Mar 15, 2019 | IT
Recruiting the best IT contractors and IT staff can be a protracted process and the danger of candidates changing their minds, or worse still, accepting a counter-offer from a competitor is ever present.
In order to minimise the risk of losing the best candidates before they have signed their new contract of employment it is essential to ensure that you have a recruitment process which is as efficient as possible.
It is important to balance the need to act quickly, in order to secure the best talent, with the need to bide your time so that you do not appear desperate. A shrewd candidate may pick up on the fact that the recruitment process appears to be rushed and they may then try to turn that to their advantage when it comes to negotiating terms.
Employing the services of a specialist recruitment agency to act as a professional intermediary is a cost-effective way to recruit IT contractors and IT permanent staff. Their experience, advice and refined procedures will minimise the risk of losing out on the best candidates during the recruitment process and help to avoid complications in the future.
A recruitment agency will be able to advise on an accurate package offer based on current market rates, the skills and experience of the candidate and the candidate’s current situation. This negates the risk of making an offensively low offer or an offer which is too high which could then cause conflict and tension between existing employees and put financial pressure on a business.
A good recruitment agency will also spend time maintaining a dialogue with prospective candidates as well as acting as an advocate on your behalf, this helps to keep your company at the forefront of the candidates mind when they are considering offers.
They will also be skilled in asking the questions which determine a candidate’s motivation for seeking a new role; if money is a key factor then it is likely that the candidate will be susceptible to counter-offers. If you are aware of this then you can act accordingly.
Once a candidate is committed to the recruitment process it is important to maintain momentum by arranging first and second interview dates quickly, providing feedback and keeping in regular contact via phone or email. Having an efficient method of completing the necessary paperwork is equally important as candidates are prone to changing their minds between receiving a verbal offer of employment and a copy of their new contract of employment.
To find out how Langley James can help you recruit someone worth recruiting to streamline your IT recruitment process please contact us on 0207 099 4839 or langleyjames@langleyjames.com
Mar 15, 2019 | IT
How To Create A Positive Candidate Experience in 4 Steps
The recruitment process is a stressful time for both employees and applicants. Businesses place such a huge emphasis on hiring the ‘perfect’ candidate for the role, they often forget the importance in nurturing relationships with those who aren’t ‘perfect’ for the role. Don’t forget, when somebody applies for a job, they are taking a risk and putting their current job on the line. All applicants deserve a positive candidate experience and when you master this, you are providing your company with an excellent marketing tool. Here are our 4 steps to creating a positive candidate experience for ALL applicants:
- First Impressions are Crucial
It only takes 3-5 seconds for someone to make a first impression. This begins right at the outset when an applicant applies for a role. A person’s first interaction with your company is likely to begin at your website and from there, judgement and perceptions of your company are heavily shaped by their user experience at initial search stages. You may not realize the importance of providing users with a positive experience externally, but a poor website can tell an awful lot to an applicant about the kind of company they could potentially be working for. This first impression will proceed to heavily influence a candidate’s decision over whether they want to work for you or not.
- Honesty is the Best Policy
Companies who are honest and transparent about the roles they are recruiting for, are always the ones who are able to recruit the best candidates and maintain the best retention and employee satisfaction rates. Little white lies such as “you’ll hear from us either way” when you have no intention of getting back in touch; or “we are interested but still have some more people to interview”, when in actual fact you have extended an offer and are waiting for the candidate to except; all contribute to leaving a candidate feeling deceived and disappointed. Again, this type of behavior will certainly impact on your employer branding – don’t forget, word of mouth is a very strong tool. Avoid getting into a situation where your company is given a bad name all because you committed to something you never delivered on.
- Acknowledge ALL Applicants
Establishing and maintaining relationships is crucial if you want to successfully recruit new members to your team. Whether an applicant fits the bill or not, each person who has taken the time to apply for the role deserves your time and courtesy to let them know the situation. If the applicant is not right for that particular role, then contact them with a simple call or email to let them know that you will not be proceeding any further with their application but to thank them kindly for their application. This common courtesy throughout the recruitment process. It is imperative to create strong relationships with applicants, whether they are suitable for the role or not – because you never know when an unsuccessful candidate’s skill set and experience may become of significant value to your company. A staggering 70% of online applicants never receive a response if their application is unsuccessful. This disheartening statistic demonstrates the lack of importance placed on responding to applicants. Strong communication is a positive marketing tool – and lack of it demonstrates poor leadership and inadequate HR.
- Feedback is Key
The one thing that candidates truly hate when going through an interview process with a company, is when clients simply do not provide feedback following the interview. Candidates place a large importance on the interview, and go to great lengths to ensure they are fully prepared. A client who fails to provide feedback can do more damage to their own reputation than they realize. Whether it be that feedback is on your to-do list and you just haven’t got round to it; or that you didn’t feel the candidate was suitable and you will not be proceeding any further with their application, so therefore feedback is unnecessary, feedback is of high importance and must always be provided where possible. It can be hard to give negative feedback to a candidate, but even negative feedback is constructive and can be used to improve a candidate’s interview skills in their future endeavors. It also gives you the opportunity to seek feedback from the interviewee. This is a chance to review what you did well in the interview and what you could improve on in future interviews.
Our expert IT recruitment consultants are here to take the pressure off you when recruiting someone new. We liaise with candidates with the utmost care to ensure that their candidate experience is a positive one. Call us on 0207 788 6600 and let us help you Recruit Someone worth Recruiting.
Mar 15, 2019 | IT
Generally speaking employee turnover is seen as a bad thing. Aside from having to accept that someone may not want to work for your business any more, turnover can have a negative effect on moral and the cost involved in recruiting and training someone new can build up too. This may be the case for larger organisations. However, for smaller firms, SMEs and start-ups the discussion about positive employee turnover produces a strong argument.
Dr John Sullivan, an internationally known HR thought-leader said “true recruiters are always trying to steal away the best employees, even during tough economic times. If no one steals (or even tries to steal) your employees, it might mean they aren’t worth stealing.” With this in mind, we take a look at some of the positives of employee turnover.
Developing The Right Team
Smaller businesses may have started up fast, with a keen CEO employing new staff to get essential jobs done and help the business get moving and begin to grow. However, in the longer term as the business evolves, these people may no longer be the best people for the job. It’s important to assemble the right team over time and not just one of convenience. In this case, experiencing employee turnover may not be negative but simply part of the evolution of the business, helping it to grow, improve and discover the core strengths required by team members.
Identifying Poor Performers
Because during the recession most organisations saw their workforce fall, as they hire again focus is often on job security and so turnover is all too often seen as a negative. Reassessing and monitoring performance and ROIs will help you to evaluate whether or not it is bad for your organisation. Dr Sullivan talked about categorising turnover into the three categories of ‘regrettable’, ‘neutral’ or ‘desirable’. This will depend on who is leaving, why and how. In order to understand what kind of turnover you’re experiencing you’ll have to know your staff and have an idea about their performance rate, attitude, and skills. Regular reviews and assessment will allow you to see who is not performing as well as you’d like or who is causing holdups or low quality work. To lose these employees shouldn’t be detrimental to your business, it should be advantageous, and if one of these poor performers went to a competitor instead, well that’s just a bonus!
Encourage and Incentivise
Following on from the above, nurturing the top talent is just as important, as these are the people you don’t want to turnover! Regularly evaluating employees to recognise who is worthy of a promotion or bonus encourages staff to try their best. Often a high turnover rate itself may encourage employees to work harder. Some organisations seem to have implemented a company culture where great performance is key and employees either choose to continually improve or to leave. This may sound a little harsh, but if the right kind of incentive structure is in place, top performers will be able to enjoy the benefits of their hard work.
Organisations are recognising even more that low turnover is not such an important factor in evaluating business success. There is often no ideal level of turnover for firms, and some will be suited, and benefit from, a higher turnover. If you would like some advice on finding innovative new employees for your organisation, we work with hundreds of candidates who could be the perfect fit, so give us a call (0207 099 4839) and see how we can help you to recruit someone worth recruiting.
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