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Recruitment Trends to consider in 2020

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December can always be a challenging time for recruitment – yet also one of the busiest times. Here’s some of the biggest trends impacting recruitment this December and the best ways to tackle them going into 2020.

With it being such a busy month, companies can often be accused of dressing up job roles in the hopes of attracting more talent. However, honesty is always the best policy – for higher levels of retention you should just sell a job for what it is. Instead of exaggerating the role to attract the top talent, employers should make sure the role itself appeals to what candidates really want. In fact, 78% of employees say that job perks are a crucial part of accepting any role, with a good work-life balance becoming a priority.  Employers are getting more creative in what these perks might be with anything from flexi-time to Netflix subscriptions.

It isn’t just employers that are guilty of telling a few white lies, with it becoming increasingly common to tell a few fibs on your CV. This is particularly topical, with one of The Apprentice finalist being caught out for claiming she had a degree that she didn’t. Therefore, the moral of the story is, by telling a few lies on your CV, you will probably get caught out!

Another way you can employ specific talent if simply through the language you use in the job description. A recent case included a company who struggled to attract Female talent. By simply changing the language in their job description, so it was seen to be less “aggressive”, they increased female hires by 50%.

It is crucial that employers use the interview process to not only assess candidates, but to sell themselves and their company culture. A recent trend for interviews is to expect the unexpected with companies really thinking outside the box with interview tactics, but regardless it is key to reflect your company’s values.

So with January being the best time of year for job seekers to start a new position, what can you do differently to ensure your companies culture appeals to the top talent?

(Credit to Executive Grapevine Daily)

5 ways to boost productivity in the workplace

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The goal of any leader is, ultimately, to increase output. In the current volatile business climate simply maintaining allows other key players in the industry to gain advantage.

However, simply brandishing a whip and telling your team to ‘work harder’ is far from a sustainable way to truly up productivity. Whilst you may see a small increase in output in the short term, of course any leader worth their salt will know that this simply cannot last, or will be at the detriment of quality and diligence.

Truly increasing productivity isn’t down to one thing; like most elements of effective leadership, the concept should be approached with finesse and an overarching view of the business’ key functions – one of which should always be to ensure that workers are treated well and with respect. Simply pushing them to their limits will lead to high turnover, poor well being and ultimately a complete breakdown in function.

But then what works? How can leaders actually up productivity without compromising other areas? Read on to find out…

Review functions

Most workers aren’t performing as well as they can, but the truth is that it’s not their fault. Often, good workers simply pick up small voids left by others. This may be as simple as watering plants, or fixing the printer when it jams, yet these little incremental tasks take them away from their actual jobs and waste time. It may take just five minutes to fix a printer jam, but this one task takes them out of whatever they were doing and it may take more than half an hour to get back into the productivity ‘zone’. If you want to ensure that all workers are operating at 100%, take away the fluff that surrounds their core function.

Promote breaks

It sounds counterproductive, yet ensuing that workers are taking the time to mentally decompress between big tasks is massively beneficial to productivity. A survey conducted by Tork in the US last year found that those who took a fifteen-minute break between big tasks to decompress were not only 38% happier at work, but also 22% more productive; the study also found that the quality of their work was better. So, to do more, professionals must work less.

Set small goals

It’s all well and good aiming for a grand company objective – yet often this is vague and sets no roadmap to strive for. Your workers don’t need to know that they’re aiming for ‘excellence’ in customer service. This is a given, and provides absolutely no aide in getting there. Instead, set smaller, far more achievable goals with tangible roadmaps to success. Instead of ‘excellence’, why not ‘Upsell THIS service to 10 customers today’. This is easily achievable, and ups productivity through proper guidance.

Consider work-life balance

No professional is at their best when they can’t mentally divide themselves for their work. Burned out workers get ill, they let things slip and their wellness evaporates, along with their drive and purpose. ONS research suggests that work-related stress was the single largest cause of workplace absence last year. And if you’re their manager, it’s your fault, not theirs. Fight this by ensuring that they aren’t messaged about work outside of work hours, that they go home on time every day, and that they don’t work in evenings and weekends. By dividing these two worlds, they’ll be far more refreshed and ready to work.

Promote collaboration

Good teams work together to achieve goals, and as a worker, knowing that you have a vast network of expertise that you can call upon if you’re stuck is a massive advantage. But this doesn’t come naturally. Workers are far more likely to simply try and keep their workloads to themselves – so it takes the promotion of collaboration from managers to make it happen.

(Credit to Executive Grapevine Daily)

Leaders feel isolated at work

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Managing a team of skilled people is the dream for many professionals. In fact, one in five Brits believe that managing a team is a sign of success in the workplace, a survey from CV-Library revealed, however, this success comes at a price.

According to CV-Library research, 27.2% of senior leaders admit to feeling lonely in the workplace with 40% claiming that people’s attitudes towards them changed after they moved into a more senior position.

The study of 300 senior members of staff from across the UK discovered that loneliness also permeated into their personal lives. So much so that over half (56.8%) stated that their home life had suffered as a result of work. In addition, 54.7% said that it’s not worth it to be where they currently are in their professional career.

“Reaching the top is an attractive goal for many, but even the most senior employees need support in the workplace. Particularly if you’re working long hours and shoulder huge levels of responsibility” said Lee Biggins, Founder and CEO of CV-Library.

“Naturally, as a senior member of staff, you’ll have to remain neutral towards your teams, but this can result in feelings of exclusion. Moreover, you’ll have a responsibility to provide support to your employees, but don’t forget about yourself! Seek help from other senior members of staff, especially in the transition period after being promoted.”

The research went on to reveal that senior leaders are most likely to feel lonely in the workplace because they have little in common with colleagues (42.7%), work in an office on their own (34.4%) and because their peers are much younger than them (24.4%).

When asked what they think are the best ways for employers to prevent loneliness in the workplace, senior leaders suggest the below:

  • Put appropriate support in place (49.2%)
  • Have more office socials (34.5%)
  • Hire a diverse team (32.9%)
  • Construct an open-plan office (28.2%)
  • Improve the on-boarding process (27%)

Biggins added: “As a senior employee, you may feel unable to talk about any feelings of loneliness because of your status in the company. To combat this, it’s important to prioritise your own well-being and work closely with other leaders.

“Whether you organise company socials to blow off some steam away from the workplace, or have regular catch ups with fellow manager, it will help you to forge stronger working relationships. In turn, this should encourage a more open and supportive atmosphere.”

(Credit to Executive Grapevine Daily)

Don’t trust ‘productivity’ tools

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In a progressively digital world the number of tools and apps on the market, which are designed to make our jobs easier, is somewhat staggering.

With start-ups regularly coming onto the scene purporting to offer the latest and greatest productivity tool, it’s easy to get caught up in the ability these technological advances can have. However, is it possible these new tools are actually hindering our productivity?

Therefore, it is time business leaders and managers take a step back and review their productivity tools and whether they should trust them. To help you recognise whether your tools are helping your productivity, Medium shared a list of three top tips to track this.

Evaluate your needs

A good staring point Medium suggests is to list areas which you wish to be more efficient with and then sort them into categories. Then identify the key thing you need the most help with in each category. For example, from this if you realise you need a more effective way of taking notes during meetings, conduct some research into tools to help with this to benefit you and your tasks.

Keep track

As the adage saying goes, ‘less is more’. This is particularly true when it comes to your choice of productivity tools. To keep on top of things it’s vital that you keep track of the many tools you are using, for example you may discover you are using too many for one task. If this is the case, start eliminating the one you do not use. Streamlining your tools on a regular basis like this will stop you from using more tools that aren’t necessary.

Use only what you need

Lastly, Medium warns business leaders and managers shouldn’t get caught up in the false need to use what’s new and hot on the market. Remember each tool that you use should be making life easier at work, while also improving your productivity. However, if they are making things more complicated it may be worth ditching them altogether.

(Credit to Executive Grapevine Daily)

Three strategies to accelerate your career

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Never before has self-development and personal training been more crucial than it is today.

In an age where job-hopping is no longer frowned upon, as employees take on new roles and join new companies to find the one that suits them best, employers have slowly begun to stop investing in developing individual workers who may leave before a return on learning is realised.

Therefore, adopting strategies yourself that can accelerate your career can provide employees with the best possible option to get ahead and achieve more.

This is something Jason Wingard, a contributor to Forbes, has put emphasis on in a recent article for the publication. He wrote: “For ambitious employees, self-development is an effective way, and, in some cases the only way, to hasten progress along the career ladder.”

He went on to reveal his top three strategies to help employees assume control of their development and accelerate their career:

Put strategy first

With statistics stating that one-third of employees report that their bosses don’t assist with career development, Wingard believes that the onus should fall on to workers to be proactive and work towards a strategy to improve their own skill-set. They should prioritise ways in which they can gain more experience, attain marketable skills and build a group of supporters.

One way to enhance this is to find a mentor. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a senior leader and could be a co-worker or a junior colleague. As long as the mentor has teachable skills that can accelerate your career, mentor-ship can make a huge difference to the future of your role at work.

Be your own ‘Chief Marketing Officer’

Wingard advised that today’s workers must become their own ‘Chief Marketing Officer’ and therefore should be analysing, refining and improving the way that they appear in the job market. One of the quickest ways he suggested is to embrace education to improve oneself.

These could be in the form of free webinars that inform users of the latest techniques within business, or you could choose to invest some more and take on an online course or attend weekend workshops to expand your skill-set.

Get feedback

While feedback can be both positive and negative, it is all constructive and can help to grow your career. Therefore, it’s essential you regularly ask for feedback. Wingard noted that discovering strengths and weaknesses in soft skills is the first step all employees should take when trying to accelerate their career, and the best way to do that is by asking for feedback.

Ensure you regularly reach out to your peers and line manager to see what you could improve on, while also finding out what  you’re excelling at to provide yourself with a benchmark. This will ultimately steer you in the right direction and provide structure to your career goals.

(Credit to Executive Grapevine Daily)