I made a phone call to an applicant the other day for a role that we have been recruiting for and was really impressed. The applicant’s phone rang and she answered with “Hello David”. This is a very rare occurrence, I hadn’t even introduced myself! Would you believe that she was also successful through our interview process and commenced in the role only a few days ago.

Now… you don’t have to be that switched on to impress us from the first phone call however ‘first impressions count’ and what this candidate showed was a very good first impression. She knew what she had applied for, knew who was looking after it and must have saved my phone number into her phone to know who could be calling her. Too often, we make calls, the candidate asks ‘which job is this for?’ or ‘where are you from?’ and then we have to explain ourselves, and at the same time thinking whether this is actually going to work out for all of us.

How do you get yourself in the spotlight?
Have a job search strategy. When you have a strategy and the right tools, you will know exactly where you stand, what you’ve applied for, particulars about the jobs, contacts and where the application process currently is. When we train jobseekers in job searching strategies we focus on them having the following tools first:

• A current resume – sometimes you will make a phone call and the employer or recruiter will ask you to send it straight through to them . Unfortunately a number of candidates will respond with “I just have to update it first”. Don’t be that person – it shows that you are disorganised!
• A draft cover letter prepared for the type of role(s) that you would generally apply for that outlines your skills, experience and intention
• A spreadsheet or table to track job searching activities. I recall seeing a really good one prepared by a candidate that was applying for one of our roles a few years ago – she also made it to final selection. It should indicate the date that it was advertised, title, company/recruiter, contact name, phone, particulars, the process and outcome
• A phone that works – you may laugh however a good number of candidates are uncontactable… and are unsuccessful as well!
• A schedule of when you may be available to interview – this goes a long way for us as we can then book in to see you sooner rather than later

Most importantly your strategy should be aimed at applying for jobs that match your skill base. We receive a number of applications every day that make us stop and scratch our head to ask why this person is applying for this role? We get used to repeat offenders and start hitting the delete key instead of opening up your application to save wasting time. Don’t be that person. Be strategic – it is far better to apply for one role this week that matches your skill base rather than three that ‘kind of do’. You will stand a much better chance against other candidates this way and possibly come out on top – we are sure that you would rather that!

Get all of these tools in place, focus on your strategy , impress us and win that job!

Congratulations, you have made it to the next stage in your application – the interview. You have beaten all of the other candidates and most likely have a one in three chance of winning the job. You have no idea what the other candidates possess so… now it is yours to lose…

Ok, you have done something right in your written application, have the skills on paper to perform in the role, answered the right questions over the phone and have now been called to come in and meet your prospective new employer face to face. What now?

Generally when you are called for interview you may only have 24 hours or less to prepare for it so how do you prepare, and what are the main things that the interviewers are looking for?

When we interview a candidate on behalf of a client, we focus on the following aspects:

• Intention – why are you looking for work, why did you choose this role and what do you know about the company (if revealed), what would you like to gain from taking on this role?
• Skills and qualifications – we read about these on your resume and application letter or selection criteria, we now need for you to spell out what you do, how you have done it (examples) and the outcomes of applying these skills in the workplace
• Capacity to perform the role – do your examples and applied experience give us the confidence that you can perform in the role?
• Do we like you and could our client work with you? I know that this is a tough one to grasp but this is a major factor for us. So many jobs have been won or lost on this very question and it just doesn’t get the attention it deserves.  All of the above mean nothing if you have the wrong attitude, show arrogance or overconfidence, or just have qualities that don’t fit with the culture of the organisation that we are recruiting for

How do you prepare?

Look back at the bullet points above and answer those questions. Look at your intentions, write out examples of how your work experiences meet the criteria and competencies of the role advertised and do you have examples that will draw a picture for the interviewer? Focus on what you have done over what you can do (we can all do things but not everyone has always done something – prove it). Lastly, get friends, family or those in your network to give feedback on how you actually come across. Be honest with yourself and tell them to be honest… you may be surprised at how you come across to other people and it’s just that nobody told you. If it is a bit unfavourable or, at the other end of the scale,  doesn’t show any confidence, work on it.

Interview day

Have appropriate clothes prepared, know where the interview actually is, have your mobile with you with the contact’s phone number (cars do break down, accidents do happen), and leave with enough time to get to the interview on time. All of these are “no-brainers” however, we have experienced these issues with candidates in the past. It is also a really good idea to bring your resume and application, some of the notes that you prepared about your application, a few questions jotted down about the role and a notepad and pen to write down some information. These last few things show interest in the role, a demonstration of good organisational skills and could work as ‘cheat sheets’ to look back on if you get stuck or nervous during the interview.

The rest is now in your hands… good luck!

Doing what we do in recruitment, we see a lot of resumes coming through our system on a daily basis. The stand-out thing for us is the short tenure that most applicants have in their work history, which makes us ask the question – what is considered a long term employee? We also ask, do you hold employees longer than 3 years, and if so, do you do anything special to retain them?

Reading a story from this month’s BRW magazine about ‘The 50 Best Places To Work’ we saw some common themes about engagement of staff, team building, flexibility, having fun at work, recognition and professional development. We also read with interest some of the other activities such as free holidays, competitions, Kung Fu sessions (yes, Kung Fu!!!) and thought, what do our clients do to retain staff? We select and work with some great businesses on the Gold Coast and each has something to give that helps retain their staff. We have found that the culture plays a huge part, recognition for effort, flexibility in work hours (this one needs clear policies in place) and being paid appropriately were the major factors. Minor factors included the workplace perks such as bbq’s at lunch, Friday drinks, gym memberships and huge Christmas parties, that are all real factors for some people and they really love to tell their friends (or brag) about it.

Now we ask the question of what is considered a long term employee? Again we spoke to clients and our candidates about their employment tenure, and whilst we had quite a few that were 10 years plus in the one organisation, we are seeing more and more that employees are leaving around the third year mark or earlier. With this in mind, have you ever thought of working the opposite way to others and decided to recruit your next role with the focus on the person being in the role for 2 or 3 years maximum? Obviously there should also be a longer term plan for the role, as we always hope that they would stay longer, but what if they don’t?

Some may think that deciding on your next employee only lasting 2 or 3 years in the role as a defeatist attitude however, it can also prove to be a very smart and practical way of working within the current employment environment. Consider this for a moment:

• If you have committed to having the person for 2 years, you can now plan what outcomes you want from that person (and the role) in the 2 years, break it down into quarters and set targets and/or projects for the role over that period
• The role and KPI’s / targets will actually be better defined, giving the new employee a purpose in their role and better engagement as they know where they currently stand
• By doing this, you may find that the new employee is focused on and may actually enjoy, achieving those targets (all roles can have targets, not just sales) and could become a long term employee and ultimately, an asset to your business
• It could also help you develop a new recruitment strategy and succession plan for developing staff internally – recognition is valued by employees including the opportunity to advance their career

What you may find from taking a different approach is that morale and focus could be boosted, employees are more engaged, employees develop faster, and you lower the attrition rate in your business. There is no magic pill; however a small change in strategy can yield very good results.

Following on from yesterday’s front page write-up in the Gold Coast Bulletin about ‘Generation Y’ being lazy and arrogant and unemployable, as researched by a team at Gold Coast City Council, we actually believe the opposite. We were asked to comment for the article and gave a positive response, stating that times have changed over the last few years and so have candidates in that category (our “edited” response was on page 4).

We believed the research to be somewhat outdated as today’s ‘Gen Y’ candidates that come through our agency for interview are quite skilled, are happy to negotiate salary and have shown their worth to our clients. Whilst some employers may have experienced some poor performers both in attitude and value for money through their own recruitment efforts, we have seen and placed some exceptional ‘Gen Y’ candidates that far exceeded those of ‘Gen X’ or ‘Baby Boomer’ categories.

Looking at the negatives that some of those against ‘Gen Y’ had experienced included:

• High expectations of salary or wages
• Disrespectful to their peers and managers
• Poor work ethic (not hard workers, late to work, not goal driven)
• Hard to manage
• Hard to retain

What are the solutions?

From our experience in the recruitment space, a lot of these negatives are actually standard responses we receive from employers about people of all ages in their workforce, excluding the ‘hard to retain’ reason for more mature workers. Our job is to screen these candidates out before presenting them to you anyway. The best way for you to beat this is to actually look at your recruitment methods – how do you recruit, what are you actually looking for, what type of person fits your work culture, are you writing an attractive job advertisement, how do you interview, what questions do you ask, what questions do you ask their referees, are you judging character properly, what are you offering, is the salary/wage offered relative to the current market or just your opinion, what will be the status of their employment (casual / permanent / full time / part time / contract)? If you can answer these questions and recruit well, chances are that you will be screening out those that don’t meet what you want, irrespective of age or generation.

Retaining staff

We certainly agree that some ‘Gen Y’ candidates and employees differ from those before them and can be hard to retain – there is, unfortunately, no magic pill for this. ‘Gen Y’ have more of a sense of ‘now’ and needing to move up quickly through the ranks to make good money to be part of the ‘have’ generation. They are more self aware in the fact that they assess who they are and where they are going more often than we do – this is something significant that we have seen during our recruitment campaigns.  ‘Gen Y’ sometimes have the tendency to get bored in their role as they are used to technology, can pick up things a lot quicker than some of us  and may be attracted to other roles in the organisation that seem more detailed – by seeing them stagnant in their role it can raise the assumption of laziness rather than what it really is – an urge to learn and move to the next thing. Our thoughts on this are to look at their learning and communication styles. You most probably differ in your learning style and may assume that is how they learn, which is not necessarily the case. You don’t need to hold the hand of ‘Gen Y’ employees, just sit down with them more regularly, ask them how they are going, ask for ideas to improve current processes, and ask them if they feel they are being paid well. You may be surprised with the responses and ideas that they bring to the team and their insight on their worth, which you can debate openly. They will feel more involved, respected and have the recognition that this generation craves. It may also improve their focus on the business, helping you to retain someone that could be a future supervisor or manager.

At the end of the day, it’s about your business and how a person fits what you require for it to run well. Yes, things can go pear shaped however having the right processes at the beginning can have a huge impact on whether you continually have issues arising in your workforce. If you say no to ‘Gen Y’ then quite frankly you are missing out on some really good candidates that could help you attract a new market, steer your business in a new direction, offer new ways of doing what you have been doing, and ultimately, help lead to the survival of your business in a new economy.

Now, let’s put the debate to bed once and for all and recruit some great candidates!

After seeing the collapse of Hastie Group this week and a raft of job losses it stirred up some interest in the question of future employability for business owners, Directors and long term employees.  If you are a business owner, partner, senior manager or a long term employee, what would you rate your chances of getting another job quickly if everything went pear-shaped?

Would you employ you? How would you sell your skills and experience to a potential employer and would you work for someone again? What is your intention in the new company? Will you stick around? Basically these are things that we often have to assess at application and interview stage for candidates that are in this situation. Some are very clear on these things and some really leave us guessing.

A few months ago we interviewed a senior manager that was responsible for business development and sales who approached us for a similar role that was advertised. When asked why that person wished to leave the role, their response was due to the lack of new business coming in and they could now see “the writing on the wall” for the company. If you take a step back, it was this person’s responsibility to seek new business and create opportunity so that this didn’t happen! Our big question: employable or unemployable?

Getting back to you. Hypothetically, if something happened to your business whether as an owner, senior manager or long term employee what would you do? We all know that the world won’t end, that’s for sure. You may however, be in a sticky situation if you don’t realistically look at who you are and your value to the next company. We are all proud of our individual achievements and you are definitely skilled in your workplace however, how do you sell that? Some points to consider based on feedback that we get from our clients:

• As a Director, Entrepreneur, Partner or business owner the first thing we look at is your reason for moving on. You may have fulfilled your goals in your own business, a family member may have become ill, your industry may have changed or has been affected, a partnership may have dissolved and the list goes on… Be clear in what that is and most importantly what you want to bring to the role. You can be considered a high risk placement or even a threat to the next employer. What would you think of a rival business owner coming to work for you – would you be scared that they may spend 12 months with you, gather your information and your database, leave and start again back in competition with you?
• As a long term employee – basically, you appear safe, as you have showed the tenacity and dedication to stay at a job or career for a period of time greater than 3 years (yes, we now consider “long term” greater than 3 years – shocking isn’t it?). However, the big question is what did you do whilst you were there? Did you work in a company for 10 years and have just 1 job that entire time, or did you progress your career in the company? Suddenly you may appear unattractive and questions start getting asked about your ability to learn and adapt, your motivation level and performance levels.
• For both groups, salary is the biggest question – where do you fit? what are you comfortable with, can you take a cut and start again. This is one of the biggest hesitations that we experience on both sides of the fence. We all have a “personal worth” that we need to consider however you also need to consider what the market is paying (with some flexibility for your added skills). You sometimes have to leave the ego at the door and listen to what the job is worth to the business. Just remember, at the time of budgeting for the role, the company did not know you and were certainly not considering your perceived worth to assign a salary range to it.

What you need to do is to plan your attack. The first thing is to focus on your intentions and think of why you are looking at a new role and what your intentions are for the next business. Second to that, create a resume or CV (a great exercise to do even if you are in your own business) to see exactly who you are on paper – write down your achievements over the years, your qualifications and professional development and group the jobs or tasks that you are most skilled in. To us at New Point, the perfect candidate is clear on who they are, have the right intentions for the job, know and can give examples of their skills pertinent to the role and have a likeable character to fit with the team. Do you fit that profile?

Would you employ you?