back even further.

This is a tactical though valid response to the situation, however a more strategic approach may yield more value add for the business.

We all talk about key talent and the importance of it to our business, but have you spoken to your key talent recently?

• How are they feeling?
• How have you thanked them recently?

Now is a good time to reflect on what you have or haven’t done in the reward space for your key talent.

One of the most important elements of reward strategy is managing base salaries. For individuals who are key to your business now is the time to review their base pay and make sure they are in line with your market. Keeping your key talent at the right market levels sends the message that you want to support them in being competitive in their own field – that earns a company valuable ‘trust’.

If you have seen outstanding results from your key individuals, then if you can, recognise them in an appropriate manner. There are many forms of recognition, e.g. offering to pay for dinner/theatre tickets for the employee and their significant other is always very welcome, and the effect of showing your appreciation lasts a long time after the event itself has passed.

Where you have a formal bonus process, ensure that your are paying for performance by awarding your key contributors higher amounts. You may also want to consider deferring part of the payment – it will make them think twice about leaving you.

Although there are no guarantees that employees will stay with you once the economy starts to lift, how you manage reward, performance and recognition in times of economic hardship will strengthen your Employee Value Proposition. You therefore create strategic value for those who stay and for those whom you wish to attract when the economy turns. If you are interested to learn more or need our help contact us!