Jul 19, 2016 | IT
This consultation is titled “Off-payroll working in the public sector: reform of the intermediaries legislation”.
HMRC believe that a change in liability is necessary because at present, the liability lies with the PSC and that there is widespread non-compliance. They quote figures of this costing the Exchequer £440 million this tax year. How they arrived at this figure is not entirely clear on first reading of the consultation but of course, it is understandable why government would be keen to clampdown on perceived tax avoidance, particularly in light of the Panama scandal.
This change would be highly problematic if it was decided that the liability should fall upon the agency / interim provider. As has been discussed in previous consultation rounds, the agencies does not have oversight of the nature of the work being performed by the candidate when they are on assignment, and therefore agencies are in the worst possible position to assess whether the intermediary rules apply. The REC will be making strong representations to HMRC on this point.
1. Changing the liability – so that it becomes the duty of the hirer or the employment intermediary (eg the interim provider, employment business or management consultancy) to apply the intermediaries rules for anyone working off-payroll, through a Personal Service Company (PSC), in the public sector.
2. HMRC will develop a new online tool to help decide if the intermediaries rules apply.
Assessing whether someone is in or out of scope of IR35 on any given assignment has always been problematic. One of the issues is getting absolute clarity on the nature of the assignment and clear guidance from HMRC. The nuances of how someone chooses to work and the type of work that is required do not often translate well into the short, simplistic case studies favoured by HRMC in its guidance.
HMRC have listened and recognise why Supervision, Direction or Control would NOT be the appropriate test for deciding if IR35 applies.
This consultation raises a number of concerns about how government views the vital contribution of interim managers and contractors make to the public sector, and we have already raised these concerns directly in a joint letter to the Chancellor of the Exchequer with other stakeholders.
Whilst we believe it is right that this government is committed to tackling tax avoidance, we think that this consultation raises a series of important issues that must be considered:
1. It has the potential to blur the boundaries between employment rights and taxation status and could usher in a host of unnecessary reforms, which fail to take into account why individuals choose to work on an interim, freelance or contract basis. If it becomes a straight choice between taking an assignment in the public or private sector, we believe many will choose the latter.
2. Aligned with the first point, the public sector needs to consider if they can afford to take on the costs associated with making these individuals “employees” in all but name. Most pressing of all on the public purse would be pension contributions.
3. Previous iterations of “tests” to determine IR35 status have not worked and it is unclear what will be different this time around. Government must fully involve stakeholders in developing these tests and allow adequate time for the pilot and roll out.
4. Finally, HMRC has a duty to enforce existing legislation adequately. Simply shifting liability onto the employment intermediary will not abdicate HMRC from its responsibilities. More pertinently, it is impossible for a recruitment business to make an informed decision about the IR35 status of an engagement.
Jul 19, 2016 | IT
Written by Marianne Calnan 0f People Management magazine
Popular game prompts questions over use of personal devices, as Boeing becomes first business to ban it at work.
The take-up of smartphone game Pokemon Go has been so remarkable – and the experience of playing it so immersive – that employers may need to revisit their policies to prevent a productivity glut, according to experts.
Though it has been available in the UK for just five days, the app – in which players use GPS to roam inside and outside and ‘catch’ characters – has been wildly popular, with hoards of players sighted in towns and cities across the country.
Aircraft manufacturer Boeing was forced to issue an email to its workforce banning play during working hours after the company discovered the game app had been installed on more than 100 work phones since its release. A member of staff also came close to injury while playing the game at work.
Andrew Rayment, a partner in the employment team at law firm Walker Morris, said that although Pokemon Go was just “another workplace distraction”, it had the potential to affect individuals’ ability to carry out their jobs effectively.
The game is difficult to manage as it is so readily available, Rayment added: “The game is largely played on employees’ personal phones, and, if it’s only being used outside working hours, that isn’t an issue. But if it is used in the workplace or so much out of the workplace that it’s negatively affecting work, employers need to reiterate their exceptional use policy on the use of personal devices in the workplace so all employees know where the company stands, and trust employees to follow it.”
Rayment said employers should adopt a cautious balance between giving their workforce free reign to fill their time as they see fit, and failing to trust them at all. “When agile working comes into the mix, it’s not really fair for employers to not allow employees to play Pokemon Go at their desk for five minutes, but then also expect them to answer emails at 10pm.”
There are potential upsides to the new craze. Pokemon Go players are walking miles at a time as they search out characters, and reporting positive effects on their health. Reports from the US suggest autistic children benefit from the interaction and socialisation encouraged by the game.
However, Tom Currie, a barista and bartender from New Zealand, showed the potential for the game to reach extremes when he became the first person to quit his job in favour of a full-time bid to ‘catch ‘em all’. The BBC reported that Currie had already caught 91 of the 151 Pokemon available in the game.
Some employers are taking a more light-hearted approach to prohibition. An image that went viral on Twitter this week showed an internal memo at an unnamed company, which read: “We are paying you to work, not chase fictional videogame characters with your cell phone all day. Save it for your break time, otherwise you’ll have plenty of time unemployed to catch ‘em all.”
Written by Marianne Calnan 0f People Management magazine
Jul 4, 2016 | IT
Once an employee has decided they are leaving it is best practice to arrange an exit interview. An exit Interview will offer a fleeting opportunity to find out information that otherwise might be more difficult or impossible to obtain.
The following are some thoughts on the exit interview: Interviews can be conducted orally or written. Exit interview questions are essential to a successful separation. Here are some tips on how to construct these questions.
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Save the hardest questions for the latter part of the interview. Work up to the tough stuff!
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A good question to break the ice is ‘would you like for us to be a reference or recommendation for you’? Do not make this offer if you would not recommend the employee!
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Be prepared for some bombshells. Expect the unexpected, if it ever is to happen it will happen in an exit interview.
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Look for open-ended questions that allow for plenty of expression. An example of this might be “how did you feel you were managed during your employment with us?” or “how do you feel the company is run?”
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Other excellent questions are ‘under what conditions would you have stayed?’ and ‘if you had had a magic wand, what would you have changed?’
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At some point in the interview ask ‘why are you leaving?’ if you do not already know.
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Good general questions are ‘what did you like most (least) about your position?’
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Try to find out if there were things the departing employee would suggest to improve conditions, production or morale.
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Try to get a good feel for how they viewed their compensation and benefits package.
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Leave room at the end of the interview for general comments. one or two of your proudest professional accomplishments.
Here are some examples of Exit Interview Questions.
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Before deciding to leave, did you explore the possibility of a transfer?
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Is there something you didn’t like about your boss?
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How would you rate our work environment?
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Were you happy with your salary and benefits?
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What did you think about your performance and salary reviews?
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How should we change the way we do things to avoid losing other good employees?
Jul 4, 2016 | IT
Many of us have experienced that gut-wrenching moment when a senior leader i.e. that someone who is responsible for employee relationships drops the envelope on your desk announcing their resignation. Even if that leader’s departure is expected, it can still send shock-waves through the organisation.
It can have a huge impact on your team so what do you do? We might communicate to clients, but fall flat when it comes to reassuring our employees. Reasons for this can vary; it may be that as a team we feel vulnerable and don’t like to show it, or perhaps we simply don’t know what to say. As managers we will probably feel worried about what our employees are feeling and thinking when a major personnel change threatens stability.
So, what is the best way to react when a senior leader heads for the exit?— here are five tactics to focus your people and yourself :
Stay calm — During the meeting when your senior person resigns, ask them to keep the news confidential until you develop a communication plan (for employees and clients).
Assess the situation — Book an immediate meeting with your senior managers to identify main areas; a beloved leader whose absence might cause major employee disengagement? Did they possess some sort of irreplaceable organizational knowledge or skills? If so, how will you fill those gaps?
Collaborate — Depending on the size of your team and its structure, work with your senior people to develop a plan to communicate the news to your indirect reports. Internally talk about the relationships; you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see how readily your team steps up to assume new responsibilities.
Communicate — Work out the best medium to announce the news based on the departed leader’s seniority, tenure and roles. Whatever you decide, remember to include all team members in the announcement. Assure employees that the company is on solid footing and the departure has nothing to do with instability. Just as critical, remind clients that it’s business as usual. Explain how their account will be managed in light of the resignation, as well as your strategy for replacing that lost expertise.
Follow through — Execute your transition plan to the letter and keep key team members updated on its progress. Expect this process to play out over a couple of months and don’t underestimate the potential cultural impact. If the departed leader was well-liked and seen as a key to your organization’s success, employees will need consistent reassurances that their jobs are safe and your bottom line will remain stable.
Ultimately when an influential leader resigns no matter how well you handle the situation you will find that some employees will decide to move on.
Langley James can help you find highly skilled permanent, contract and fixed term IT professionals from our exclusive database of more than 900,000 registered users. Give us a call on 0207 780 6600 or visit www.langleyjames.com
Jun 27, 2016 | IT
Whichever way you voted and whatever you feel about how the referendum has ended, we are now leaving the European Union and we all have to face the consequences. We are entering a period of uncertainty and in general, business does not like uncertainty, but life goes on regardless!
If you are recruiting you will find that candidates tend to be harder to find when times are uncertain as permanent employees tend to stay put.
If your business is uncertain about recruitment but the job still needs doing there are options you can consider:
Fixed Term Contract – This allows you to have control and means that you have a “tie-in period” you are also able to budget in the same way as you would for a permanent employee offering a similar salary level. The fixed-term contract is managed through your payroll and the employee will be entitled to the same benefits as a permanent member of staff, the only difference is that their contract will have an end date. This type of contract is often used to cover Maternity leave. If you choose this option our fee is pro-rata and you can extend end dates to suit business needs.
Contractors– Contractors can be a short-term solution to your “gap”. Highly skilled contractors are much sought after in this type of climate. Contractors are predominantly self-employed and are responsible for their own tax so will not be part of your payroll but a “cost” to your business. They generally charge an employer a day rate and although may appear expensive, will allow you flexibility. If you are considering recruiting a contractor the best time to do this is as soon as possible. Historically we have experienced upsurges of employers battling it out for the most skilled contractors who can literally take their pick of jobs when the demand is high.
NB: Some contractors are willing to take a fixed-term contract which we can arrange on your behalf; this gives you the employer, peace of mind that a contractor will see your job through when other employers will try to entice a contractor to their project by offering an increased daily rate.
Langley James can help you with all your IT recruitment needs we have our own internal database of more than 800,000 IT professionals available on daily, weekly and monthly contracts give us a call today on 0207 788 6600 or go to www.langleyjames.com.
Jun 21, 2016 | IT
The UK has its highest ever employment rate of 74%, with a record 31.4 million people in work.
Over the past year, the number of people in work has risen 588,000, with nearly 75% of the rise in employment in the past year being full-time.
Today’s official figures show that over the last year more than half-a-million more people are now in work, bringing employment to a new record high of 31.4 million. This growth has been driven by a rise in full-time jobs and the number of vacancies has reached more than 750,000.
Unemployment now stands at 5.1% – the lowest since early 2006 – and long-term unemployment has fallen by 25% over the year to 488,000, the lowest in six years.
Wages have grown slowly, however, rising 2% over the last year.
“Average earnings growth has also fallen to 2%, which is close to the underlying rate of pay growth that we’ve seen over the last few years. This is not surprising because the fundamental conditions required for a step change in pay growth are simply not there. Most employers still believe there are enough competent applicants out there to fill their vacancies, and, furthermore, productivity growth remains relatively weak. Conditions remain good for firms to invest in training and development and upgrading the skill content of jobs.”
“The UK jobs landscape is changing. Strong sterling is already severely dampening our ability to manufacture and sell goods overseas. Scotland’s oil industry has been hit hard by falling prices. Meanwhile, the IT and Technology sectors are booming with new vacancies opening faster than we can fill them. As the number of jobseekers still available to fill new openings decreases, upskilling workers will become a crucial component of fixing the skills shortage.
“Improving wages are a bright spot on the horizon for workers and this means employers will have to start increasing salary packages. If you are unsure of what salary you need to budget for an IT support, Development or Senior Manager role give us a call to talk through your vacancy at Langley James 0207 788 6600 or visit www.langleyjames.com
Jun 21, 2016 | IT
Following the attacks at an Orlando nightclub the question is where is this behaviour allowed to breed? As an employer or manager we need to be aware that homophobic comments by employees or third parties can get employers into hot water: the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that Romanian football club FC Steaua was engaging in discriminatory hiring practices after one of its well-known shareholders said that he would rather close the club than hire a gay player.
While it was established that the shareholder in question was not responsible for recruitment, he was perceived by the public as somebody who played a leading role in the club. The failure of the club to condemn and distance itself from his remarks was very damaging and the ECJ found that a case of discrimination could be inferred against the club from his comments.
In contrast to the US, where it is still legal in 29 states for an employer to discriminate against and fire workers for being gay, UK workers are protected against discrimination, victimisation and harassment because of sexual orientation by the Equality Act 2010. The Act doesn’t just protect the rights of gay workers: tribunals have also found in favour of heterosexual employees, such as in the case of a female employee who was made redundant from a gay bar and immediately replaced with a gay male employee.
Employers can be liable for the conduct of their employees and third parties, unless they can show that they have taken sufficient steps to prevent the discrimination, victimisation or harassment from taking place. Such steps would include: properly investigating complaints of unlawful behaviour, taking disciplinary action against any employee found to be discriminating against or harassing another, and implementing and adhering to rigorous equal opportunities and anti-harassment policies.
Employers should be aware that homophobic workplace ‘banter’ can amount to sexual orientation harassment even when the victim is neither gay nor perceived to be gay (for example one case, in which the heterosexual claimant was repeatedly called a “faggot” by colleagues). In a 2011 case, a tribunal found that an employer had harassed a (heterosexual) employee because of sexual orientation, when two of its employees used his iPhone without his permission and changed his status update on Facebook to read “finally came out of the closet, I am gay and proud”. The employee was not gay and did not believe that his colleagues thought he was.
This high-profile tweet is a reminder of the prevalence of social media and of the speed with which discriminatory comments can capture the public’s attention. In light of the huge increase in popularity and use of social media, employers should consider adopting a social media policy that sets clear standards for employee use of social media, and reminds employees that inappropriate online conduct can constitute a disciplinary offence.
Such a policy should provide example of inappropriate conduct, include prohibitions on negative, defamatory or discriminatory comments about the company and its employees, and should cross refer to the employer’s bullying and harassment and equal opportunities policies and as a best practice should be presented to all employees at induction stage.
If due to such conduct your organisation has to recruit Langley James can assist you in finding high calibre IT support and Development professionals please call 0207 788 6600 or go to www.langleyjames.com to see how we can help you.
Jun 6, 2016 | IT
With UEFA Euro 2016 Cup just around the corner, employers need to keep an eye out for staff absences caused by these sporting events. Find out what you can do to encourage employees to enjoy the celebrations, without disrupting your business.
The country set to be gripped by football mania (to be closely followed by The Olympics 2016) employers need to keep an eye out for staff absences prompted by the beautiful game.
England’s Group B fixtures for the most part will be taking place initially at weekends, the third game is Thursday June 16 th 2pm however not all your employees will be following England! It may be useful for employers to make a note of the following dates to help you plan in advance and to look out for an increase in absences:
GROUP A
Friday, June 10: France v Romania (20:00, Stade de France, Paris)
Saturday, June 11: Albania v Switzerland (14:00, Stade Bollaert-Delelis, Lens)
Wednesday, June 15: Romania v Switzerland (17:00, Parc des Princes, Paris)
Wednesday, June 15: France v Albania (20:00, Stade Velodrome, Marseille)
Sunday, June 19: Romania v Albania (20:00, Stade de Lyon)
Sunday, June 19: Switzerland v France (20:00, Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille)
GROUP B
Saturday, June 11: Wales v Slovakia (17:00, Stade de Bordeaux)
Saturday, June 11: England v Russia (20:00, Stade Velodrome, Marseille)
Wednesday, June 15: Russia v Slovakia (14:00, Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille)
Thursday, June 16: England v Wales (14:00, Stade Bollaert-Delelis, Lens)
Monday, June 20: Russia v Wales (20:00, Stadium de Toulouse)
Monday, June 20: Slovakia v England (20:00, Stade Geoffroy Guichard, St Etienne)
GROUP C
Sunday, June 12: Poland v Northern Ireland (17:00, Stade de Nice)
Sunday, June 12: Germany v Ukraine (20:00, Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille)
Thursday, June 16: Ukraine v Northern Ireland (17:00, Stade de Lyon)
Thursday, June 16: Germany v Poland (20:00, Stade de France, Paris)
Tuesday, June 21: Ukraine v Poland (17:00, Stade Velodrome, Marseille)
Tuesday, June 21: Northern Ireland v Germany (17:00, Parc des Princes, Paris)
GROUP D
Sunday, June 12: Turkey v Croatia (14:00, Parc des Princes, Paris)
Monday, June 13: Spain v Czech Republic (14:00, Stadium de Toulouse)
Friday, June 17: Czech Republic v Croatia (17:00, Stade Geoffroy Guichard, St
Etienne)
Friday, June 17: Spain v Turkey (20:00, Stade de Nice)
Tuesday, June 21: Czech Republic v Turkey (20:00, Stade Bollaert-Delelis, Lens)
Tuesday, June 21: Croatia v Spain (20:00, Stade de Bordeaux)
GROUP E
Monday, June 13: Republic of Ireland v Sweden (17:00, Stade de France, Paris)
Monday, June 13: Belgium v Italy (20:00, Stade de Lyon)
Friday, June 17: Italy v Sweden (14:00, Stadium de Toulouse)
Saturday, June 18: Belgium v Republic of Ireland (14:00, Stade de Bordeaux)
Wednesday, June 22: Italy v Republic of Ireland (20:00, Stade Pierre Mauroy, Lille)
Wednesday, June 22: Sweden v Belgium (20:00, Stade de Nice)
GROUP F
Tuesday, June 14: Austria v Hungary (17:00, Stade de Bordeaux)
Tuesday, June 14: Portugal v Iceland (20:00, Stade Geoffroy Guichard, St Etienne)
Saturday, June 18: Iceland v Hungary (17:00, Stade Velodrome, Marseille)
Saturday, June 18: Portugal v Austria (20:00, Parc des Princes, Paris)
Wednesday, June 22: Iceland v Austria (17:00, Stade de France)
Wednesday, June 22: Hungary v Portugal (17:00, Stade de Lyon)
LAST 16
Match 1: Runner-up Group A v Runner-up C (14:00, June 25, St-Etienne)
Match 2: Winner B v Third-place A/C/D (17:00, June 25, Paris)
Match 3: Winner D v Third-place B/E/F (20:00, June 25, Lens)
Match 4: Winner A v Third-place C/D/E (14:00, June 26, Lyon)
Match 5: Winner C v Third-place A/B/F (17:00, June 26, Lille)
Match 6: Winner F v Runner-up E (20:00, June 26, Toulouse)
Match 7: Winner E v Runner-up D (17:00, June 27, St-Denis)
Match 8: Runner-up B v Runner-up F (20:00, June 27, Nice)
QUARTER-FINALS
Match 1: Winner Match 1 v Winner Match 3 (20:00, June 30, Marseille)
Match 2: Winner Match 2 v Winner Match 6 (2000, July 1, Lille)
Match 3: Winner Match 5 v Winner Match 7 (20:00, July 2, Bordeaux)
Match 4: Winner Match 4 v Winner Match 8 (2000, July 3, St-Denis)
SEMI-FINALS
Winner QF1 v Winner QF2 (20:00, July 6, Lyon)
Winner QF3 v Winner QF4 (20:00, July 7, Marseille)
FINAL
Winner SF1 v Winner SF2 (20:00, July 10, St-Denis)
As an employer you have a number of options open to you:
Use annual leave
Invite staff to book annual leave if they wish to watch sporting fixtures that occur during work time. Encourage staff to book holidays with sufficient notice if they are going to need time off. This will help you to plan ahead for any staff shortages. You could also offer unpaid leave if you have enough staff to cover absences.
Allow flexible working
Let employees leave early to watch sporting fixtures, but ask them to either start earlier, finish later or a combination of both on the same or another day during that week to make up the missing time. Other flexible approaches include allowing staff to swap shifts, if feasible.
Do nothing
You could take the view that any unauthorised absence is just that and, if staff choose to be absent on that day without taking a holiday, they leave themselves open to disciplinary action.
Watching sporting events at work
Install a TV screen or projector screen so that employees can watch a game and use the occasion as a team-building event, so no one has to take days off. Or, if you don’t have a TV, let them listen to it on the radio. However, you should be aware with either of these options that you will need either a TV licence or a licence from the Performing Rights Society for radio use. And remember, not everyone will enjoy watching sports, so be mindful of others when making arrangements.
Use it as a perk
While you have no obligation to cater for your employees; sporting interests, you could aid motivation by using an hour or two's time off to watch a sporting event as an incentive, perhaps based upon individual or group performance.
Review your internet policy
Employees may try to watch sporting events online or follow instant updates on news and social media sites, so you should remind them of your internet use and monitoring policies. It is up to you to decide whether you’re happy for your employees to keep track of events online; this might cause less disruption than people taking time off, but it is worth bearing in mind that if staff are streaming live sporting fixtures on a company-owned computer, you should have a TV licence to do so.
Remember that not all employees will be supporting the England team. So, to avoid any discrimination, it will be important that, whatever you decide to do, you offer the same concessions to all employees who wish to watch fixtures involving their chosen country.
Jun 6, 2016 | IT
Problem – “Some Employees are minimal and you can’t get any improvement”
Solution – rebuild your business one employee at a time
Minimal employees have become the bane of business. These employees do just enough to get by and no more. A business with good market share and potential, a good strategy but with poor results then it almost always points to minimal employees. Sometimes owners/management see this but often it takes an outsider to point it out. Once this is understood to be the problem the question is – How to be rid of these bottom-feeders and get some good people in their place? The answer is to build it employee by employee. The following are some key concepts when considering a personnel ‘upgrade’:
1. Understand that minimal employees cause discontentment with productive employees. Good employees often leave because of minimal employees. Having a minimal employee can hurt the entire operation. Realising this is important when difficult decisions need to be made.
2. Understand that most businesses cannot shut down as they reorganize or redesign. Using the analogy of a flying plane: you cannot stop the plane to fix it – you have to fix it while it is flying. The rule here is ‘don’t shoot yourself in the foot’. Usually this means don’t fire or lay-off until you have replacements.
3. View employees as resources and profit centres – not just expenses. Minimal employees are usually cheaper but deliver much less value.
4. Review your staffing at least once a week. (depending on the circumstances this may be necessary more often.) Go through each employee and determine his or her appropriateness for the business. Use a spreadsheet, keep notes and strategies current so they can be constantly reviewed. Highlight those employees that are ‘on the bubble’ or are delivering questionable value.
5. Do evaluations and reviews every three months. Once or twice a year is simply not enough.
6. Measure and evaluate your people weekly. Producers welcome the attention and ‘bottomfeeders’ will do all they can to avoid the scrutiny. Find some criteria for even those hard to measure job classifications – like service rep.
7. Find out if the poor producers have potential. Time and time management want to let someone go but not looking at potential. Sometimes they are amazed when they see a minimal employee blossom. It is usually better to give the minimal employee a chance or opportunity – if they do not want it they will often quit.
8. Understand that accountability is the employee’s responsibility – not management’s. It is management’s responsibility to do something about the lack of accountability if it is not there. This makes it much easier to deal with those tough decisions when the time comes.
9. Have a training and career plan for each employee.
10. Recruit right. The key to building a successful staffing is to make sure each new recruit is worth recruitig and is better than what you have. Here at Langley James we will go to extraordinary lengths to assist you in Recruit Someone Worth Recruiting. Consider work ethic, values, maturity, drive, creativity, etc. Truly amazing things happen when you replace a ‘bad apple’ with a good employee.
11. Look for ‘breakthrough’ employees that can bring high value quickly. This is usually a factor of skill, experience and work ethic. This can bring a corresponding sharp spike in performance.
12. Set up a system where employees can train or mentor each other. This tends to raise the standard throughout the business.
13. Constantly evaluate what your market and customers demand. Make sure you are hiring to meet this demand.
14. Make the processes automatic – daily if possible. If you stay focused the results will come. Focus on the process!
15. Be persistent.
May 24, 2016 | IT
A lot can be learnt from exit interviews. Exit interviews are not a waste of time, although many deem them to be. It is an important exercise in order to determine if there is anything you can do differently going forward with your remaining team. It is important to remain impartial during the interview, and to ensure a balance between obtaining the relevant information whilst allowing the departing employee the positive closure they need.
The ultimate aim of the exit interview is to determine the reasons for the departure of your employee, on the basis that criticism is a useful driver for organisational improvement. A successful exit interview can give you an insight into the current working environment, culture, management approach and processes. Relationships amongst the team is a likely factor to be discussed. Some employees may be more forthcoming in providing information so do bare this in mind.
Try to keep the interview structured and contained. The objective of the meeting is to gain the relevant information. Ensure that the interview can:
- Identify what your organisation is doing well
- Identify any areas that can be improved
- Confirm the skills and experience a replacement employee will need in order take over the role and move forward.
- Provide an understanding to you of why the employee is leaving
- Allow the departing employee to say goodbye on good terms.
Finally, don’t take anything personally, and try to remain impartial. It can be difficult to hear an employee talking negatively about the organisation, but if this is the case, turn it around and use the information positively, make changes accordingly and move forward with the remaining team. Any feedback is useful whether positive or not.
Let us know your thoughts on the issue. You can join in the conversation on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+.
If you need help in recruiting for both permanent and contract staff, please contact us on 0207 788 6600 and one of our expert consultants will be ready to help.
You can view all our latest vacancies here.
May 10, 2016 | IT
36% of people have had a pay rise this year according to Mori iPSOS. Out of the 1600 people who were surveyed, one-in-three report their pay to have been frozen this year, while 3 percent are suffering a pay cut. Although 64 percent are reporting their pay to have been revised higher, only 23 percent are reporting an increase of more than 2%.
The survey responses collectively point to employee pay reviews leading to an average pre-tax salary increase of just 1.3% this year, higher than the 1.0% increase signalled for 2015 but below the 1.5% rate recorded in 2014.
It is reported that pay reviews in the public sector in April continued to lag behind those in the private sector, with salary growth rates of 1.6% and 0.9% signalled respectively, although both are up on 2015. Shockingly, the proportion of employees in the public sector reporting a pay cut or freeze rises to 51 percent compared to 28 percent in the private sector.
It was also recently reported that less than half happy with what they’re earning, and the vast majority are looking to change jobs in the next two years.
It is widely known that now more than ever before, employers are focusing on retaining and developing strategies in order to retain their staff in an increasingly competitive market.
Let us know your thoughts on the issue. You can join in the conversation on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+.
If you need help in recruiting for both permanent and contract staff, please contact us on 0207 788 6600 and one of our expert consultants will be ready to help.
You can view all our latest vacancies here.
Apr 11, 2016 | IT
The UK Government’s recent ‘Productivity Plan’ was attacked as lacking in original ideas and clear goals, and was slammed as “nothing more than a list of recycled policies”, by a group of MPs. It is clear that the UK is facing a long-term productivity problem which is being made worse by the financial crisis that the country has faced over the years. The economic downturn was labelled by MPs as “the most damaging financial crisis seen in generations”.
It seems as though the battle between productivity and the economy is transpiring as nothing more than a vicious circle. High levels of productivity contributes to growth, and growth prompts high levels of productivity. The Government’s efforts to “fix the foundations and create a more prosperous nation” is under severe criticism. Is it time to take the growing issue into our own hands?
Learning and Development
It is reported by the OECD that the UK suffers from several weaknesses in its overall skills base which is what is heavily contributing to the longstanding productivity gap with other European countries and the United States. According to the report, numeracy and literacy skills in England and Northern Ireland are among the lowest, and the standard and level of intermediate professional and technical skills are set to drop to 28th out of 30 European countries.
The rapid pace at which working environments are changing due to technology, laws, policies and global competition means that skill sets must be continually updated. Learning and development is a crucial organisational strategy that ensures a sustainable and successful organisation through the identification of core skills and competency required in order for staff to achieve to the best of their capability, and the implementation of development plans.
An employee is more likely to perform to a higher standard and demonstrate a higher level of productivity if they are confident they have the knowledge and capability to achieve in their role.
Company Vision
Any good business has a clear vision, and through this vision goals can be set. Goals can be set for both the business as a whole and for each employee as individuals benefiting everyone. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. A lack of clear vision and goals can be detrimental to productivity, satisfaction and ultimately retention. Productivity levels begin to deteriorate when people feel little purpose or as though their contributions are meaningless.
Begin by assessing the current state of your business and determining what your team expects of you, and what you need from your team in order to reach your objectives. Determine also, any personal career goals your employees may have and how they want to reach their goals. This way, when you set objectives for both the business and for individual employees, you can tailor them so that they benefit all parties. Productivity levels in likely to increase when an individual feels that they are not only contributing to the companies targets, but are working towards reaching personal goals too. Read more on implementing career development plans.
Setting KPIs is a great way of measuring and determining whether employees are meeting targets and fulfilling objectives, but be careful not to create additional stress or pressure to the employee, you will ultimately achieve the opposite of what you are trying to if you do. Set provisions in place in that cater for those who may underachieve, nurture these employees, identifying where the employee is struggling and aiding them in achieving goals, or adjusting objectives where necessary. Help your team reach their full potential rather than firing those who are underachieving. Don’t forget, a high turnover costs more to a company than simply nurturing and retaining your staff. Set goals that will not only benefit the business as a whole, but help your employees grow and reach their personal targets to the best of their potential.
Workplace Stress
Stress is detrimental to all aspects of an employee’s performance. According to research conducted by Towers Watson, employees suffering from high levels of stress have lower engagement levels, are less productive, and ultimately absenteeism levels are far greater compared to those who are not working under excessive pressure. Stress is inevitable in most working environments. They key to retaining and maintaining satisfaction and productivity levels among employees is helping your staff to manage stress more effectively. Time management plays a pivotal role in reducing stress. An overwhelming workload, too many demands and feeling like there is not enough time will undoubtedly trigger a sense of frustration and panic, and helping your employees to organise, prioritise and plan more effectively is the first step in managing productivity levels.
Of course, stress can have a positive effect on some, kick-starting adrenaline and motivating an individual to perform quicker in order to meet demands and requirements. But poor management and too much exposure to stress will eventually induce a lack of engagement and productivity, as well as negatively influencing loyalty and commitment to the company. Read more on stress management.
Lack of Effective Communication
One of the fundamentals to enhancing productivity is creating satisfaction, and the key to achieving that is by creating clear and effective communication. An effective system of communication means that all employees must have full knowledge of the hierarchy. Each member of staff must be aware of who they can talk to in regards to any issues they may be facing, and ensuring accessibility to the mentors and managers who deal with their issues is of paramount importance.
Creating clear communications refers to both interpersonal communication, and communication through technologies. Utilise technologies and systems that help employees compete tasks more efficiently whilst allowing them to share information, ideas and help and support colleagues. Tools such as Yammer and Office 365 are a great way of allowing staff to share and communicate efficiently. When communicating with employees, ensure that every comment you make is actionable; provide feedback to employees on a regular basis; and ensure that any criticisms are constructive. Following these three simple steps will promote open communication and encourage honesty. Read more on open communication.
If you are looking for someone to join your team who can help you manage employee productivity, satisfaction and retention, then call us today on 0207 788 6600 and we can help you find the right HR professional for the role.
Apr 6, 2016 | IT
Have you become an interview robot? It can be easy forget the aim of what you are wanting to achieve when conducting an interview – especially when you have sat through so many. If you are in need of an interview refresher, you have come to the right place. It can be difficult to determine what will equate to a good IT candidate. Here we have compiled a few pointers to finding a great candidate and the best questions to ask in order to prize out the information you really need from the candidate.
- “Outline any current issues or trends in technology”
Ask the candidate to outline some current issues that are impacting upon the technology industry. You are not focusing on the specific issues they discuss, but their ability to identify these issues is key. This demonstrates reactiveness and outlines how the candidate would react to any changes in technology that would impact upon them.
- “What did you do when you were asked to undertake a task you didn’t understand?”
This question provides the candidate with an opportunity to demonstrate how they problem solve and overcome issues when faced with them. You can assess how well you feel the candidate overcame the issue. Did the candidate overcome the issue through thought-out strategy and planning? Or did the candidate leave the issue to spiral until someone else became involved. Determining the quality of a candidate’s problem solving skills is crucial in determining whether they will be a good fit for the role and for your organisation.
- “Outline a time you were asked to complete a task or project that you had no previous experience in”
This could be regarding a new technology, a new industry or a project they had never undertaken before. This is a great follow up from the previous questions as it allows the candidate to further their explanation of how they respond to change and overcome issues. It is good to get to know how a candidate reacts to change to be able to gauge how well the candidate will settle into a new working environment. It is also a good way of assessing whether their answer confirms or contradicts their previous answers.
- “Do you get bored easily?”
A candidates instant reaction to this type of question is quite often ‘no’. It is assumed that boredom equates to a low performing, underachieving employee, so people will often steer clear of admitting to boredom. But in an industry such as technology, new tasks and projects are often arising, so a candidate who is frequently looking for new challenges can be a positive thing.
- “What do you expect the role to entail and what would you like the role to entail?”
This is an opportunity to manage expectations – do their expectations meet yours? At this point you can assess whether you feel the candidate understands the role and the task in hand, and also gives the candidate the chance to disclose any expectations they may have of the role. This question allows you to decide whether you feel they will perform well in the role and meet the required expectations. You also want to ensure that the candidate can get the most out of the role from a personal and professional level and will fulfil the candidate’s requirements too. If expectations do not match, it may be a big indicator that this person may not be right for the role, and may impact upon your decision as to whether to proceed any further with their application or not.
- “Where do you see yourself…?”
At this point you can give a timescale. 6 months? 1 year? 10 years? Whatever timescale you provide, it will indicate whether the candidate has any aspirations or goals, and whether they have the desire to achieve these goals. You want to find out what they want from their career. Does the candidate want to further their career through L&D, courses, qualifications or experience? At this point you can clarify whether you will be able to aid the candidate in reaching their goals. Again, this is all about managing expectations.
- Case study
Provide the candidate with a small case study outlining an issue the company may have faced in the past (this can be fictional) and ask them to provide you with a solution to the problem. It is not so much the final answer that you want to focus on, but how they break down the information you give to them and how they utilise the information effectively to come to a conclusion. This does not need to be a complex issue, the purpose of this is not put the candidate under a great amount of pressure or confuse them. It is good to encourage them to ask questions. It is important to observe the relevance of the questions and asses how they utilise the information to contribute towards the outcome.
- “Tell me about your hobbies and interests”
Do not overlook this step as unnecessary or unimportant. This is a chance put the candidate at ease, and a chance for you to get to know their personality. This question is a great way to allow the candidate to demonstrate their passion for something they enjoy doing and express their enthusiasm.
The interview process can be a stressful time for both the candidate and the interviewee. If you need help recruiting the best IT professionals, our expert consultants are on hand to help you at every step of the recruitment process. Call us on 0207 788 6600.
Apr 6, 2016 | IT
So we know that work life integration is on the rise, and goes hand in hand with remote working. But does it really work? New research that captured data from the UK, the United States and Germany revealed that almost 70% of people who described their team as “very successful” have more than half their team members in different locations, and collaborate freely and successfully regardless of their location. These figures demonstrate that being sat at the same desk each day with all workforce under the same roof does not necessarily equate to productivity.
As with any new way of working there are benefits and challenges. Remote working is increasing particularly within the digital sector. It is evident that remote working appeals to most employees. It allows flexibility, allows for both personal and work goals to be achieved and cuts down on wasted time and money spent on commuting.
But will employers reap the same reward from implementing a remote working plan. It is actually proving beneficial to both staff and employers, with firms who advocate remote working stating that it is a great way of attracting and retaining staff and increasing productivity. It also shows the employee that you trust them and demonstrates your confidence in them to which, in turn, will boost their confidence.
It is argued, however, that implementing remote working policies can be a challenge and that potential issues with technology pose a great threat to the employee’s productivity levels.
Although this is a growing concept that proves to be working for those organisations who practice this working method, most companies do not cater for this type of working environment. In fact, it is discouraged due to rules, regulations and set working hours. Perhaps now is the time to rethink the way we structure the working day, and allow more flexibility.
Let us know your thoughts on the issue. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Apr 6, 2016 | IT
98% of executives check their work emails during personal time outside of the workplace and 63% check emails as often as every hour according to research conducted by Gyro and Forbes Insight. Team Viewer and Harris Interactive furthered this, reporting that 61% of employees are willing to work during vacation. Reasoning for this was put down to the nature of their role. In particular, Managers and Directors feel they have no choice due to ongoing responsibilities.
Professionals are increasingly willing to blur the line between work and home. It is argued that if people love what they do then why should there be a strict divide between work and home? There has always been a strong emphasis on prioritising between work and lifestyle through creating a work-life balance. Whilst this concept remains a fundamental part of maintaining job satisfaction, minimising stress levels and ultimately maintaining good health and wellbeing, the focus is now on managing time effectively so that you can integrate the two without added stress.
Work-life integration is a concept that allows workers to accomplish both work requirements and personal requirements in a more blended process. It is about allowing flexibility meaning time does not have to be so rigidly split between working hours and non-working hours. This works well for those who are happy to take a 6am conference call but then take an hour out mid-afternoon for a gym session; or for those who prefer to be able to take calls from family members and friends, but then are willing to take work calls during holidays or attend to emails at night.
The rise of the remote worker has contributed significantly to the shift from a ‘work-life balance’ to integrating work duties and lifestyle. Technologies and platforms such as Office 365, Google Docs, Skype and social media platforms have played a big part in allowing remote working to take place and has made work life integration far more possible than ever before. It is suggested that by 2020 the number of people working from home at least once a week is set to increase by over 60%.
Let us know your thoughts on the issue. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
Apr 6, 2016 | IT
Just how important is employer branding? The transparency that social media has brought to employer branding has prompted the need for a strong brand advocacy.
Richard Mosley, author of The Employer Brand supported this “the most important change [in employer branding] has been a shift from promoting employer brands through recruitment advertising campaigns to a more diverse flow of authentic, employee generated content through social media.”
Websites such as Glassdoor are contributing to the shift in power, with companies needing to sell themselves to candidates as opposed to candidates having to sell themselves to the company. We also know that due to growing competition in acquiring talent, people now have a far greater choice over where they work. This means employer advocacy is more important than ever before.
Recent research into the importance of employer branding has finally put some hard figures to the issue, supporting that a poor employer brand can be detrimental to your company and it will cost you.
The study comprised of over 1000 nationally representative respondents, all of which are full time professionals. The top three concerns that would deter a potential candidate from taking a role within a company included a lack of job security, dysfunctional teams and poor leadership. Almost half of the respondents said that they would rule out working for a company all together if they displayed any of these traits.
The three traits that potential employees look for when applying for roles are employer stability, opportunities for career growth and the chance to work within a good team. These traits are considered as important to potential employees and demonstrate a good reputation.
The research revealed if the reputation of the brand is poor, that a pay increase of at least 10% was needed in order to entice a new employer. This translates to approximately £3,297 per hire.
The study also revealed that that in order to compensate for a poor reputation, a company with over 10,000 employees or more could be spending £5.3million in additional wages.
According to the study, job applicants soared by up to 500% when a company showcased aspects of their working environment on social media.
“The crucial first step is to understand why you’re struggling to hire,” said Mosley. “Some organisations help employers determine levels of awareness among the talent groups they are seeking to hire, what these people currently associate with the employer and how this aligns with what they’re looking for.
“Once this is clear, it makes it a lot easier to define a more compelling employer value proposition, focus your communication efforts and ensure you deliver on your promises.”
Read our tips for creating a strong employer brand.
If you are looking for someone to help you to improve your employer branding then please contact us on 0207 788 6600 and our expert consultants will help you find the right HR professional for the role.
Mar 7, 2016 | IT
When applying for new roles, the quality of your CV is of paramount importance and instantly determines to a recruiter whether you are going to be suitable for the role or not. It is estimated that the average number of applicants one corporate job attracts in the UK is 250. Often, out of these only 4-6 people will be called for interview and 1 who will get the job. These are tough odds for those on the search for a new role. The jobs market is extremely competitive, so ensuring your CV is the strongest it can be is fundamental in your job search. Here are a few pointers to ensure your CV will stand out from the crowd:
Current Job Status
Not only do the details of your current job role give an indication of whether you the relevant experience for the role they are applying for, but it poses the question – why are you wanting to leave? If a candidate has only a few months in their most recent role, recruiters will often want to know why you are moving on so soon. Were you fired? Are you simply hating the role? It is always better to be honest about why you are wanting to move on, regardless of the reason. This is an opportunity to disclose your current status. Do not worry about the reasoning behind your wanting to leave, what really counts is your experience and ability to do the job.
Experience
Recruiters will scan your CV and try to determine whether you have a flow of relevant job progression shown in your previous roles. Increasing levels of responsibility is a good indication that the candidate is consistent and has a focus. Make sure that your CV gives an honest representation of previous positions. Do not try to mislead recruiters by over-exaggerating your responsibilities – the truth will always come out. Demonstrate throughout your resume where you added value to the company and describe positive contributions you made to the business.
Skills and Keywords
Don’t forget, a recruiter will only spend less than 30 seconds looking through your CV, so it’s crucial that you highlight skills and keywords that are relevant to the job that you are applying for. This demonstrates that you already have the experience required by your potential employers. You must ensure that keywords are easy to spot, so a clear, concise and well laid out CV makes all the difference. This does not mean your CV can’t be authentic. You must not, however, under any circumstances add keywords to your resume that you haven’t any experience in. Recruiters are on to you and if they find out you have lied, it will be an instant no-no.
Gaps
People have a misconstrued idea in employment, that if you have gaps in your CV it will be an instant rejection. This is simply not the case. If you have a gap in your CV, explain why there is. You may have taken some time out to start up your own business that didn’t work out, or taken a few years out to raise children. That’s fine, just explain that. Gaps will never go against you if you can show that you did something productive in that time. Where recruiters become skeptical about gaps in employment, is when a candidate cannot support their reasoning or are coy about their time out of employment. In some instances candidates may be reluctant to discuss time out of employment due to personal reasons, and feel they have to go into great detail – you don’t! Just explain to recruiters why you may feel uncomfortable divulging such information.
Education
The necessity to highlight in detail your education varies depending on the role being recruited for. It is necessary to highlight relevant certificates and diplomas, particularly if they are listed on the job description as essential or desirable. You may feel it beneficial to provide a brief outline of any key learning outcomes that may contribute to enhancing your ability to fulfil to the role. But try to limit the level of detail you go into when describing your qualifications, particularly if they may be irrelevant to the job role. A small overview of your education is all it needs.
If you need any assistance in your job search, then please do not hesitate to call us on 0207 788 6600 and one of our friendly expert consultants will be happy to help.
Mar 7, 2016 | IT
Technology continues to develop and progress at a phenomenal rate and these advances in technology means that skill sets required are continually changing. Now is a great time for opportunity and growth for IT professionals. The rate of growth in technology means that IT skills are in high demand meaning opportunity for a higher salary, job security and job advancement. The evolvement of IoT, Big Data and Cybersecurity continues to dominate the spotlight in the world of technology. So what skills will IT professionals be needing in 2016 in order to keep ahead of the game. Here we have complied a list of the most in-demand skills needed in order to keep up with the ever-evolving tech industry.
Big Data
The growth of demand for talent in big data is set to continue to increase. Talent in the Big Data field is rare but demands are high as businesses are becoming more aware of the importance of data science and are striving to improve their business processes by becoming more data driven. Data Scientists, DBAs and Database Technology Engineers; and Quantitative Analysts and Managers are some of the most sought after talent in technology at the moment. Demand for talent far outpaces the supply of talent in the current market and companies are requiring a high level of quantitative and technical expertise. If you are experienced in the field of big data then you will frequently be sought after and are unlikely to go short for job offers.
Cybersecurity
The expansion of the IoT market and increasing connectivity means an increase in potential hacks. The UK Governments budget pledge of almost £140million to develop applications for IoT and Smart Cities is sure to create great opportunities for businesses to become more efficient in their processes and aid in creating exciting new products to bring to the market; but also poses great threats. 2015 saw some of the most destructive hacks to date and the sheer breath and sophistication of these hacks means that attacks are getting worse at a far more frequent rate. Cybersecurity is therefore becoming a priority to businesses and protecting Intellectual Property, Operational Infrastructure and customer data is becoming more crucial than ever before. It is reported that security skills are in high demand due to short supply and companies are fighting to obtain the best talent to help them to identify weaknesses in their security and improve their security processes.
Cloud Computing
Businesses have rapidly been moving into the cloud for quite some time now. Companies are increasingly requiring experts in cloud adoption and integration. It has been predicted that a large majority of IT budget will be spent on cloud computing investment in 2016. The movement in hybrid cloud deployment will mean that this will be a highly sought after skill of IT professionals who specialise in cloud computing. Yulitza Peraza, analyst in quantitative services at 451 Research said: “Cloud computing is on the upswing and demand for public cloud services remains strong. However, public cloud adoption continues to face hurdles including security concerns, transparency and trust issues, workload readiness and internal non-IT-related organisational issues”. It is clear from this that cloud support will continue to remain required by businesses – now may be the time for IT professionals to get one step ahead of the game by immediately doing all they can to enhance their credentials when working with the cloud.
Coding
Research suggests that the internet has generated 2.6 jobs for each lost to technology related inefficiencies. This indicates that having the skills and experience in coding can help to future-proof your ability to find work in the modern economy. Coding became part of the school curriculum in 2014 –and with good reason. It has been estimated that over the next 10 years there will be 1.4 million jobs in computer sciences and only around 400,000 graduates qualified to do them. Linda Liukas, co-founder of coding workshop programme Rail Girls, believes that coding is “the literacy of the 12st century”. IT recruiters are always looking for candidates with experience in HTML, Java, JavaScript, PHP and Python. If you can include these skills on your resume then you are ticking all the right boxes. All businesses want to ensure that their website looks great and has robust, secure and stable back-end software to support it.
Mobile App Development
There is a constant need for web and app developers due to the rate at which new and improved smart phones and tablets are being released. As a result of this growth, there is a demand for new apps to be developed for both IOS and Android. According to Gartner, by the end of 2017, market demand for mobile app development services will grow at least five times faster than internal IT organisation’s capacity to deliver them. If you have experience with C++ and Java, and the newer programming languages such as Apple Swift and Hybrid App Development, then you will be invaluable to companies wanting to create new and innovative apps.
If you’d like to speak to one of our expert recruitment consultants about hiring IT personnel for your team or would like further advice regarding your skill set, then get in touch with our team here.
Mar 7, 2016 | IT
We recently reported on a study that was undertaken by London’s Chartered Management Institute, that showed the impact that management and leadership has on an individual’s health and well-being. The impact that technology is having on Managers was a prominent theme throughout the results of the study. The study also demonstrated that long working hours are having a significant adverse effect on Managers’ health and well-being; and the implications of poor management strategy became prevalent. Here we recommend ways that you can improve the well-being of your Managers and help them to manage the pressures of the role more effectively.
Empower Staff and Encourage Productivity
The study found that the biggest factor that influences motivation a positive well-being is a manager’s ability to decide how they will get their jobs done and complete tasks and projects, with a staggering 74% of respondents stating that this is the most contributing factor to job satisfaction. Give your staff autonomy – structure job position to allow a degree of autonomy and allow your managers to set their own goals with good reason. Self-chosen goals create intrinsic motivation – the desire to achieve goals for their own sake. It creates a higher level of determination and persistence and will enhance engagement levels. Empower your staff through rewarding and recognition of their achievements and support personal and professional development.
Switch Off
Allow employees to switch off from work emails during non-working hours. Duties should be kept to working hours if you want to maximise the productivity levels of your staff. It is a clear indicator, with 61% of respondents claiming that technology makes it hard for them to switch off, that this is an issue that needs to be reviewed by employers. You may want to review your communication policy to reduce the likelihood of managers resisting to the temptation of accessing emails out of work. 39% believe that out-of-hours remote access to emails should be restricted by their employers – this may be a wise move in a bid to reduce stress, heighten productivity and increase job satisfaction.
Develop Better Line Managers
You need to develop line managers who have a capability to encourage and engage. Providing feedback to managers on what areas they perform well in and what areas could benefit from improvement will greatly enhance a manager’s quality of working life. Ensure that managers seek feedback on how their management styles are perceived by colleagues. Providing development opportunities to help managers to reflect on their own styles will enable them to develop and enhance their own management styles. Creating more opportunities to learn will always greatly benefit employees. Supporting this, 92% of Chartered Managers say that becoming chartered increased their self-awareness.
Improve Change Management
Managers’ assessment of how senior leaders are managing change is at a low point. A high number of managers are saying change initiatives are failing to deliver business benefits. With change becoming commonplace across most organisations, addressing this should be a priority. During a culture change, strong leadership is necessary, along with improved communication and a level of trust between leaders and managers. It is vital to measure and monitor the impact that change within the organisation is having on managers.
Make Well-being a Focus
With Managers’ time being taken over by long working hours and heavy workloads, time to focus on exercise and personal health is compromised. Implementing a wellness plan for all employees may be beneficial in order to contribute towards eliminating negativity and improving Managers’ health and well-being. Emphasise the impact of poor health and well-being to Managers, and the cost implications it can have to the business in order to get 100% buy in to your wellness plan. Improving well-being means tackling any stigmas that may be attached to the discussion of health. These may be issues regarding mental health, physical illness or stress. Providing information and encouraging discussion about these issues give your staff the confidence to seek if and when needed, help for their health.
Ann Francke, Chief Executive CMI commented on the results of the study:
“There is nothing wrong with hard graft, but only if you’re well supported. Accidental managers who lack the professional skills to deal with the causes of burnout are a threat to their health and others health at work. Productivity will also continue to suffer unless employer’s train their managers.”
If you are struggling to manage the health and well-being of your staff and need a HR professional to join your team, then please call us on 0207 788 6600 and one of our expert consultants will be on hand to help you find the right candidate.
Mar 7, 2016 | IT
Internet of Things (IoT) is quickly becoming a phenomenon that is taking over our everyday lives. Mundane objects such as vehicles, household appliances, office appliances and even buildings are now becoming digitally connected, enabling intercommunication and autonomous machine-to-machine data transfer. The growth of IoT is moving at a dangerously fast pace, and it has recently been suggested that the number of active wirelessly connected devices will exceed 40 billion by 2020. Rapid adoption of IoT means that these devices are attractive targets for criminals.
Recent vulnerabilities in IoT devices, continue to highlight the seriousness of enhancing and improving the security of these devices. Earlier this month it was reported that a number of baby monitors were being compromised, enabling hackers to change camera settings, monitor live feeds and provide access to other hackers to monitor live feeds. The security of internet-connected cars was also under scrutiny recently, when it was revealed that a number of malicious activities enabled hackers to take control of entertainment systems and even shut down cars in motion. Malicious actives such as these are now also posing great threats to health. Wearables such as the Apple Watch, and Android Wear are being compromised to enable hackers to use the motion sensors within these devices to steal information and even health data. Some hacks involve medical devices which could have consequences on patients’ health.
It is not the first time that these sorts of issues have arisen. When the US introduced RFID tags to passports, personal data could be accessed from 30ft away, using a device that was easily available on sites such as EBay for as little as £180.
IoT security is now an issue of high importance and concern. Figures from a study undertaken by Strategy Analytics that looked into IoT system security, revealed that 70% of IT departments spend less than 20% of their time securing corporate network and data assets; while 56% agreed that their firms had or may have experienced a successful security breach.
Laura DiDio, SA director of IoT Systems Research and consulting and author of the report stated that “the survey results are a huge wake-up call.” DiDio furthered this, “IoT environments exponentially increase the size of the attack vector since companies have so many more devices, end points and applications to secure.”
What is being done?
Manufacturers and security firms are now trying to secure the world of IoT before it spirals out of control. Leading tech firms such Vodafone and BT have set up the Internet of Things Security Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation, designed to vet internet connected devices to identify vulnerability and offer assistance in security. Ben Azvine, global head of security research and innovation of BT said that the foundation will help IoT tech go mainstream without compromising privacy. Other founding members of the organisation include Imagination Technologies, Royal Holloways University of London, Copper Horse Solutions, Secure Thingz, NMI and PenTest Partners.
John Moor, director of the IoTSF, said the foundation was set up to meet an urgent need. “With so many concerns and a new complexity of security in IoT, it is important that we now start the necessary work in earnest to address known, yet not always addressed, and emerging vulnerabilities,” he said. “The scale and scope of the issues are formidable and as such they require a formidable response. This can only be achieved effectively by working together”.
Additional efforts are being made in order to tackle the issues in IoT security. Platforms such as Google’s Brillo, the Qualcomm’s AllJoyn platform and Apple’s HomeKit have been designed to enable large networks of IoT devices to identify and authenticate each other in order to provide higher security and prevent data breaches.
What’s next for IoT Security?
More still needs to be done to ensure a safe user experience to all who integrate these internet-connected devices into their day-to-day lives.
Gateways that connect IoT devices to company and manufacturer networks need to be secured in addition to just the devices themselves. Repositories where IoT data is stored are also attractive targets to hackers who use big data to make money- the security of these data archives also needs to be considered. Security updates both manual and automatic are still risky, safeguards need to be implemented in order to prevent updating interfaces from becoming security holes themselves.
It is inevitable that IoT is soon to play a far more pivotal role in our day to day lives, and will revolutionise the world of technology. But this major issue needs to be addressed and efforts need to be made by all in technology to ensure a safe user experience by all.
Let us know your thoughts on the topic. Will IoT revolutionise the world in the way in which it is meant to, or will it leave users open to serious risk and compromise of privacy? Tweet us @ITRecruitment or join in the conversation on our Facebook.
If you need help in hiring the next best IT professional to join your team, then call us today on 0207 788 660 and one of our friendly expert consultants will help you with all your recruitment requirements.
Feb 29, 2016 | IT
A recent study into the quality of working lives, conducted by London’s Chartered Management Institute, produced some startling results. The aim of the study was to explore the well being, motivation and productivity levels of Managers; to determine contributing attributes that affect these factors; and to provide a solution to these issues. The report demonstrates the impact that leadership and organisational structure has on health and well-being. The results from the study aim to provide lessons and insights into what managers can do to improve their working life, and what line managers and directors can do in helping managers achieve a healthy working environment.
Some of the key issues that became apparent within the study is that digital presenteeism is having an adverse effect on managers; long hours are increasing stress levels – and even cancelling out annual leave entitlement; and workload is impacting on health and well-being. This being said, job satisfaction levels have increased from 55% in 2012 to 67% in 2015.
The Age of Digital Presenteeism: High connectivity = High stress
61% of Managers reported that they find it difficult to switch off from work commitments due to accessibility to emails. Remote access and connectivity to office functions, have been widely appraised by Managing Directors in a bid to reduce lost working hours due to absenteeism and unusual circumstances e.g. weather, however remote access is having adverse effects on Managers. 61% say that technology makes it hard to switch off, furthering this – those who struggle to switch off reported lower productivity levels and job satisfaction, and more frequent stress. In a bid to reduce the adverse effects of technology, 39% believe that out-of-hours, remote access to emails should be restricted by their employers.
Long Working Hours Cancels out Annual Leave Entitlement
A staggering 92% of managers work longer than their contracted hours. ‘Always on’ management is beginning to take its toll on UK Managers, with a staggering average of 29 days extra work a year in additional unpaid overtime, annual leave entitlement is being cancelled out by overtime all-together. 54% of Managers stated that long working hours are having a negative impact on them, however this is a 5% decrease from 2012. It is reported that stress is 3 times more common among those working longer hours, supporting this, 20% of those working over 3 hours extra per day said they often feel stressed.
The Effects of Workload on Health, Well-being and Motivation
The majority of Managers’ report a negative impact on their health and well-being due to workload. The list of health implications that workload is having include mood swings, lack of appetite and overeating, and even depression and panic or anxiety attacks. Sleep loss tops this list with 57% reporting insomnia and muscle aches, followed by headaches and constant irritability. Managers in the public sector are currently facing significant organisational challenges including low motivation, productivity and job satisfaction. Motivation in private sectors, however, remain higher. This also applies to those organisations experiencing internal growth.
The Implications of Poor Management Strategy
The worst perceived management styles generate 4 times more stress than the best perceived management styles. According to the report, the ‘worst’ styles include secretive, risk-averse and authoritarian management styles; however, accessible, empowering and trusting methods of management come out on top as the most favorable styles of management. The favored methods drive job satisfaction levels up to 2.5 times more than the less-preferred methods. It was reported that the top engagement drivers are as follows:
- The sense of achievement you get from your job
- Your sense of feeling part of a team
- Your relationship with your manager
- Your ability to decide how to complete your projects and tasks
- Your prospects for career enhancement.
Job Satisfaction on the Up
In contrast to the disheartening figures and statistics, job satisfaction is improving. 67% of managers overall are satisfied with their job – a significant increase from 55% in 2012, and a further 62% in 2007. One would wonder how this can be the case, given the unfavorable figures. However, there are some factors that significantly contribute to satisfaction. 39% reported that their satisfaction was down to growth of the organisation. 79% feel that their line manager trusts them, with a further 61% stating that they feel fairly treated by their employer. And finally, 76% say they are proud to work for their employer and believe in the values of the organisation.
Read our 5 steps to improving Managers’ well-being here.
Feb 19, 2016 | IT
You’re recruiting for a new employee and you want to really get the most out of the process and hire the best candidate in the most effective and efficient way. You have your hiring goals and business objectives in mind and obviously want to do what’s best for your organisation. However, it’s important to remember that your candidates are interviewing you too. They’re testing out whether your company is a good fit for them and whether the role you’re offering matches their expectations. To help you attract the best and keep the attention of the best candidates, we’ve suggested a few pointers.
Good Communication
One of the frustrations of candidates during the hiring process is the lack of communication from employers. Spending time perfecting a CV, completing an application form and particularly preparing for an interview takes time and effort, so if they’re not successful or there is a hold-up of any kind, keep them updated and offer a proper explanation. Once you have selected your interview hopefuls, providing them with adequate information to allow them to prepare is only fair. Do you have any further resources that would allow your candidates to swot up about your organisation? Or could you provide details on what to expect during the interview?
Make Them Feel Comfortable
Your interview candidates are your guests, so making them feel comfortable in a situation where they’re likely to be nervous should allow them to open up and enjoy the experience as much as possible. A friendly tone and attention to the small things can make all the difference; for example offering candidates a drink or explaining what’s going to happen next should help to put them at ease. Initial icebreaker conversations and chit-chat are another way to help your candidates settle in, offer introductions to everyone they will be meeting that day, don’t rush and try to minimise distractions.
Show Them You’re Interested
Treat each candidate like they’re you’re best candidate. If a candidate has a bad experience at an interview or is not made to feel welcome or valued they’re less likely to want the job, but also less likely to speak positively about the company to others. So do your research, read their CV or application form and don’t duplicate this information when asking questions; if you ask what university they went to, they’ll know you haven’t done your research.
Provide a Realistic Job Preview
The interview is a great time to show candidates around, allow them to meet the team and get a real feel for your business culture. So as well as going into detail about the role and its requirements so candidates know what they can expect if successful, it’s a time to really sell your organisation.
Ask Open Questions
The kind of interview questions you ask will depend entirely on the role you’re recruiting for, however open questions that encourage candidates to tell a bit of a story are often well received. Questions such as “what is something you’d be happy doing every single day for the rest of your career?” or “what’s the biggest decision you’ve had to make in the past year and why was it so big?” give candidates an opportunity to talk about something they’re passionate about. Their answers may also give you a good feel for their personality and charisma.
For support and advice during your organisation’s interview process contact Langley James’s recruiting experts who are available to help you every step of the way.
Feb 15, 2016 | IT
It was reported last week that a recent study showed that women are better at coding than men. It comes from a study into the service GitHub – an online software building service of which over 12-million people use to “discover, fork, and contribute to over 31 million projects.” (GitHub, 2016). The study suggested that pull requests – or suggested code changes – made by women were more likely to be accepted, with a 78.6% rate, than those made by men, with a mere 74.6% rate. Gender information is not requested, and often unidentifiable, however was identified for the study through profile information or email addresses cross matched with Google+. The study suggested that there may be a bias when it comes to gender. Women’s acceptance rates were higher than men’s, however only when using gender neutral profiles within the developer community of GitHub. The figures dropped drastically to 62.5% when their gender is identifiable.
This mirrors the current employment climate. Huffington Post Tech UK, 2015 reported that only 17% of the IT industry is made up by women. This is an unsurprising figure, given than women reportedly earn around 25% less than men in the IT industry. Pair these stats to the fact that the current skills gap is due to increase to 745,000 by 2017, and 1-million by 2020, it becomes appallingly evident that this is not just a diversity issue, but an economic one too.
There is no easy solution for the issue. Gender imbalance is one that has been ongoing for centuries, and unfortunately the commendable efforts and initiatives aimed at tackling bias seems to be failing to reduce these gaps. In a bid to close inequalities, encouraging women into technology from an early age is crucial. Egnyte CSO Isabelle Guis commented on education, “I believe a major reason that we are seeing more men than women working in the technology industry is education. There are fewer women in technology graduate programmes and in the marketplace because STEM subjects are still perceived by some to be ‘male’ subjects.”
Although the figures may appear disheartening, the discussion of women in technology has been far more prevalent in recent months, and the skills gap has truly brought to life the urgency of encouraging people of all ages and genders into the tech industry. These figures certainly give women wanting to pursue a career in tech the push they may need, and the technology industry reason to open doors for women, whilst contributing to narrowing the ever growing skills gap. Could 2016 see a boom in women in technology?
Feb 9, 2016 | IT
The core challenge of business intelligence has always revolved around a debate of holding onto centralised IT systems that deliver complete control and governance, and the solutions of tomorrow that can deliver better intelligence, although requiring a release of the typical governance control that older systems provide. This choice is then a stark one, yet these four reasons make the case all the stronger for moving away from legacy systems.
- Businesses will outgrow their systems
The pace of change within the modern business is only becoming ever faster; manufacturing departments can require the processing of thousands of parts, components and materials, dealing with an innumerable amount of suppliers; this department is supported by logistics planning that depends upon supplies where commodities fluctuate hour by hour, and HR departments need to account for millennials and the younger generations who are entering the jobs marketing and contributing to higher rates of employee churn. The strain of all this upon IT systems of old is unbearable, with these old school solutions failing to deliver the complex analytics that such business operations command.
- The analytic capacities of desktop tools that work alongside legacy systems are not only lacking, but leading to potential business disasters
The analytics solutions that have been tacked onto legacy systems have been designed to meet the needs of varying departments, however such systems have placed the importance of speed over and above accuracy, as well as aesthetics and ease of use over capability. Quite simply put this will lead to intelligence that is incorrect, resulting in business decisions where the incorrect choices are made.
- Legacy systems are simply throwing good money after bad
Legacy systems are inherently difficult to maintain and manage, and whilst transferring to a modern business intelligent solution comes along with what can be an intimidating price tag (as well as extensive soft costs, most significance of which is training) the eventual costs, both in terms of implementation, as well as the implication upon business decisions, come in far below the option of continuing with an outdated alternative.
- CIOS have the chance to opt for a data-driven culture, rather than data that lacks integrity
CIOs have a chance to truly drive for change, they can drive down cost whilst investing in BI solutions that deliver value; this compares to continuing with legacy systems that will only continue to provide ever less accurate data, leading to their companies falling behind within the commercial world. What’s more within this newly established data-driven culture, and with the right platform, the previous pressure placed upon systems by reports and analytics can achieve saved resources that may be better spent upon other projects.
James Langley are the go-to recruitment specialists for IT talent that delivers the business intelligence solutions tomorrow, today; through the right people, placed within the right positions, they are helping their clients ensure that dated IT systems are a thing of the past.
Jan 29, 2016 | IT
Glassdoor recently ranked ‘HR Manager’ forth in a list of the UK’s 25 best jobs. Based on the number of job openings, career opportunities and earning potential, HR Manager may not seem the glamorous or high-flying role you’d expect to see near the top of this list but there’s more to working in human resources than is often given credit for. Generally a stable profession with an average base salary of £50,000 for HR Managers the human resources department is often overlooked by other members of the workforce. A CIPD survey reported that a quarter of employees ‘don’t know’ what the department really does – a surprising figure considering the function is so central to so many business decisions. However, it’s time HR stands firmly in the limelight – it’s not only an essential piece of the organisational jigsaw, but some would argue it’s the most rewarding.
Creating Positivity and Changing Lives
A large part of your role as HR manager is to improve employee welfare, whether that’s sensitively managing a workplace dispute or ensuring everyone has the most appropriate equipment to do their job safely and comfortably. Constantly striving for a better, more positive environment for the organisation as a whole will help employees to enjoy their time at work as much as possible. HR teams may also be required to assist with more personal issues where the right help and advice could really play a part in changings someone’s life.
Long-term Opportunity
As well as an above average salary, a career in HR will usually be a stable one that will see you through to retirement. There are many avenues to explore in the field of HR such as payroll, employee training and development, workforce planning or employee relations and there’s often the option to switch industries fairly easily too. Similarly, if you did ever fancy a change of career you’ll have built up many transferable skills that may allow for a step sideways. Companies will always need an HR department, and although there are continual technological advances in software and HR management tools this people-focussed role is by no means at risk of being taken over by the machines any time soon!
Being Involved
Although in some cases unfortunately HR is still hiding its light under a bushel, or more accurately sitting quietly in the corner of the office, if the function is running successfully you should be a truly integrated member of the whole team, at the heart of the employee hub. You’re involved in hiring and have an influence on who joins the organisation, as well as helping these new team members integrate and develop. You’re in a position of trust to many and will have the opportunity to speak to and work with employees from across the whole organisation. You may also be involved in the organisation of social activities and team building.
Of course, there’s the tough side to working in HR too, making decisions about redundancies and cutbacks will never be easy, and the profession can come under fire when it’s often the one handing out the bad news. However as a field, HR is constantly evolving not only technologically, but legally, economically and in terms of diversity and cultural awareness. This means you’ll handle issues, meet people and deal with situations you may never have expected, always learning and growing with the role and its responsibilities.
If you’re an HR manager and you’re looking to grow your HR team, we can help. We’re in contact with many HR professionals across the UK looking for new roles.
Jan 29, 2016 | IT
CRM systems have been around, in one form or another, since business began. In the pre-computerised world there were record cards and good old fashioned one-to-one interactions where personal relationships where built. However in the global operating world things are a whole lot more complex. The management of what may be millions of customers and prospects is tasked with the challenge of making marketing and trade personal, and as an answer to this has been an uprising of literally thousands of CRM options, each with something different to offer the company with a sales team that must perform in order to drive growth.
Recent research into this area found that a staggering 25.5% of companies have implemented a sales enablement department, with a further 6.7% planning to do so in 2016 (CSO Insights 2015). These figures give more than enough reason for businesses to take a look at just what sales enablement is and how it may be valuable to them in this, the year of CRM investment.
Defining sales enablement
Let’s begin by first defining what sales enablement is; first, it isn’t sales operations, and it may best be summarised by Tamara Schenk, of CSO Insights:
“Sales Force Enablement: A strategic, cross-functional discipline designed to increase sales results and productivity by providing integrated content, training, and coaching services for salespeople and front-line sales managers along the entire customer journey, powered by technology”.
This definition highlights just how tall a task sales enablement is, and as Jim Dickie reports on Destination CRM, companies almost universally recognise the need for technology in order to achieve sales enablement. Dickie then goes further to highlight the five core areas that will sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to the choice of CRM and how effective they are within the modern world:
– Collaboration: This will demand the streamlining of sales enablement cross department, from sales operations onto training and product management and everything in between.
– Tech-enabled training: Training across the board, from those on the front sales line to those within social media marketing, should be delivered through e-learning solutions.
– Content management: Content management spans every form of internal sales tool, from account plans through to selling scripts, as well as the tools that are customer facing, such as proposals – all managed within a single CRM.
– Virtual coaching: For the large corporation virtual coaching is the cost effective solution to the one-to-one coaching that sales teams need.
– Analytics: The CRM of 2016 should provide for robust analytics that is produced from a variety of systems, from ERP, customer support and onto external sources, this will guide business plans and secure the growth of tomorrow.
All in all these five investment areas each serve as significant costs to a business, even when taken on singularly. However the ROI from such an investment is simply staggering, as the SPO study found that such companies that had already forged ahead with these plans had achieved revenue performance attainment rates of 10.2% higher than those who hadn’t.
Langley James is the answer to sourcing the right people to harness the most innovative of technology; from creating the right digital content and training for the business challenges of today, to harnessing all that CRM analytics can deliver – we have the right people for the most demanding of positions.
Jan 28, 2016 | IT
Over 80% of IT professionals place high importance on companies investing in the latest releases of technologies. With the current jobs market far more stable than previous years, UK workers ultimately have a far greater choice over where they work, who they work for; and have a greater level of trust in their future in employment. Employer branding is a phenomenon becoming ever more prevalent as the job market continues to grow. When we talk about retention strategies, we usually place a high emphasis on the main components that contribute to retention such as reward, L&D, engagement and satisfaction. But we often fail to recognise the relevance of technology in relation to employee retention.
Having seen a significant rise in the number of IT professionals looking to move on from their current role, it became clear that the reasoning for this was more than just the annual January trend. It is no secret that out of date technology impacts heavily on workflow, productivity and results, but it seems that these issues are beginning to take its toll on workers, and they have had enough. It has become evident that a significantly large number of workers in the IT sector want to leave their current position because they are using old technology at their place of work. This may appear extreme, but with technology playing such an integral part in modern society, people are consequently relying more on efficient technologies demand the most effective processes, and this is swiftly beginning to filter into the workplace.
With technology growing and evolving at such a phenomenal rate, it is unsurprising that technology is now establishing its role in contributing to both retention and employer branding. Investing in the most current technologies will certainly give you a competitive edge, and will undoubtedly enhance your employer branding. A large majority of IT professionals have stated that they will “lose their value in the marketplace if they don’t keep up to date with the latest releases”. The benefits in utilising the latest technologies are endless, and if you fail to move with the times, you will fail revolutionise.
Do you agree that technology now has a far greater input into retention levels?
Do you value companies more if they invest in the latest technologies?
Let us know your thoughts on this issue.
Nurturing your businesses starts with developing the health of your organisation. Through solid processes and up-to-date technology, you can create an efficient and well-constructed working environment. If you need to recruit a BI expert to help in BI solutions, contact Mark or Dave at mark@langleyjames.com or dave@langleyjames.com; or call us on 0207 788 6600.
Jan 25, 2016 | IT
Uber: It is the digital taxi platform that has sparked London cabbie revolts and calls upon the Government to crack down on a business that has disrupted the market so much that their hundred-year-old industry is under threat.
Amazon: This is a company that has been built up from a humble online book store and is now a global company; today turning over almost $89 billion [Business Wire 2014]), having acquired a staggering array of businesses and investments and, as of 2015, became the US’s most valuable retailer (New York Times 2015).
These two global giants have well and truly shaken up a digital revolutionising within their markets. So it seems more than pertinent question to ask: just how did these two once fledgling start-ups do it?
Amazon and Uber: Two completely different powerhouses – one solid strategical approach
The staggering successes of Amazon and Uber have actually been built upon one pretty simple strategical notion – having a solid understanding of their customer, and harnessing the right digital tools for a truly customised experience. Sounds simple, right? Well perhaps not so much, as this process requires a solid CRM to feedback all-important customer information for the eventual optimisation of sales, marketing and service processes. What’s more even a comprehensive grasp upon this isn’t enough, and as Amazon an Uber so adeptly demonstrate, there must be customer experience management (CXM) that goes far beyond any CRM exercise.
CXM – The key to digital strategies such as Amazon’s and Uber’s
CXM must factor into any businesses digital strategy when it comes to replicating the Amazon/Uber model. It is the experience beyond, or before, consumers use your services – where they journey through the sales funnel, where they interact with your social media and wherever they externally come across your brand. The key to success here is being able to seamlessly integrate this in a way that provides for a coherent plan.
Goldenberg from Destination CRM puts forward a strong case for employing the hub and spoke model here in order to achieve this. He argues that the hub should be the customer profile, which feeds back relevant information in, ideally, real time. The CXM then serves as the spokes, which include social media, next-best offer deals, customer journey and mobile apps. Each of these spokes is fed with data from the CRM in order to enhance, streamline and ultimately make for the most effective customer engagement rates. The system is then completed with the spokes acting as data senders themselves, where information can be learned upon social media and fed back to the CRM’s consumer profile. This holistic approach is defined by its duel information sharing, and it is very much what Amazon and Uber have been empowered by.
At Langley James we have an unshakable grasp upon how businesses can be empowered with the right IT staff, in the right positions. We know of the solid business growth that can be achieved through innovative digital tools and technology. And we’re the right partner for those who, like Amazon and Uber, seek to harness the world of IT to supercharge their business growth.
Jan 25, 2016 | IT
The recent floods that devastated much of the UK just after Christmas turned lives and businesses upside down, and goes to show that this kind of extreme weather can strike at any time. In order to try and prevent and minimise damage, having policies and procedures in place and ensuring all your employees are aware of them could make the world of difference when faced with emergencies like the weather-induced chaos of storm Desmond, Eva and Frank.
Bad Weather Policies
Having an official bad weather policy in place ensures everyone knows where they stand. It may seem like you’re stating the obvious by telling staff what they need to do if the weather takes a turn for the worst, but unusual circumstances may leave employees not knowing what to do for the best.
Your employee’s safety is your number one priority. If the weather means it’s too dangerous for them to travel to work they need to know who they need to contact and by what time. Travel disruptions might also cause employees to be late or stranded elsewhere. There is no obligation for an employer to pay an employee who does not turn in, so consider how you want to handle this.
One option in situations like this is to allow your staff to work from home where possible. Of course in industries like distribution and manufacturing this won’t work, but for IT and other office based professions cloud-based software makes it possible.
Common Sense Prevails
Sensible HR advice and a flexible approach will usually help you through difficult times. If it’s going to take an employee hours to get into work and they’ll have to leave early to travel home again, this is wasted time with the chance of them becoming stranded somewhere, so working from home seems sensible. If you’re allowing home working you’ll need to be clear about the practicalities. The likes of Dropbox and Google Drive make things considerably easier, but there is also equipment to think about. Do employees have work laptops or will they need to use their own? You just need to make sure all systems and equipment have the right security requirements for your business.
Being Prepared
Some severe weather events can be forecast hours before they arrive, allowing time to prepare and advise, but sometimes there is no warning. In either case being prepared, even if the worst happens, will help to keep everyone safe and hopefully minimise damage. Conduct a risk assessment, educate employees and update plans and procedures based on the lessons you’ve learned previously. Circulate the policies when you update them or perhaps at the start of winter if it looks like snow is on the way, ask for feedback and keep your employees involved.
Jan 25, 2016 | IT
It’s no doubt that awareness of cyber security is increasing. More people now know more about the risks, or at least the basic steps they need to take to cover themselves and their organisations. However, as the world becomes more connected than ever, hackers are becoming more inventive and more sophisticated in their attacks. It’s important that companies can move with these developments and changes to create a culture that adopts an up to date, risk-based, multi-layer defence framework.
Attacks on the Sonys and Experians of the world may seem far away from small start-up firms or even more established SMEs, but the potential for a disastrous attack or breach of security is only clicks away. Over 30,000 websites are being compromised by hackers every day according to figures from Sophos and can cost smaller firms a considerable amount of money, not to mention stress.
Support is Out There
Following our article last year ‘SMEs Urged to Take Cyber Attacks Seriously’ where we looked into the Government’s plea for SMEs to train, educate, review and prevent risks, it seems many organisations are stepping up to the challenge. With the help of the Government and their 10 steps programme that emphasises basic good practice, as well as many experts raising awareness of threats, those in the know are keeping ahead of the game.
However, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales recently warned Sky News that cyber security is ‘incredibly important’ and explained that governments sometimes don’t understand IT enough to fully interpret the risks. He explained that governments need to strike a balance when considering their desire to monitor information.
Predictions for 2016
Cyber security predictions for this year include attacks through aps. Aps can access your emails, contacts and more, so attackers are exploiting this as best they can. Also, as the internet of things continues to grow, so do the amount and type of threats to our mobile devices. Some also predict phishing attacks will worsen and get more personal. In the majority of cases the goal of the cyber hacker is to steal or exploit sensitive data such as personal information or credit card details, yet this year experts predict more destructive, cyber-terrorism type attacks, aiming mainly to threaten.
A Continued Threat
Although many firms are taking positive steps to secure themselves, the fact is smaller firms have less to spend on security, they’re also busy with the day to day of keeping customers happy and dealing with admin. The most recent government figures suggest SMEs with over 100 employees spend around £10,000 per year on IT security and that the smallest firms, with less than 20 employees, spend around £200.
The installation and regular upkeep of anti-virus software, firewalls, spam filters and keeping devices up to date should defeat the majority of the low level threats. It’s also important for organisations to have a good knowledge of where their data is going and who uses it – this can significantly help to limit any damage. Following the Government’s guidelines and keeping up to date about new threats and challenges will continue to keep you ahead of the game.
Jan 22, 2016 | IT
Gov.uk were recently left red-faced when an embarrassing spelling blunder- tweeted out to over 1 million followers- highlighted to everyone not only the importance of attention to detail, but that unfortunately this can happen to the largest of organisations. This got us talking about how attention to detail can create great success, or prompt dangerous pitfalls that will cause your business to suffer.
Attention to detail is a prime characteristic of high-performing organisations. Careful management in detail is sure to improve accuracy in performance, and will contribute to overall efficiency and success. Creating positive impressions and proving your corporate competence is key.
It doesn’t stop at spelling and grammar. Historically, the most successful people have an extraordinary ability to notice the most minute of details. Apple is the perfect example of how a fierce attention to detail can bring the greatest amount of success. They will spend days discussing pixel position- details that other companies may overlook as unimportant. They have a desire to create computers that look beautiful on the inside- even though they don’t get seen. This just shows that paying attention pays!
According to Michael Levine- author and media expert, ignoring the smallest of details causes the biggest problems in business. Gov.uk certainly are not the first company to have been subject to an embarrassing, or indeed detrimental blunder that could have been avoided. In 1999 a simple school-level math error caused a Mars orbiter, designed by Lockheed Martin for NASA, to be lost in space when Engineers at Lockheed used English measurements while the NASA team used metric ones. This costed NASA $125million. This could have been easily avoided and it was reported that there were numerous opportunities for this error to be caught before it was too late. Don’t let simple attention to detail cause you the most destructive results.
We can help you recruit someone- bringing a fresh pair of eyes to the business. If you are struggling with staff who lack an attention to detail, we will help you hire a IT or HR specialist, sure to maintain a high level of professionalism and diligence. Call us on 0207 788 6600 to speak with one of our expert consultants today.
Jan 20, 2016 | IT
Traditionally the art of trading online successfully very much rested upon the placement of talented developers, designers and online marketing specialists; however, with the explosion that has been seen within the world of social media, the ways in which consumers shop, review products and even interact with the companies they purchase from, has been irrevocably transformed. Here we take a look at just what this means for the modern business that seeks to secure a future of boosted e-commerce trade, empowered by social media.
The power of peer to peer advocacy
Word of mouth has arguably always been the most powerful form of marketing there is, and with the unstoppable growth of social media this medium has been digitally supercharged. In fact, so powerful is it that consumer-to-consumer word of mouth has been found to generate twice as much business as compared to paid advertising (BRANDERATI 2013); its little wonder then, that this social media age has often even referred to as the Age of Advocacy and Influence.
E-Commerce becomes one with social media
As of August 2015 Salesforce.com announced the ability for their users to embed a Buy Now button within their social media communities; this, coupled with SAP’s October expansion into e-commerce alongside Jam Communities for SAP hybrids Commerce, has truly realised the ability of sophisticated embedding of e-commerce capabilities upon social media platforms.
As with many things within the social media realm, it seems to be the blue-chip giant of Facebook that is leading the way. For years Facebook has featured the business page ‘Shop Tab’ ability through the good old fashioned, yet pretty mobile unfriendly iframe. Today however, as with all things that this social media giant does, things are altogether rather different, as well as a whole lot more advanced, allowing for the actual upload of products directly onto the platform, and the integrating of payment systems to seamlessly manage the entire process.
Content, community building and solid sales funnels
Adding value to your offering, and to your target market, has always lay at the core of content marketing. Online social communicates can drive business growth, acting as an essential tool for the robust management of your sales funnel. However, whilst many advocates of merging e-commerce and social media have heralded the moves towards a singular online social/shopping destination, others disagree. These particular industry experts argue that such a move is clouding the essential information gathering that is so vital within a community (and where an image of relative impartiality is beneficial).
Beyond social eCommerce onto social customer service
As social media has become increasingly ingrained within the everyday lives of the consumer many have come to expect customer services to be naturally forthcoming upon the platforms they use day in, day out. And where complaints, and perhaps more importantly – the way such complaints are handled – can be placed upon the world’s stage the issue of solid social customer service becomes ever more important. When harnessed in the right way it can lead to companies that are considered to have outstanding service levels, as well as delivering vital savings upon traditional support mediums.
However, it seems that few are embracing social media in this way, with recent research showing that less than 30% of companies on Twitter responded to questions (Social Bakers 2015).
Social media is not only transforming the expertise required within the modern business’s IT departments, but is extending to effect customer services as well as marketing. For the company truly seeking a holistic approach to e-commerce it seems that these three once separate realms within the average business are looking set only to have more and more in common.
Jan 18, 2016 | IT
The IT industry is furiously fast paced – accounting for an ever more significant driving force behind many a business’s bottom line. For those companies that harness the right technology and employ the most talented of IT workers there exists a bright future propelled through innovation. Yet it seems that the UK is seriously suffering from the side effects of being dangerously understaffed when it comes to the IT industry. So here we take a look at just what this means for the jobs market for forward thinking businesses, as well as for the wider UK economy as a whole.
The all-together rather gloomy UK graduate jobs market
For graduates it seems that there is barely a day that goes by that doesn’t report ever more depressing figures. From the fact that more than 50% of graduates are working within non-graduate jobs (CIPD 2015) through to the fact that every graduate position has, on average, 39 applicants (High Fliers 2014).
Add to this the typical student debt bill, which has sky rocketed to £44,000 (The Independent 2014) and you’d be forgiven for thinking that UK Graduates have never had it so bad.
The IT Graduate: Seriously hot property for the trading landscape of tomorrow
For the IT graduate the outlook is positively glorious, and is far from reflective of the seriously saturated market that many other industries are suffering from.
Rather than there being 39 applicants for each IT position, there is instead 39% of UK companies struggling to fulfil their IT needs (BCS 2013) and with the current needs of UK businesses, as reported by E-Skills, requiring around 140,000 IT professionals each year, the current rate of 16,440 students enrolling upon computer science courses is woefully inadequate.
Of course this all contrasts against a backdrop of an ever more digitalised UK world, within which the IT industry is forecasted to expand five times over within the next ten years (CIO 2015). Companies today are then truly built upon solid social media strategies, ever evolving business apps and software that makes for the basis upon which businesses operate, market themselves and grow.
The outlook for the average UK business
As employers struggle to secure domestic IT workers, particularly within the software development realm, such businesses are turning to offshore positions within developing economies. Yet these companies are finding such an approach to be a seriously false economy where language, cultural and educational differences prove many a time to be insurmountable barriers.
A forecast for the UK economy
A little shining light for the UK IT jobs market comes in the form of recently announced plans by the Government to introduce core computing skills, such as coding, from Primary school age. However, for the time being, or rather the decade or so until these tiny, well trained coding digits enter the jobs market, it seems that UK employers may need to look to overseas graduates to fulfil their essential IT needs.
Langley James appreciate the challenges of today’s businesses in their quest to fulfil tomorrow’s IT positions today, going beyond the status quo to deliver superstar candidates for even the most demanding of IT job roles.
Jan 18, 2016 | IT
If you are not placing any importance on implementing career development programs in 2016, you are likely to regret it. According to research conducted by SHRM, career advancement opportunities are placed as high importance by employees, and by not investing as much into employee development as competitors are, you are at risk of losing your best talent.
Career Development Methods
There are various methods that you can utilise in order to implement employee development plans. Some companies choose to create mobility programs within the organisation, such as internal hiring, mentoring or leadership programs. Others choose to focus on professional development- providing the funding for employees to work towards certifications and degrees. Some more popular methods include company paid general training and tuition; and nurturing talents, skills and abilities in order to encourage employees to excel in tasks that they enjoy.
Why?
The Benefit to You
When creating a career development strategy, consider the benefit to both the employee, and the business. Implementing career development plans can be a great benefit to your company. In enhancing the knowledge and experience of staff, you can fill internal skill gaps, and in some cases, role gaps. An increase in knowledge about the job in hand will also highly increase engagement and productivity, and tasks will ultimately be completed to a higher standard. This contributes to instilling confidence in your employees, which in turn increases retention levels. The benefits are endless, implementing such a strategy is an investment to a business as opposed to a cost.
Retention
We are seeing a massive surge in people seeking new opportunities and moving on from their existing job role. With the current job market on the up, retention strategies are more invaluable to a business than ever. It may come as no surprise that a lack of career prospect will play a significant part in an employee wanting to move on to better things. Putting procedures, such as career development programs, in place to ensure higher levels employee satisfaction, will ultimately increase retention. Of course, it would be a task to attempt to cater to everyone’s needs and expectations, particularly when people have such different ideas about their career goals and ambitions. But discussing with your staff where they want to be and how they want to get there, gives you the opportunity to aid them in achieving their career development targets. Read more on employee retention.
Employer Branding
Developmental programs which enhance employee’s prospects, is a great way to promote your business and to show how great you are as a company. Implementing a career development program is something you should use to enhance your employer branding. The job market is becoming ever more stable, and people have far more faith in the current climate. There is a greater choice available to people now, and retention is a big issue that employers are currently facing. Clearly defined career paths will help you attract new hires. They will make you appear attractive to prospective employees, and will set you apart from competitors- so shout about it. Read more on employer branding.
When Implementing The Plan
Manage Expectations
The first thing to ensure when you begin to implement career development plans, is that all expectations meet the reality of the plan. Tackle any uncertainties the employee may have. You may find that some view these developmental plans as an added workload and a stress. Manage your employee’s expectations by maintaining that these types of programs are available to those who are willing to engage and that no pressure will be added to those who do not want to participate. Taking a gentle approach and highlighting how such a plan will be a benefit to them; and outlining exactly how the program will be undertaken will help in managing the employee’s expectations.
Create a Clear Message
Avoid ambiguity and set a clear, concise message from the outset by defining what the plan will include and how you can help your staff get to where they want to be. Be sure to affirm that what you can provide to them rests heavily on company growth, company priorities, economic circumstances and the career goals of the individual. You may also avoid getting into hot water by defining whether this program will provide internal job opportunities or career opportunities- there is quite a difference between the two.
Don’t Over Commit
When you begin to implement your career development procedure, you must ensure that you do not over commit your time or resources if you cannot follow through with your promises. Avoid uncertainty and specify exactly how you can help the employee with career development and the channels by which will help them achieve their goals. It may be that you will provide funding for a member of staff to complete a college course or degree, in which case it would be advisable to set in place any rules or regulations in regards to where and when the employee can complete their work. For example, all work must be undertaken out of working hours, or limited to 2-3 hours a week. Ensure that the boundaries are set and that the employee understands that you can steer them in the right direction and help them to explore their options, but you are not there to do the work for them.
If you are looking for someone to join your team who can help you implement career development opportunities, then call us today on 0207 788 6600 and our specialist consultants can help you find the perfect HR professional for the role.
Jan 12, 2016 | IT
We are kicking the year off to a great start following a tremendous 2015 full of new exciting projects, milestones, and many highs at Langley James. Here are just a few of the milestones and achievements we are most proud of:
Your satisfaction
2015 was a great year at Langley James for building and maintaining relationships with all of our clients and candidates. We placed many great candidates into roles with over 200 different companies repeatedly in the space of 12 months. We are proud to say that the majority of the clients that we recruited for, have become regular contacts, and have put their trust in our consultants to find them great candidates again and again. We are also pleased that a growing number of the people that we have placed into job roles, have kept in touch to give us updates on how they are getting on in their new role. We feel privileged that so many of you have built up such a great amount of trust in our consultants and continually show your support and confidence in our services.
Our services to you
In 2015, our efforts in quality client and candidate focus, management and continual improvement were highlighted when we began working towards our ISO accreditation under the British Assessment Bureau. This accreditation means that our process and approach to the way Langley James is managed adheres to the desired management, customer focus and quality processes; and demonstrates the quality in our services to you.
2015 was one of the biggest years for Langley James as we hit a record number of almost 5000 successful placements, with our team of consultants stronger than ever- most with over 15 years’ experience in recruitment. Our live internal database size also hit a record number this year, and we were thrilled to be able to help an unprecedented number of great candidates find the job they were looking for. The number and scale of great people who approached us to help them find the right role meant that we were able to give clients a great choice of people to interview. It also meant that clients could be very specific about any definitive attributes they were looking for in a potential employee and we could always find candidates who could fulfil these requirements.
HR Division
After 16 years in IT recruitment, it had been continually requested that we move into HR, and it felt fitting as we have been dealing with HR specialists and their recruitment processes. One of our top recruiters, Lucy has had a wealth of experience in management and human resources previous to joining the team 3 years ago. The division officially launched in July, and in the space of 6 months, has rocketed. We have already had the opportunity to work with many incredibly talented HR professionals and this is just the beginning of the division.
Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing Specialism
There has been a focus in the market for specialists within Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing and we are catering for the specific need by having Mark Holloway and David Barnes join us. Both seasoned recruiters with over 20 years’ experience, they will be utilising their traditional recruitment skills, including head-hunting to enable us to deliver the best candidates to our clients.
Thank you
We would like to take the opportunity to thank you for coming along on this journey with us, and without your support we couldn’t have experienced the great number of accomplishments that we did in 2015.
Jan 12, 2016 | IT
January is always full of predictions for the year ahead and it’s interesting to look back to see which of last year’s predicted trends really did make an impact. However, as technology continues to develop, candidates seize more control over their career opportunities and the workplace becomes ever more flexible, we thought we’d report on some of the possible workplace trends for 2016.
Boomerang Employees
Feel like you’ve seen that CV before somewhere? Well, this year you may just get a touch of deja vu as we’re expected to see more employees returning to businesses they onced worked for. And, according to Forbes, we’re more welcoming than we once were; 48% of organisations previously had a policy against hiring so called boomerang employees, but 76% now say they are more accepting when it comes to hiring a previous employee again. As technology has given us better access to more talent and switching jobs becomes more common, hiring a previous employee could mean less training and induction time as they’ll already be familiar with processes, systems and the company culture, they’re also likely to arrive back with a fresh, enthusiastic perspective.
Enter Generation Z
For the first time we’re noticeably going to see generation Z, the fresh wave of graduates born between 1994 and 2010, make their mark on the workplace. With the lessons of the previous generation and the recession in their minds, along with the responsibility of heavy student debts generation Z are likely to be savvy workers, seeking mentors to help them reach their goals of becoming managers within only a few years. However, although success is important, so is work-life balance, possibly more so than monetary reward.
Succession Planning High on the Agenda
With the likelihood of a five generation workforce in many organisations and a large amount of baby boomers about to retire, the dynamics in the workplace are likely to change significantly for some in 2016. Millennial workers will move into management and leadership roles but may lack the guidance and knowledge of those preparing to retire, making succession planning more important than ever. See our article on managing retirement here.
Flexibility Become Reality
There’s been so much talk over the last year about flexible working – but apparently 2016 is the year you’ll really be able to see the rise in co-working, flexitime and telecommuting. With younger generations valuing more of a work-life balance and workers feeling burned out as they struggle to keep up with longer working days and the need to be ever-contactable, flexible schedules have been shown to make people happier.
To have a chat with one of our experienced recruitment consultants about the needs for your business in 2016 just get in touch here.
Jan 12, 2016 | IT
This year brings into play new laws directly affecting HR, and changes to existing employment laws, as the Government update their policies. It’s important that employers, HR teams and all managers are aware of these changes and how they may impact staffing and workplace procedures. Here’s five of the most important changes to familiarise yourself with as we head into 2016.
The National Living Wage
From April this year employers will be required by law to pay the national living wage of £7.20 an hour to employees over the age of 25 (the current minimum wage is £6.70 an hour for those over 21). The Living Wage Foundation estimate the true living wage to currently be £8.25, however the Government’s decision to introduce this increase is part of their ambition to raise the national minimum wage to £9 an hour by 2020.
Gender Pay Reporting
By March it will be compulsory for organisations with more than 250 employees to report on and publish the difference between the pay of men and women within their organisation – and this includes the difference between bonuses. The average pay gap between men and women is currently just over 19% and companies currently only voluntarily offer over this pay gap data. Campaigners are keen to have this information available to employees and to trade unions, but the details of this legislation are still being finalised, so keep a look out for further updates.
Parental and sick pay frozen
Normally each year will see a rise in the weekly rate of statutory maternity pay, statutory paternity pay, statutory adoption pay and statutory shared parental pay, however in 2016 a fall in the consumer prices index means there will be no increase and pay rates are frozen from last year. Sick pay will also remain at the same level as 2015.
Trade Union Law Amended
2016 sees amendments to the Trade Union Bill, introducing more strict procedures with the aim of minimising unnecessary threats of industrial action. The measure includes increasing the voting threshold, setting a four-month time limit for industrial action and increasing the amount of notice to be given to an employer of strike action.
Updated Laws for Employing Foreign Workers
With the aim of tackling illegal working, the Immigration Bill has been updated and now makes illegal working an offence. Also any public-facing public-sector workers must speak fluent English and employers employing foreign workers may now be charged an immigration skills fee.
For more indepth details about changes to employment law this year and further ahead visit gov.uk and keep an eye out for updated news and articles from us here at Langley James.
Jan 12, 2016 | IT Market Reviews
Key points:
- Slower rises in both permanent and contract staff appointments
- Permanent salary growth moderates to 26-month low
- Candidate availability falls at weaker, but still marked, rate.
Growth of staff appointments eases
Although permanent staff placements continued to rise in December, the rate of growth cooled since Novembers seven-month peak. Contract staff billings also increased at a slower pace, with the latest rise also slower than the previous month.
Stronger rise in demand for staff
Vacancies increased at a sharp and accelerated rate in December. Demand for permanent staff continued to rise at a faster pace than signalled for short-term workers.
Decline in candidate availability eases but still sharp
The availability of staff for both permanent and contract roles fell further in December. Although rates of contraction were slower than in November, they remained marked.
Pay pressures ease
Salaries awarded to staff placed in permanent jobs increased further in December. However, the rate of growth was the slowest in over two years. Contract staff hourly pay rates increased at the weakest pace in 21 months.
Staff Appointments
Growth of permanent placements eases from seven-month high:
The number of people placed in permanent jobs continued to increase in December. After accounting for expected seasonal factors, the index signalled that the rate of expansion remained solid, albeit slower than in November. Panellists commented on rising demand for staff and robust client confidence as factors underpinning the latest increase in permanent volumes. The south posted the fastest growth of permanent staff placements in December, while the slowest rise was seen in London.
Temp billings growth eases slightly:
Agencies’ billings from the employment of contract staff rose further in December. The rate of expansion eased slightly from Novembers five-month high, but remained marked overall. Anecdotal evidence from the survey pane linked higher temp billings to rising activity levels at client companies. Growth of short-term appointments was strongest in the midlands during December, while London-based agencies noted the weakest rise.
Vacancies
Further marked rise in demand for staff:
The report on Jobs Vacancy Index posted 62.2 in December, up from 61.2 in November. The latest reading pointed to a strong and accelerated rate of expansion. Permanent staff continued to record sharper growth of demand than contract workers as has been the case throughout the past ten months.
Public and private sector companies:
Demand for staff remained considerably stronger in the private sector than the public sector during December. The fastest overall increase was signalled for private sector permanent workers. In contrast, demand for public sector permanent staff fell further.
Other vacancy indicators:
Latest official data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) signalled that vacancies rose 6.4% on an annual basis in the three months to November. That was up slightly from 6.3% in the three months to October. Meanwhile, internet-based recruitment spending was up 4.6% on a year-on year basis in the second quarter of 2015. This was down from 5.9% in the first quarter.
Staff availability
Availability of permanent staff:
The availability of candidates to fill permanent roles continues to decline in December, although remaining sharp, the rate of deterioration eased since November. Lower permanent staff availability was recorded across each of the four monitored English regions, with the sharpest drop seen in the midlands.
Availability of contract staff:
Contract staff availability fell further at the end of 2015. Although easing from Novembers 18-year record, the rate of deterioration remained considerable. Mirroring the trend for permanent staff availability, the sharpest reduction in short-term candidate supply was reported by agencies in the midlands.
Remuneration
Permanent salaries:
Average starting salaries for candidates placed in permanent roles continued to rise in December. However, the rate of growth eased to a 26-month low. Around 21% of panellists reported higher salaries in the latest survey period, compared with approximately 6% that signalled a fall. Those panellists reporting higher salaries generally cited competition for scarce candidates, all four monitored English regions registered higher salaries, with the South and the Midlands posting the strongest growth.
Contract pay rates:
Hourly rates of pay for contract staff increased further in December. Although easing to a 21-month low, the rate of growth remained slightly sharper than the survey’s long run average. The Midlands led a broad-based rise in contract pay during the latest survey period.
Jan 11, 2016 | IT
It comes as no surprise that this is the time year that we see a surge in people deciding that enough is enough, that now is the time for a new start and go on to look for new job opportunities. Here we discuss some of the key factors that you should remain mindful of in order to retain your best employees in 2016.
Growth and progression
It is human nature that we want to better ourselves. The strive for growth is a very natural progression that an employee will go through during the course of their career. It would be unfair and unrealistic to expect an employee to not toy with the idea of moving on to a better position on the job ladder, whether it be within your company, or elsewhere, no matter how loyal the employee. Internal flexibility is a favourable attribute that if you have the means to implement, is likely to enhance employee retention. This is the idea of being open to moving employees around and letting them find their talents and discover what they are best at. You may find that an employee you originally placed in one role, finds their niche and performs to a higher standard in another role just by giving them some flexibility to try their hand at new projects. Obviously it is not always possible to offer that level of flexibility to employees, depending on the size and scale of the business. In this case, challenge your staff, and provide them with a higher level of responsibility. This will alleviate tedium and create a feeling of purpose and worth. Read more on employee retention here.
Work life balance
Although it may be frowned upon by employers, it should come as no surprise when people say they would prefer to work only standard or flexible hours so that they can spend more time focused on other commitments. It can be easy for employers to overlook the bigger picture, and a lack of work life balance will not only impact on the person in hand, but their spouse, family and many other aspects of their life. According to the Mental Health Foundation, over a quarter of employees in the UK feel depressed due to their work load, and a further 58% feel irritable because they struggle to maintain a healthy work life balance. Work load plays a significant part in employee satisfaction and ultimately can influence an employee’s decision on whether they stay or leave. Projects are often time oriented, do not assume that if an employee continues on with tasks beyond scheduled working hours that it is because they love their job and want to be there, which of course can be the case, but not in all instances. A feeling of pressure will profoundly impact upon an individual and force them into working beyond their contentment. If an employee is showing signs of stress and continually working beyond what is expected of them, then perhaps it is time to discuss with the individual ways to more effectively manage their time. Read our top tips in creating and implement a work life balance here.
Lack of Recognition
Measuring how appreciated an employee feels is one of the most difficult things to gauge, but one of the most important. According to a recruitment survey conducted in 2014, a simple “thank you” to your employees is worth £1,608 a year. Lack of recognition or appreciation can cause an employee to feel undervalued and unsure of how they are performing, which can ultimately lead to anxiety and stress. People perform to a much higher standard when they feel valued and a boost in confidence can have a staggering impact on the standard of work produced by your employees. If you are finding that employees are disengaged, yearly appraisals simply will not suffice. Higher engagement levels will greatly benefit both you and your employees. Making small alterations such as implementing an open door policy, and setting goals and targets for your staff to reach, will get conversation flowing, and feedback and recognition can be easily carried out. Read more on open communication here.
“The Job wasn’t what I expected”
This is the age old tale of someone who has taken a job role with certain expectations, and has been left feeling disappointed and misled when the role they undertook was not as it was expected to be. As a recruitment agency, when we ask why people are looking to move, a large number respond with “the job didn’t meet my expectations”. Often the problem is that the job description that was presented to the employee doesn’t match the role. Ambiguity of a role prior to an employee starting with your company can be far more critical than you would anticipate. People place a large amount of trust in the employer to provide them with the most accurate depiction of what they will be undertaking as part of their new role. Often it can simply be that the employee has misunderstood the job role, but can sometimes be that the employer has deliberately misled them into a job that was not for them. To prevent your new employee from making a move in the first few months of employment, take measures to ensure that the employee has a clear picture of what is expected of them. A trial day is a great way of demonstrating what the role will entail, and also the type of environment they will be working in. This is often a measure used as part of the interview process and will also give the you the chance to see if the candidate can perform to the standard that you expect of them, and fits in well within the environment.
Training and Development
If someone is feeling dissatisfied with their ability to complete their duties due to lack of knowledge, satisfaction levels will suffer and you are likely to lose them from your team. Providing training and development at work poses great benefits to both you and the employee. It is crucial in keeping your employees engaged and satisfied in their role. It is also a benefit to you, with duties and tasks being completed to a greater standard. Enhancing knowledge through the appropriate training will increase confidence, and ultimately help you to retain staff. It will give the employee the opportunity to address weaknesses and to improve on those weaknesses before they make the decision to leave on their own accord.
If you are looking for someone to join your team who can help you manage your employee satisfaction and retention, then call us today on 0207 788 6600 and we can help you find the right HR professional for the role.
Jan 5, 2016 | IT
It’s the beginning of a new year and time for a fresh start! The festive period is officially over and settling back into work after the Christmas break can feel like somewhat of an emotional roller coaster, motivation levels amongst staff can be low and the reality of getting stuck back into office life can feel like a struggle. Now is the time to revitalize the office and give your employees the boost they need. Increase motivation and satisfaction by creating open, two-way conversations and get your employees talking about their targets goals for the year.
Why create open communication?
Human nature motivates us to eliminate the unknown. Working environments have advanced from hierarchy causing a halt in communication between all levels of the ranking. Employees now want to know the processes behind the structure of the organisation and have a greater clarity of the environment they are working in, and who they are working for. The unknown causes uncertainty, impacting on performance levels. Transparency in an organisation will increase performance levels and ultimately improve employee engagement and retention. Read more on employee engagement and retention here. Job security and the ‘job for life’ concept is progressively becoming obsolete. Employees will feel a far greater sense of security and trust in your business if there is an environment of openness. Employees will take comfort when leaders appear ‘more human’.
5 steps to creating open communication
- Commitment to communication from all parties is essential. To ensure a smooth communication procedure can be executed, all members of the team must be willing and committed to the cause. This can only be achieved when all parties understand reasoning and share the same vision as one another.
- Leadership integrity is fundamental in order to execute such a proposal. A filter approach to communication is a necessary step in ensuring that open communication can start to penetrate through the hierarchy. Employees will lead by example, so begin the process by creating an appropriate procedure.
- Procedures and policies will aid in ensuring that your communication plan can be carried out fluidly. Policies such as an ‘open door’ policy, regular performance meetings, and setting key performance indicators for all employee’s will start to form a basis for open communication.
- Disperse negativity and break the cycle of hidden opinions. Encourage employees to discuss with managers any concerns and frustrations they may have. Negativity can impact on the energy and atmosphere and can have a detrimental effect on all parties.
- Respect open communication at all levels. Do not reproach, no matter how critical. Sometimes conflict is an aid in learning and development and creates motivation for change and for bettering one’s self. Unfortunately, conflict is often inevitable and must be viewed as simply detection and correction of error, and dealt with appropriately. Maintain order and respect amongst all parties by ensuring that difference in opinions or heated discussions get resolved effectively and completely.
Nurturing your business starts with developing the health of your organisation. Through open communication you can create a stable and well-constructed working environment. If you need help in implementing a solid communications plan, then contact us today on 0207 788 6600, and we will find you the perfect HR professional who will fulfil all your needs and requirements, and help you to achieve your HR goals.
Dec 21, 2015 | IT
2016 has been dubbed ‘the year of the candidate’ as the job seeker’s position strengthens and the job creator’s gets tougher. The Office of National Statistics found that 7.7 million of the UK’s workers plan to make looking for a new job in 2016 their new year’s resolution – that’s over half.
There seems to be two main reasons that this has been predicted, following activity over the last few years. To begin with, it seem that many employees are unhappy in their current role. Lack of job satisfaction and a feeling of being undervalued are often cited as the main reasons for unhappiness in the workplace, and there is often an aspect of ‘the grass is always greener’. However, candidates are also become savvy to the fact that they may be in the driving seat, or at least feel they are in a position to make positive steps to change their career for the better. Gaining a sense of empowerment to take control of your own employment opportunities may be down to the continued skills shortages which show no sign of slowing in 2016.
Candidates are increasingly realising that there is more opportunity for flexibility and that there may well be a more suited and satisfying job out there for them. It helps that moving from job-hopping (in moderation) isn’t as frowned upon and doesn’t hold quite the negative connotations it once did. With a new sense of power businesses may have to work even harder to secure the right candidates for their organisations and specific roles.
A new year, a new job, is a typical story and although over half of the UK’s workers plan to job hunt in the new year, the amount that do, and the amount the do so successfully will no doubt be significantly less. However organisations should not underestimate the strength job seekers will continue to enjoy. We’ve talked a number of times about the rise in flexible working and the desire for more of a work life balance and this plays a key role here. It seems candidates also have more flexibility with location as jobs are continually becoming more decentralised. Although London will still remain the country’s main job-hub in 2016, there is likely to be significant job growth in other major cities including Cardiff, Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds and Bristol.
If you’re looking for the ideal candidate for your position, please get in touch and see how we can help. We have an ever growing database of candidates and great relationships with some fantastic professionals who are on the lookout for the right fit for them.
Dec 21, 2015 | IT
Due to growing competition in acquiring talent, professionals now have a far greater choice over where they work and who they work for. This shift in power now means that companies are having to sell themselves even more so than ever. General corporate marketing simply will not suffice anymore. Employer branding focuses on highlighting employee experience, promoting the appeal of working for their company, and outlining all the perks of working for that company and how it would benefit the employee. Before social media existed, employers had a degree of freedom to promote their internal processes in a good light regardless of the internal state of the company, and rarely wold people question it. However, employees have such a wide outlet to voice their opinions through social media that companies must ensure employees have a good perception of the brand they are working for and are happy in their working environment.
Create employee satisfaction
A strong employer brand is not achievable if you do not take care of your employees. First assess the position of your current brand identity internally. Conducting surveys and interviews are a great way of determining your employee’s satisfaction rates. Identify what you do well in ensuring your employees are taken care of and establish an account of the things you need to improve on in order to enhance satisfaction in your workplace. Your employees are an asset to your brand and have the ability to influence perceptions of your brand. Your employees are essentially recruiters for your brand and can have a huge impact on acquiring new talent depending on how they portray what its like to work for your company. Implement an employee satisfaction strategy. Build upon what you do well and focus on improving attributes that your employees deem important and attractive.
Determine brand perceptions
Perception has an influence on consumer behaviour, therefore having an impact on an individual’s drive and motivation to engage with a product or brand. There is clear evidence to suggest that perception is an internal stimulus that can be influenced by many external factors. These factors can be easily modified through the use of effective marketing. It can be detrimental to your brand If the correct use of marketing is not utilised in order to influence and enhance perceptions. It is important to maintain an awareness of brand perceptions of your organization. Invest in determining the factors that influence those perceptions.
Once an understanding of the influencing factors that could impact on brand engagement have been established, recommendations of the efforts that the business can make in order to modify their marketing strategy to adapt to these issues can be implemented.
Attract New Talent
At this point in the recruitment process, it is time to start building up your brand image in order to strengthen your employer proposition. Focus on highlighting why job seekers would want to work for you and how working for your organisation would benefit them. Promote the internal working environment of your organization. Ensure that you target your employer branding to the type of individual you wish to ultimately employ.
When marketing your brand to prospective employees:
- Promote the culture of your organisation
- Promote the ways by which employees are rewarded and celebrated for their performance and achievements.
- Advertise your awards and accolades. This is a great way of marketing your organisation and demonstrating your efforts and achievements.
- Promote the ways by which you encourage career development and outline the training you provide your employees and any progression prospects.
Measure and Evaluate
Now that you have invested in creating a strong employer brand, invest in measuring your efforts. Whether you have been successful in acquiring new talent or not, monitoring the effectiveness of your employer branding efforts both internally and externally is crucial in determining whether you are fulfilling your aims or not. Research from EBI 2011 found that employers use the following in order to measure return on investment of employer branding:
- Retention rate
- Employee engagement
- Quality of hire
- Cost per hire
- Number of applicants
If you are looking for someone to help you to improve your employer branding then please contact us on 0207 788 6600 and our expert consultants will help you find the right HR professional for the role.
Dec 14, 2015 | IT
Why Create a Strong Network?
We generally tend to measure our success and career prospects based on our income, skills, qualifications and experience. But we fail we understand the importance of not only having a strong network, but building on that network and maintaining relationships. Your ability to manage and maintain a large network is crucial in the current employment and social climate. Here, we discuss why and how you can build a strong network:
Plan your Networking Strategy
First of all, decide exactly what your goal is and why you are expanding your network. Your ultimate goal highly influences who you contact. If you are looking for a career change, it may be beneficial to determine the career you want and contact people who work in that field. You may use your network to job search, to mentor others in your field, or you may want to eventually become self-employed and simply want to ultimately build an awareness of your brand. Reach out to people accordingly if you feel their contact may be beneficial to you in the future. Identify yourself based on what your goal is. Highlight your interests, occupation and hobbies. Doing this ensures that those you connect with know that they have similar interests as you and leads to creating an element of trust.
Gone are the Days of ‘A Job for Life’
It is undoubtable that job security is far more unstable than ever before, with people having far more choice over where they work and who they work for; and with employees having a far greater choice of quality candidates. Companies are happy to make cuts where necessary and there is nothing we can do to avoid this, no matter what your position in the company. A job for life is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Building a network is like building yourself a safety net. Creating a network of like-minded individuals who share the same interests as you and maintaining relationships provides you with prospective contacts that may be able to help you in the future. In the instance that you have been made redundant or have had to leave your role, with a strong and healthy network, there is likely to be somebody who can help. Think “it’s who you know, not what you know”. There may be someone who is looking for someone like you to join their organisation.
Take Your Future Out of Your Employer’s Hands
Change your approach to how you envisage your future. Don’t assume that your employers will determine your prospects. Once you begin to network and maintain relationships, you then begin to take your future into your own hands. Communicate with your network, ask questions, promote your skills and experience and take in interest in others. You don’t know where your career will take you or in what job role you may eventually end up in. It is a sad fact that no matter how secure you are in your job role, there is always the chance that you may be forced into unemployment. In the instance that you decide to, or are forced to set up on your own , a large network will enable you to reach a large demographic and build a significant brand awareness in a short space of time.
The Movement in Recruitment and Referrals
An increasing number of professionals are looking to social media to seek out job roles. Employers are now encouraging their staff to seek out potential employees online. If you have a large online network, the chances are that there will be someone out there who admires your skills and experience and feels that you could be a great asset to their team. Share job vacancies to those who you feel may be suitable for the role, whether you are applying or not and encourage others to do the same. You may know of someone who would be perfect for a job role, so let them know and refer them! The chances are that people will start doing the same for you.
Related reading: Exploring New Ways to Grow
Dec 8, 2015 | IT
Covering Leave
It’s inevitable that employees will want to take leave this time of year. If it’s typically a quiet time of year for your business this shouldn’t be too much of an issue, but it’s all in the planning. Encouraging employees to book their leave in advance, possibly with a deadline for booking Christmas leave, is one way to make sure leave is fair and you have time to arrange cover if needed. If cover for certain roles is essential organising this as far in advance as possible is also sensible. Outside cover could be tricky to find at short notice, not to mention expensive. Drafting in current employees to cover extra tasks could be the best solution, but you’ll need to have arrangements and procedures in place in advance to make sure workload is fair and achievable. Christmas bonuses or prizes could be on offer to incentivise extra work over the Christmas period.
Office Party Issues
Christmas parties can be great fun, but create a melting pot of different personalities, built up workplace tensions and alcohol, leading to potential troubles! Choosing and deciding on the venue and the type of even is the first hurdle. Keeping everyone happy, especially when there is a mixture of ages isn’t always easy. Try a vote on a range of options or try a ‘two phase’ event, perhaps with a Christmas lunch for everyone followed by drinks and some dancing for anyone who want to keep the party going. Having your party offsite is the best idea so any potential problems don’t occur on your business property. If you’re hiring out a venue, hiring caterers or entertainers make sure these are booked in early and that you have everything confirmed in writing or a contract. If you feel it’s necessary you could always update your employee handbook and send out a copy of the general code of conduct prior to the event, to cover anyone who’s likely to be caught near a photocopier or under the mistletoe!
A Change of Pace
Unless your business is retail where the pace gets a lot quicker this time of year, the lead up to Christmas usually sees things winding down in the office. To avoid boredom or wasted time, use any spare time wisely. Have your employees clear out old files, organise databases and folders and get those jobs done that just keep falling off the to do list. These kind of tasks can be mundane, so add some festive spice to boring chores and offer rewards, hold Christmas raffles, quizzes or advent calendars to brighten things up and boost motivation.
Snow Days
Do you have a winter weather policy? If the weather is really bad, do your employees know what the correct protocol is? The procedures should be emailed around at this time of year so everyone is clear on what to do. If a cold spell is forecast consider a plan for phone lines going down, pipes freezing up and transport being disrupted.
Planning is the key to most issues you’ll face this winter, and anytime in fact. Trying to foresee any potential issues will help things run smoothly. If you’d like help or advice with you staffing over the Christmas period you can get in touch with us here.
Dec 8, 2015 | IT
For those born after 1978 that state pension age will be 68, yet those questioned in the research (a variety of ages) believe they will be able to retire when they are around 62 to 64.
Most of us if asked ‘when would you like to retire’ would reply ‘today’ (if not ‘yesterday’)! The spare time, opportunity for hobbies, personal projects, holidays and just a little me-time are goals many are working hard to achieve for retirement. And although some of us love our jobs, most of us look forward to a day when the hard work has paid off.
However, as a manager loosing employees to retirement can cause a significant hole in your workforce and have an impact on productivity and even moral. As a manger you may well worry, or at least carefully monitor, employee turnover but rather than the number of workers leaving the more concerning statistic may be the important knowledge and skills they are taking with them.
Figuring out how to most successfully retain this knowledge is the important thing. Not only critical IT and systems insights, but long standing client relationships and critical role specific know-how could be lost, making it hard work for a newbie.
Having an appropriate transfer system in place could be the key to transferring the knowledge in the best possible way. For example those who are due to retire may be able to begin documenting their critical knowledge in preparation for leaving. A workforce assessment could be completed to identify any potential problem areas. Soon to be retirees could also choose to phase out into retirement by gradually reducing their hours during the new employee’s enrolment. This would be the perfect opportunity for the retiree to act as a mentor and guide the new employee through the role, solving any problems they may face together.
However, it’s currently the baby boomers who are at retirement age, on the whole a demographic who work hard and have put their all in their careers. The generation of employees who are taking over these positions tend to have different work-life values, and expect more flexibility such as flexi-time or working from home. These differences in working pattern and behaviour need to be taken into consideration too, as it’s unlikely there will be a ‘like for like’ fit.
If you’re a hiring manager and are facing these problems, Langley James are recruiting experts and are here to help. Give one of our experienced consultants a call today.
Dec 7, 2015 | IT
Expanding your company into new turfs can be daunting yet rewarding. The business’s world is an ever-changing and unpredictable environment, and remaining complacent and dismissing the idea of growth and expansion can be detrimental to your success.
Plan
Before you power ahead in your mission of expanding your company, ask yourself what your aims are and what are wanting to achieve. Of course, there are in most instances monetary motives behind a company’s expansion. However, aside from profits, determine the desired outcome of your growth, where you want to be and how you will get there. This will strongly determine the efforts you make in achieving your goals. For example, if you are looking to expand your business in order to ultimately gain a larger brand awareness, the marketing efforts that you make in order to contribute to your growth will differ from those if you wanted to improve your existing products or offerings.
Branding
Assess your existing branding. Ask yourself if there are areas that could be improved. Your brand image is a strong platform that can have a heavy impact on the success of your goals, and can ultimately determine whether growth will be easily achieved or not. You need to assess whether your brand values remain consistent with the brand values of your new product, service or division. Continuity across your channels are a must! Your online presence is of paramount, so if you already have a strong online presence, the chances are, growth and diversity will come easier to you than if your online presence is weak. Utilise search engine optimisation tools. This may be costly but if you see it as an investment that will enhance your business as opposed to a cost, you will see big benefits. According to a report by Impact Branding and Design, 2015, 95% of marketers use search engine optimisation to induce loyalty amongst existing customers.
Diversify
Be mindful of competition. Anybody can create an alternative to your core product, make your offerings nonpareil. You may find that that diversification comes through natural business progression. A growing number of businesses have heeded to diversification in order to keep afloat. Diversification is a favourable method in growing your business, as long as you don’t neglect your original ventures. This is where it can become tricky. Make sure you can balance your focus between all your endeavours. You want to grow your business- not risk it!
Network
Expanding your network will provide you with a solid basis to get your brand out there. Having the right connections can improve your brand reach significantly. A strong network will allow you to market your new offerings to a large audience. You also have substantial reach to undertake market research and collect significant amounts of data from feedback. Word of mouth and recommendations is an imperative marketing tool, and a strong network can be more beneficial to your new ventures than you would think.
Nov 30, 2015 | IT
It is understandable that employers are struggling to retain their stars when they are not in a financial position to provide the opportunities of promotions or monetary perks such as commissions and bonus’. The pressure is on for managers to ensure they can keep their best employees engaged and committed to their role, without a cost. Creating a culture where your employees feel valued enough to stay is key in retaining your top performers. We will be discussing some great ways to ensure commitment and loyalty in the workplace.
Praise your Staff
Celebrating your employees’ achievements and instilling confidence and encouragement is priceless, and often one of the most effective ways in retaining staff and sustaining employee satisfaction. It is often easy to assume that if your staff are performing to a high standard, that employee satisfaction rates are high, after all, there is a significant correlation between high performance and high satisfaction rates. However, this is dangerous assumption. Yes, there is likely to be a strong level of satisfaction amongst your team if their performance is high, however this does not mean that they do not need praise and encouragement to continue on with their efforts. If you become complacent and fail to maintain a strong level of commendation and instil confidence in your employees, you run the risk rapidly jeopardising camaraderie in the workplace. You ultimately chance losing some of your best staff. If you don’t praise them, another employer will.
Challenge your Staff
When your employees are performing to a high standard on a continual basis, do not assume that these employees do not need to be challenged. Ensure you are maintaining engagement and that that your employee’s roles do not become monotonous. Often employers become complacent and take the viewpoint of if the employee is achieving high results in their role, that they must continue doing what they do well. However, in this instance, your employees are likely to begin to find the job tedious and mundane. It is as this point you risk losing your best employees. Set your top performing employees projects that are new to them, or provide them with a higher level of responsibility. Incorporating an element of excitement and originality, is likely to enhance engagement and ultimately increase your chances retaining your top performance- at no cost. Ensure that you reiterate to your employees that providing them with new challenges not to try and overwhelm or overburden them, it is simply a way for them to build upon their experience and enhance their skill set while keeping their role fresh and exciting.
Free Perks
There are some great ways to reward your employees without having to provide monetary bonuses. Concentrate on rewarding your employees with perks that will benefit them in terms of their work life balance or autonomy. For example, for those employees who perform well during the week or hit targets, give them the option to finish work early on a Friday. Not only does this strategy reward your employees for their efforts, it also gives them an incentive to perform to a high standard. In order to determine what rewards employees would benefit from the most, find out what is important to your employees and what they would consider a ‘perk’ of the job, within reason. Once you have established an effective reward scheme, you will find a far greater level of satisfaction and engagement amongst your team.
Tackle Concerns and Frustrations
Top performers may feel anxious or insecure about their future prospects with the company at the point where it is a necessity to cut monetary benefits or freeze salaries. Strongly emphasize the positive outlook for the company’s future and why you remain loyal to the company. Outline the reasons that you feel secure, and encourage your employees to review the benefits to them of remaining loyal to the company.
Nov 23, 2015 | IT
Rising Pay
Reports are showing us that pay is on the up for the years ahead. Most likely down to skills shortages and a general economic confidence, there may be pressure on employers to increase salaries in order to gain and retain their desired employees. UK workers are already enjoying a 2% rise in earnings, as low inflation helped to boost income and spendable pay. However a disproportional amount of these wage rises are going to London (and South East) based employees, highlighting the north / south divide.
Focus on Equality
Earlier in the year the Government pledged to help close the workplace gender gap, requiring businesses to publish details of pay gaps and announcing steps to help women in the workplace. This of course is no new issue and we’ve reported before on the rise of women in technology roles, however the fact remains that women still earn less than men. Just this week, a study by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills was released that found women earn less then men in nine out of ten industries (mainly the financial and insurance industries) and that in 2014 women were earning, on average, 19.1% less than men. Despite the fact that girls consistently outperform boys at school a Glassdoor survey revealed that less than one third of females received any kind of bonus, as opposed to 44% of males.
Connecting with Passive Talent and Pipelining
In LinkedIn’s UK talent solutions report, they found that 68% of respondents thought passive candidates were an important differentiator for their business. Half of these candidates are apparently interested in speaking to recruiters. Building on-going relationships and really getting to know and understand these candidates is key to what any good recruiter should be doing anyway, but it seems firms are becoming more aware of the importance of pipelining the best and most suitable candidates. It’s increasingly difficult to grab candidate’s attention and a thoughtful, one-to-one approach is a trend that spells a positive experience for candidates but also allows recruiters to find the most genuine match, quickly.
Branding to Differentiate
Organisations are increasingly becoming aware of the effect their branding has on recruitment. A positive brand image across online platforms, collateral, offices and through communication can be a real differentiator to job seekers. Firms are developing strategies around this in order to remain competitive and are investing more in their brand image in direct relation to staffing.
Here at Langley James, we’re always keeping up to date with the latest developments and trends within staffing to ensure we can give the best and most relevant advice to our clients. If you’re thinking about recruiting or would like some advice, contact one of our consultants here.
Nov 23, 2015 | IT
As London average house prices reach the dizzy heights of £500,000, according to the Land Registry, it seems that London (and to some degree the South East) continues to be a law unto itself.
Many young graduates and those looking to further their careers head to London for the best jobs and some CV enhancing. However, for these hopefuls, unless they are lucky enough to have family in London, the shocking reality of house prices and rental costs are often an obstacle, if not a complete barrier to the city. A London based CBI poll found that 57% of managers said they were struggling to recruit entry level employees due to the high cost and low availability of housing. Almost a third said that employees were having to leave their jobs because costs are too high. They even reported that it can be difficult to employ senior staff.
With these extortionate house prices, a buyer purchasing an ‘average’ priced London house with a 5% cent deposit will face monthly mortgage repayments of around £2,500. This has paved the way for ‘generation rent’ and the average cost of renting in the city currently stands at over £2,500 a month too, according to Countrywide.
The fact that many may feel the need to move to London to progress their career or to work in an organisation’s head office leaves little choice, other than moving further away from central London, with an increasing commute. Long commuting times eat into an employee’s personal time and can lead to less of a work-life balance than desired! It can also leave organisations with late or absent staff as they face more chance of travel delays and disruptions.
What happened to London’s less popular areas, in that they quickly saw trendy regenerations when everywhere else got too expensive to live, may be happening throughout the rest of the UK. The ‘northern powerhouse’ could really come into action as candidates seek opportunities outside of the M25.
The latest Tech Cities Job Watch suggested that Manchester, Leeds, Bristol and Glasgow are advertising more and more tech roles. There are also many start-ups based all across the country recruiting fresh talent, so perhaps a spread of skills would also contribute to the spread of prosperity outside of London?
As the Mayor of London introduces a £5 million digital skills programme for young Londoners, it is recognised that, in at least some sectors, there is a skills shortage in London, and the price of living there appears to be a key factor in this. However the number of digital technology companies in London is growing and that growth is set to continue, so perhaps the shortage is not as critical as some report.
If you’re a hiring manager in London and are experiencing these kind of issues, we’d like to hear from you. We’ve built relationships with a wide selection of skilled candidates over the years and if you’re looking to hire IT or HR professionals, we’re sure we can help.
Nov 23, 2015 | IT
It can be difficult to define what equates to a reasonable work life balance. If you find it a challenge to juggle the demands of your career, and your down time out of the workplace, you are not alone. According to the OECD Better Life Index Report, working parents find it particularly difficult to find a suitable work life balance. The Mental Health Foundation supported this, stating that 40% of employees neglect other aspects of life due to work commitments. This demanding work culture is having a prevalent impact on mental health in the UK.
Create a procedure
Encouraging a culture of balance in the work environment is a fundamental step in working life that is often overlooked. Although you want to maintain a high level of professionalism in the workplace, you must also ensure that your colleagues and employees feel comfortable in taking time out and re-prioritising tasks when they begin to feel pressure and tension. In this instance, a procedure or policy by which the employee can refer to or take advice from when they need some down time would be beneficial for both the employee and the employer. Not only will this set the guidelines and regulations for employees to follow when workload is causing them stress, but will also release an element of pressure from the employee if they know that there is a procedure in place when they are feeling the strain.
Determine your balance
Getting to know the right balance between work and lifestyle that works for you is a personal judgement. There are no set guidelines to determining what you feel is a reasonable work life balance and each individual has varying degrees of what they would consider a ‘work-life balance’. The way to determine this balance is to acknowledge your needs and own well-being. Take into account your own personal circumstances, and acknowledge your needs and your own well-being. Often, by listening to your gut instinct and paying attention to your emotions and physical well-being, you can tell if the work life balance is wrong. When you start to feel like your balance is out of sync and your work load is outweighing your ‘down-time’ you may want to revaluate how you manage your approach to maintain a work life balance. Your work load should not cause you stress or anxiety.
Draw a line between home and work
You are feeling overloaded with projects and tasks to be completed and you are time short. An easy option is certainly to take your work load home with you and complete the jobs with a glass of wine in hand watching the Bake Off. This is great, in theory, however this can become force of habit, which ultimately sets your ‘work life balance’ off course. In situations where you feel you tempted to take your work home, note down in a diary what hasn’t been completed as a reminder to continue tomorrow when back at the office. Don’t take it home, leave it at work! This can seem easier said than done, but for instances where the task is not urgent and you are simply taking work home due to habit, it is perfectly reasonably to leave it in the office and take some time for yourself.
Go Offline
It is undeniable that the evolution of technology has improved the standards of organisational process and has advanced in many ways in recent years. However, for all the convenience this has created, it has caused a feeling of constant accessibility, discouraging down time from our phones and emails.
Each one of us at some point is guilty of checking our work mail outside working hours. At the point when you decide to remove your focus from the workplace, switch your phone off, or at very least switch off your notifications. Try avoiding your notifications when you are spending quality doing what you love.
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