Never Fall in Love!

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I recall having an Executive vying for a $200k role a few years ago. We were down to the last three, he was a stand-out and the CEO was honed in on him well above the other candidates. He won the role, was offered and declined – he just wanted to meet the CEO (in an attempt to build his network) and win the job (for his ego). His intention was never to take it, and of course we will remember his name forever for all the wrong reasons!

Falling in love

You know that moment when you interview everyone and there is a clear winner? The other two candidates aren’t even in the same ballpark, and you just want to close it out and get the person over the line. It happens quite often, even to us. I remember one of my clients saying to me once ‘I never fall in love anymore’ – we were having a difficult time recruiting for her and she had been burned by a few ‘ex-lovers’ (top candidates) before. Her broken heart made her see everyone on the same playing field now which really made it difficult to sell the strong ones!

Putting all your eggs in the one basket

Maybe she’s right though. How often do we put people up on a pedestal only to be let down? We’ve often spoken to new clients that had given up during the recruitment process due to losing candidates. At the end of the day they have other functions of the business to manage and having to restart the process or go back to the hundred or more applications and start again doesn’t seem like a viable option. A lot of it does come down to falling in love. You see a heap of applications, one stands out and then the others fall in and around that applicant. Historically, you stop the screening process, move to interview, and the person does a killer interview but then never proceeds due to another offer or just declines with no reason. You don’t want to fall into this position!

How to win

There are a number of tactics to ensure that you can bring the best people into your team and business:

  • Have a good value proposition around your role and the company – the more attractive your role and the company are, the greater the chance of attracting good people
  • If you are a smaller business that doesn’t have a big network to draw candidates from and are solely relying on advertising, keep the job post open for the entire period you have paid for. SEEK is 30 days, keep it open for the 30. You may find the ideal candidate on day 3 but you should build a pool of candidates in the background in case that person does not take the offer – you need a fallback plan – keep screening them all
  • Don’t fall in love! There may be a stand-out candidate but take the blinkers off and look at others that may have skills you could use in the business. The stand-out serves the current function but the hidden ones may actually be the better pick that takes you to the next level
  • Outsource it to a specialist that understands how to attract candidates, has a wider net to cast and also has retention strategies to keep a candidate interested in the role during the process
  • Act swiftly – the good ones do get snapped up quickly. A drawn out process can mean calling to offer the successful candidate, only to find they have already taken another role

If you need any further information or would like to find out more about how we can help your business, please call us on 1300 558 979. We are always happy to discuss how we can help you achieve your recruitment goals.

No Smokers Please!

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Is it discriminatory to request that we screen out smokers when hiring a new employee for our client or is it just a workplace right that other non-smokers should have in their place of work? Knowing the dangers of smoking and second hand smoke, could it even be considered as a Workplace Health and Safety issue and your duty of care to not bring that into a workplace?

Ask a smoker if it would be discriminatory to not hire them based on the fact that they smoked and the answer would be YES!

Ask a non-smoker if they felt that a smoker could pose a potential health risk or do they just hate the smell around them and the answer will most likely also be YES!

Ask a customer of that company and it could be a mixed result, however, if the customer is a non-smoker, it could influence their decision to deal with the salesperson or receptionist, resulting in lost sales that you will never be aware of.

Whilst I have a personal preference that I will keep to myself, the nature of this blog is to help you if you are a smoker and looking for your next opportunity.

The smoke free workplace

A lot of companies that we know have already moved or are moving to a ‘smoke free’ environment and look for people that fit that prospect. They are also introducing ‘no smoking in company uniform’ policies as it could be considered a detriment to their brand and also affect their staff and workplace. There is also a Government link dedicated to this initiative to incorporate into the workplace. It’s not necessarily the issue about people taking smoke breaks throughout the day, it’s actually about the person returning to the office after their smoke wreaking of cigarettes that actually disrupts their colleagues. Potentially, if you are in customer facing roles, it may even turn off the customers themselves. Employers don’t want to disrupt their staff and even more so, don’t want to turn off someone that is paying them money. Whilst we are not going to delve into the legalities of all of this, the bottom line is that if you are a smoker and your dream company or role pops up and the company doesn’t want that as part of their environment, you need to be aware of this and change something about you to help you win and retain the job.

Self – Awareness

If you wake up at 6am and have a smoke and your interview is at 9am, it is potentially still on your breath, on your clothes or on your person – this is just a fact and if picked up, may ruin your chance of getting a great job. You may have nailed the interview and stand-by to await the call that never comes. Only to call and get some lame feedback that they went with someone that ‘had more’ experience’ or that ‘it was such a tough decision but we went with another candidate’. The real reason will never be known however being in our unique position as a recruiter behind the scenes, we often know what went wrong. Quite often we get feedback from employers that a candidate attended an interview and did well however they had a smoke sometime beforehand (and sometimes just before) going into their interview. “we had to air the office out’ and ‘the place just smelled afterwards’ are real words of feedback that we have received from our clients. To non-smokers (especially if it’s the hiring manager) it can be a massive turn-off so we always come back to the old saying of ‘first impressions count’. What a lot of smokers may not realise is that a lot of non-smokers are really sensitive to the smell of cigarettes – their radar pops up immediately. Not many people have the guts to tell you, so you need to understand this to improve your potential of being hired.

What can you do about it?

From a non-smoker’s perspective, the short answer of course is not to smoke but the reality is that you have a personal choice to do it or not – this isn’t our call. My personal advice is that if you have an interview lined up, do some research about the company and even do a drive or walk by during their lunch or morning tea times to see if there are staff having a smoke outside – this may sound silly but is it not worth investing your future on it? The big one though is holding off having a smoke before your interview and doing your best to secure the role first – it could easily be the difference between winning the job and not. If you win it, go in your first day with the intention of not smoking and see what occurs throughout the day. If it is accepted throughout the day, then it’s all good, if not, you may have to work around it and adjust when and where you do smoke. You put a lot of effort into winning the role, the best you can do for yourself and your family is to retain it by adjusting what you do.

We wish you all the best and if you would like to discuss this further, we are always open to having a chat about improving your chances at interview and working towards a great career. You can call our office on 1300 558 979 to talk further.

Our Entire Team Can Earn Monthly Bonuses

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Well isn’t that an interesting concept. Think about this for a moment – imagine your entire staff being incentivised to add value to the business? Your receptionist earning bonuses, your admin and accounts teams as well as the HR and IT teams? The sales team are still in place and out there creating new business however, internally, there is an equally important functional team that is also focused on bringing in business and adding value well beyond their “normal” role.

The big change:

This was quite a unique company I was working with however the same principle can be applied to all businesses – it’s a matter of being creative, training your team and opening their eyes to the opportunity. It does not have to be flat out sales, there are many ways of bringing in business that can suit even the most introverted person. For this company there were teething issues at first – some came on board straight away, some hated the idea and eventually, a large proportion came around and became advocates of the idea and even more so, advocates of the company. They also improved their earning potential, learned about what the company actually did and gained an interest in where they worked.

Incentivising your staff:

Of course incentivised staff are not a new concept. We see it all the time with sales, BDM’s  Account Managers and the management team. What we don’t see often is those working in functional roles being incentivised. Some have KPI’s and eligibility for annual bonuses however, they are generally paid an annual wage with no opportunity to better that throughout the year. Basically they are seen as a necessity to get through the administrative tasks of the business to enable it to function – they are very important but at the end of the day, they have a ceiling to what each functional role is worth in the market. Imagine the retention and ‘buy in’ you would get by giving staff the opportunity to earn more, be rewarded for their efforts and feel part of the greater team. It’s not always an easy thing to implement and some employees may freak out when they hear of it so be careful and calculated in how you approach it!

It’s not just about the money, but it does have its place:

It is a fair bet to say that if you asked any of your team members across functional roles (admin, accounts, HR, IT for example) if they would like to improve their financial situation, there would be a very high percentage that would say Yes. Again, there is a ceiling in the market to what people can earn in a large range of roles and therefore people sometimes feel stuck. Think of the reasons you are given when staff leave – I’m bored, the other company was offering more money, etc etc. A motivated, incentivised and rewarded person just doesn’t have the opportunity to feel that way – they are too busy being part of something, improving their situation and learning. Not only does it add value to the company but it adds value to your people and could also improve retention. Your people are picking up new skills, being engaged with the business and their customers and getting the pat on the back that we all crave. It’s worked very well for one business that we know, maybe it could work for yours.

If you would like to discuss in detail what this company did to improve their business, feel free to call us on 1300 558 979 to see how it could be implemented in your business.

There Are No Good People Out There!

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It’s funny how many times I hear this in my travels. Going back one step, I was at a business breakfast, did the usual introduction, and upon hearing that I am in recruitment, the person’s first response was “There are no good people out there”. Normally I give a “I’m not really into you” kind of smile and move on but I thought I would probe further. The speaker at the event was a 3 out of 10 on a good day and this person had sparked my interest so I pressed on and engaged.

So… what’s wrong with the market? I asked…

‘They’re all slackers’. Cool, that’s a great explanation I thought. We got into a discussion about all the wrongs that had been committed over the years and I gave him a hug (more of a pat on the back) and talked it through. It’s amazing what you find out when you really want to discover some of the facts that have shaped a person’s perception. I won’t bore you with the conversation – here are some facts:

  • He hasn’t recruited in a while as he doesn’t like taking on staff – they all do the wrong thing remember?
  • He’s also a bit angry because he has to work later (due to a lack of staff) – tied up in day to day, the business is also not growing as a result
  • In 2011 he was burned by a person that took too much sick leave – he was still holding onto this
  • Another employee ‘screwed up’ their accounts system
  • After advertising a year ago, he couldn’t find anyone good to fill the role and the girl he did like, turned them down (I wonder why?) so he just left it

Perception can really make it hard for you

I’ll leave it for you to decide on whether he’s right or wrong. The fact is that employees are going to make mistakes, some are going to take advantage of you  and/or the company, and quite a few are actually going to do the right thing and add value. Of course we all shape what we are looking for and also not wanting from past events. the problem occurs when you start putting people in a box. I’ve heard heaps of silly things in my time including:

  • No more Michaels – we actually got down to a name ban once!
  • No more older people
  • No young ones they’re just on Facebook all the time
  • Quite a few others that I will just stay away from

At the end of the day, these are all stereotypes and perceptions based on false data. It’s far more productive to forget about or learn from  past hires and focus on the role you need filled and what the right person will do for the company. Being open to a range of potential employees that sit outside what you had thought and can also become a real epiphany when explained what this person can do for you. We have successfully converted candidates for clients that would never have selected them if they had done the recruit themselves. They have added value and helped grow their businesses. Our role at New Point is to help you and to also provide options that you wouldn’t normally consider. Call our office on 1300558979 to have a chat about how we can make a difference to your recruitment process and your outcomes.