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By Liza | Categories: Consulting, Recruitment advice | No Comments
Who’s been trying to hire someone recently?
I was at the BNI breakfast last week and one of our business colleagues mentioned that they had someone work for them for 27 years.
27 years!!!
That kind of loyalty is so rare nowadays.
Despite what you read in the media, our experience is that there are still skills shortages. If you’re in a small to medium business you know what we’re talking about. We’re not talking basic skills. We’re talking the type of skills that will drive your business forward, and the type of person who is happy to come along for your often bumpy ride.
So if you’re a small but growing business, how do you attract those types of skills? Where do you find someone who will stick around? How do you understand what you can offer, or as they say in HR marketing: “your employee value proposition?”
Here are a few things to think about:
- Why do people leave your company?
- What do your current employees like about your company?
- What do your current employees dislike about your company?
- What defines a high performer over a lower performer?
- What would your employees say about you if you were not in the room?
- What skills do you need to take your business to the next level?
- What do you offer as an employer that nobody else does?
- What are your competitors offering?
If you can clearly identify who you are, what you offer and how you stand out in the market place, plus have a strong sense of the skills you need to complement your own, it’s easy for everyone to sing from the same song-sheet – so to speak.
Once you have that consistent vision, finding the people to fit and to stick around becomes a whole lot easier.
Why are we telling you this?
In our experience this is an area where business falls down. If you would like help in workforce planning, and in defining what is unique about you, please give our workforce management solutions team a call. (02) 8221 0553.
In 1997, I founded Enigma HR with the philosophy: “be ethical; be professional; be friendly and serve my clients well.” We specialise in insurance and accounting placements and have been assisting professionals in this industry for over 20 years.
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By Liza | Categories: Consulting | No Comments
Have you heard of Job Advisor or Workplace Fit?
They allow workers to document life inside the company without the corporate spin.
Take a read of this review below that appeared on one of the sites:
“A very disappointing experience for a big name”
Review Period:
2008 to 2010
“It was unfortunately a disappointing experience from day one. Training opportunities promised during interview stage were not delivered on and career growth/promotion requests were tactfully ignored come annual review time. Team endured a very long and drawn out year long redundancy process, which was not handled very well.
Big focus on “quick wins” and the bottom line, and very little on process improvements. Management very protective of their international travel rights, but then reluctant to reimburse a $20 cab fare when a team member would work back late. On a positive note, they did subsidise health insurance and they were big on safety – a message that was reiterated every meeting.”
Managing your employment brand is tricky at the best of times. However social media and sites like these put a whole other spin on things. Anything negative has the power to go viral, and go viral fast.
One area where it’s easy to find criticism is in the recruitment process. The power of your reputation to go pear shaped from people who don’t really know your company is immense, given that people are vulnerable and stressed when they are looking for a job.
We know as recruiters we cop a lot of criticism about the service we offer. We do try our best to keep candidates fully informed about what’s going on.
In the interest in improving our candidate communication, here are four things we need you to do, so we can help you manage your employment brand.
1) Have a clear idea about what you want. If there is uncertainty around the direction of your organisation, or if it is positioned for rapid growth, that’s OK. We then look for a person who is flexible, who enjoys a challenge, and who can develop a project or business blue print when no blueprint exists. Putting someone who needs structure into an environment like this spells disaster.
2) Let us in and tell us about the role “warts and all.” We need to know exactly what is going on so we can sell the opportunity as it exists in reality. If we tell the candidate how terrific a role is, then they discover that the role is something different, everyone has egg on their faces, and you are more likely to lose that person.
3) When you request some candidates urgently and talk about how difficult it is to find the right fit, we get moving. Good candidates are hard to find. They are usually out on two to three interviews, if not more. We need you to respond promptly so we can let them know what’s going on. Delays in the recruitment process can make candidates feel very insecure about the opportunity you are offering. Some will simply de-select if the process is prolonged.
4) Give us some decent feedback to give the candidate. People put hours and hours into their resume and job application. Looking for a job is stressful, particularly if people are working. It’s easy to forget this on the other side of the desk. If we’re rejecting people for a job at a particularly vulnerable point in their lives, we want to give them something to walk away with that they can work with.
You can look at sites like Job Advisor and Workplace Fit as a threat, or an opportunity. Imagine if all your job applicants wrote positive reviews unprompted. A good relationship with your insurance and accounting recruiter will help make your employment brand stand out. Call us for more information on (02) 8221 0553.
In 1997, I founded Enigma HR with the philosophy: “be ethical; be professional; be friendly and serve my clients well.” We specialise in insurance and accounting placements and have been assisting professionals in this industry for over 20 years.
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By Liza | Categories: Consulting | No Comments
It’s the time of year that most people dread – performance reviews. If you’re a manager you will probably be thinking “do I really have time?” If you’re an employee, having that one-on-one discussion that is primarily around you and your performance, can be confronting as well.
We have some insights that we want to share.
First of all, we weren’t being flippant when we wrote in this post that you should simply “have one,” There is research out there that says how damaging it is to simply ignore your team. Read point one of this post about this research about 5 reasons people leave you that you may never know about.
As a Manager, never underestimate the impact that you can have in someone’s life. One of the best Managers I ever had was simply interested in me. I knew that they listened to me. I then knew that they understood me. So when it came to a time for them to give me feedback, I was ready to listen.
Business woman and highly successful career blogger Penelope Trunk wrote this on her blog almost 10 years ago now. But the message still resonates as it comes back to fundamentals of respect.
“Good performance review takes heart. You need to really see the employee and understand what motivates her. You need to understand where she wants to go, because the job of you, the manager, is to help her get there. And of course, a good manager will show the employee why she should want for herself what her manager wants for her.
An employee knows right away how prepared you are for the review, so don’t bother trying to fake it; this is not a college essay test, this is real life. Lack of preparation means that you do not take the review seriously, so you can bet the employee will ignore what you say. Lack of preparation means mentoring and leading are not high priorities, and managers who do not make those high priorities are managers who have ill-prepared disloyal employees.”
Here are a few things we know are important:
- Listen to your employees. There is no way that they will listen to you if you don’t.
- Before you deliver the review, consider if you are being fair. As human beings we can form impressions of people, that may not be completely true. You may think of someone as not working as hard as others, yet in fact they actually are more productive. So try to base feedback in fact. If you are in doubt in any way, check out your ideas on that person with an impartial third party.
- Be prepared. As Penelope says, how prepared you are is a reflection on how much consideration you give this person’s career.
- Do not reschedule. We say this pretty much for the same reason that we say you should be prepared.
- Be honest and be sincere. One of the things that strikes us in talking to people about their careers is that few people really have an awareness of their strengths and weaknesses. One reason for this is that we all seem to shy away from delivering honest feedback.
Often managers have concerns that they’ll come across like a bully in a performance review if they are too assertive, yet you may need to be direct to make your point clear. We cannot give you a one simple paragraph on how to handle that. Communication is complicated. The way your team member interprets your message can be the result of what they think of you, and what they think you are telling them, regardless of the actual message.
If you would like help with communication training and if you think you need some help in designing a performance management system, please give our Workforce Management Solutions Team a call on 8221 0553.
In 1997, I founded Enigma HR with the philosophy: “be ethical; be professional; be friendly and serve my clients well.” We specialise in insurance and accounting placements and have been assisting professionals in this industry for over 20 years.
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By Liza | Categories: Insurance and accounting job market, Insurance Jobs Sydney | No Comments
Here at Enigma HR we want to contribute to the broader discussion around skills shortages. Coming from a hiring perspective we see a lot of things that occur that actually make everyone’s life difficult. We also see a lot of innovative ideas. This piece is a summarised version of an article we wrote for Riskebusiness. This is the newsletter of Australian Life Underwriters and Claims Association.
We wrote about the skills shortages in the life insurance industry, but some of the messages apply to other areas of the insurance industry. Here are a few things we think the industry needs to consider when it comes to tackling skills shortages.
Firstly, when you’re hiring challenge your ideas of “years of experience.”
To us it’s a lazy way of expressing what’s required in a role. Some people are brilliant after two year’s experience. Some people have 5 year’s experience and still do not achieve a high level of competency.
When you are hiring ask this instead. What is the level of competency that someone needs to have, to successfully perform in a role? What would be a demonstration of successful behaviour? For claims roles, for example, is it the case load they finalise and the time that it takes to complete this task? If you are in a large insurer, you’ll probably have a lot of this information scoped out in position descriptions and performance review documents. Use it for recruitment purposes.
Secondly, widen your gene pool of available applicants.
Think about other insurance sectors as a starting point. There are many examples of people who have successfully transferred from workers compensation and personal injury insurance to life insurance. They already have an understanding of the medical terminology required for life insurance claims.
What we have found however, in this example, is that many life insurers do not offer equitable salaries to professionals transferring from workers compensation. All too often we hear, “we like the candidate, but because they do not have life insurance experience we will offer them less than what they are seeking.” From our experience as recruitment consultants, we do not see the skills gap as wide as that salary gap suggests.
Thirdly, stop doing the “informal reference check” based on hearsay.
Here’s a common scenario. A candidate comes to see us. We interview them at length. We build trust with them. We understand their strengths, weaknesses and reasons for leaving. We talk about where they would like to work next. Then we reference check them. We are not naïve. We know when there is a problem which we need to explore. We cover this in our questions and in our references.
Only when we are satisfied that our candidate is suitable, will we present them to a client. However, there have been many times where we have done this, where the prospective employer will get on the phone to someone who has worked with this applicant’s employer for an “informal reference check” – then refused to meet with our candidate.
We know we cannot stop this. But if you are tempted to do an “informal reference check,” we suggest that you consider that there are many sides to many issues that happen at work – not just the employer’s version. You are only hearing one perspective. If you choose to recruit like this, you lose the right to complain about skills shortages in your industry.
Another big issue in the life insurance industry is poaching. If you are tempted to do this, there are a few things you need to think about if you offer someone with experience, the big dollars to lure them. Yes, money is a short term motivator for a move. In the longer term however, people value such things as autonomy, mastery and purpose in their work.
If you cannot offer elements of autonomy, mastery and purpose within your organisation, you will not retain the staff you’ve paid top dollar for. What you have done is contributed to spiralling salaries in your profession, paying people far more money than their skills really justify.
We also urge you to take a look at some recruiting practices in the general insurance industry.
One of the privileges we have being in consulting is that we see many people. We see many work practices. We see many employers across the insurance industry. This means we have an understanding of best practice. One of the things the general insurance industry does very well is create career pathways for people without insurance experience.
Finally, we also suggest also that you think about your internal support processes.
What induction, training and mentoring could you provide to up-skill people with limited insurance experience? There are some in the life and general insurance industry who do this very well, but on the whole, we think the industry could do better. A strong support system serves a few purposes. It helps people who have made the move. It positions you as an employer of choice. And you can promote this in your advertisements to entice people cautious about making a move.
In 1997, I founded Enigma HR with the philosophy: “be ethical; be professional; be friendly and serve my clients well.” We specialise in insurance and accounting placements and have been assisting professionals in this industry for over 20 years.
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By Liza | Categories: Consulting | No Comments
Did you know what many people start from the wrong template when they recruit staff? Time and time again we see fuzzy job descriptions that have only a vague relationship to the role on offer.
When it comes to building an engaged team, getting the basics right is critical.
Here’s why.
The process of putting together a position description forces you to analyse the key tasks involved in a role, the skills required to perform that role, the key characteristics which will enable someone to succeed in that role, and the indicators of success – the key performance indicators if you like.
This lays the groundwork for an effective recruitment campaign, as you will know what you want, and all parties involved in recruitment are hiring from the same script. You can use the position description as a template for performance reviews, then develop targeted training or interventions to address any shortfalls in your staff member’s performance.
That’s just the basic part.
Here are some things you need to keep in mind.
Most staff need certainty and guidance, no matter how experienced they are. When you have clearly laid out your expectations staff know what they need to deliver to achieve salary increases or bonuses if they are linked to performance.
Without effective position descriptions, it is difficult for you to address any issues with your team’s performance, as you have never fully laid out your expectations. You may also be exposing yourself to the risk of litigation if any dispute arises.
We know pulling together position descriptions can be challenging, particularly if you are in an environment that changes rapidly. Often it can be difficult to interpret which part of a role is critical to business success. Then there’s the old issue of “we’re all too busy” and have no time to think about these.
We’ve written before about workforce planning. We’re passionate about this topic as we know it makes everyone’s life easier. If you would like assistance with your workforce planning and coming up with a set of position descriptions that will lay the foundation for your future success, give our Workforce Management Solutions team a call. (02) 8221 0553.
In 1997, I founded Enigma HR with the philosophy: “be ethical; be professional; be friendly and serve my clients well.” We specialise in insurance and accounting placements and have been assisting professionals in this industry for over 20 years.
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By Liza | Categories: Consulting | No Comments
Did you know how much the Australian “sickie” costs?
Take a read of this piece recently in the Australian Financial Review. According to this report, Australians sickies cost our economy up to $38 billion per year. The average Australian takes 9.4 sickies per year. Compare this to people in the UK who average 7.
Out of control sick days can be reflective of many things in a workplace. So some self examination is needed here.
Does your workplace tick any of these boxes?
- employees believing that their sickies may not be noticed, or have limited impact
- employees having little control over their work combined with inflexible management practices
- stressful work environments and poor management practices
- a flawed workplace management system. (Take a look here for an example of Canadian air traffic controllers who had diarised a rolling series of sick days among themselves. The workers would then make up for their absences at times that attracted overtime rates, and would therefore earn more money.)
Work practices aside, you may just have a person who takes a sickie because they can’t be bothered coming into work, or they have something better to do with their day. Football or beach anyone?
So what can you do?
How do you manage an employee who has too many sickies?
What evidence do you need if you suspect the system is being abused? What evidence is compelling evidence? What if the employee can provide medical certificates? Do you have any avenues then?
There’s no one easy answer on managing absenteeism.
The truth you need to have practices in place to create a positive work place culture, effective managers and performance management systems, and then have the confidence and tools to be able to deal with the bad apple employee who abuses the system.
If you would like help managing your absenteeism, we have a team of workforce management experts who can help you identify the problem, and come up with strategic and targeted solutions. Call us now on (02) 8221 0553.
In 1997, I founded Enigma HR with the philosophy: “be ethical; be professional; be friendly and serve my clients well.” We specialise in insurance and accounting placements and have been assisting professionals in this industry for over 20 years.
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By Liza | Categories: Consulting, Recruitment advice | No Comments
Every day we hear reports about issues with social media.
Employees bullying, stalking and harassing other employees; staff making inappropriate comments online about your workplace; people who use Facebook too much during work hours; employees tweeting confidential information and disputes over who owns LinkedIn contacts gathered in the name of business development.
If it seems like an ever shifting minefield, it is.
The way people use social media changes as new sites emerge.
Who knew about Pinterest and Google Plus a year ago?
Not only are new sites an issue, but social media changes as the crowd determines how the platform is used. Think how quickly the fad for planking took off fuelled by posting photos on Facebook. Many people posted photos of planking in the workplace, creating a whole other set of workplace safety issues.
Some of these issues can be difficult to deal with.
Social media moves so fast. The law is lagging behind.
This person was sacked for a rant on Facebook.
In this case the decision of the company was upheld.
This person was reinstated by Fair Work Australia after his employer tried sack him over comments on a Facebook page.
Do you have a social media policy? If so how would yours stand up in this instance?
It’s up to you to have your social policies in place.
Enigma HR Workforce Management Solutions team can help you develop sound social media and HR policies. Give us a call on (02) 8221 0553
In 1997, I founded Enigma HR with the philosophy: “be ethical; be professional; be friendly and serve my clients well.” We specialise in insurance and accounting placements and have been assisting professionals in this industry for over 20 years.
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By Liza | Categories: Career advice, Consulting, Recruitment, Recruitment advice | No Comments
Here at Enigma HR we love TED talks.
They’re inspirational, thought provoking and delivered by some of the most fascinating thought leaders in the world. Like this talk, from Dan Pink – a career analyst and former speechwriter to Al Gore.
For a long time we’ve all asserted that there’s pretty much a direct relationship between reward and performance.
That’s wrong says Dan.
He says science proves that people can actually perform worse (not better) when they’re offered financial rewards. While incentives are not disincentives, they can act as a distraction in roles that require right brain and creative thinking.
Rewards, he says, work really well for simple linear type tasks where there is a simple set of rules and a clear destination. However, rewards by their very nature, narrow our focus and concentrate the mind. For real life problems in the working world of the 21st century, you don’t want to be looking straight at the task when the solution may actually lie in the periphery.
Dan says we’re rewarded and engaged when we do things that matter to us, when we like what we’re doing, when we find the task interesting and when we feel we are doing part of something that is important. Put simply there are three things are critical to true motivation – “autonomy”, “mastery” and “purpose.”
These are the foundation for a new way of looking at our businesses and working lives:
- Autonomy is the urge for us to direct our own lives
- Mastery is the desire to get better and better at something that matters
- Purpose is the urge to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves
What’s our take out of all of this?
Well, we hope to surprise you too, given what we do.
We say – before you throw more money at a performance problem with your staff; before you decide to offer the big dollars to attract new staff and before you personally decide to go after the big dollars, watch Dan talk and think about what really matters to you.
Then when you’ve done that come and talk to us.
In 1997, I founded Enigma HR with the philosophy: “be ethical; be professional; be friendly and serve my clients well.” We specialise in insurance and accounting placements and have been assisting professionals in this industry for over 20 years.
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By Liza | Categories: Consulting | No Comments
Call us the Grinches who stole Christmas, but sometimes we call Christmas the cranky season rather than the festive season. The city is busier than usual. People are all in a hurry. All those deadlines that have been lurking on the bottom of the to-do list for months all suddenly pop up as equally urgent. The holiday you’ve been saving up all year, can’t come soon enough.
Have we just made you crankier as well?
It’s about to get worse.
Does this sound familiar?
“Start your New Year, with a new career?” You’ll see the less creative career copywriters use this line to entice your newly holidayed staff across to their organisation. One of the reasons people want to kick start the New Year with a new career is their last performance review – or in some cases lack of them.
If you are about to run these reviews, or you have never run a review, these tips will help get you started.
1) Have one. It seems that any conversation is better than no conversation – not that we’d encourage you to berate your staff. Read this post on how damaging it is to ignore your staff.
2) Plan the meeting in advance, and don’t reschedule it. If you reschedule, that sends a very strong message that these are not important. Planning the meeting in advance allows your employees to prepare as well.
3) Give specific feedback – nothing vague. There are a few reasons for this.
Firstly, most employees, no matter how well they have performed throughout the year, will be apprehensive about a performance review. This means people may not process information you provide as quickly as they do normally.
Secondly, be also aware that very few people are self-aware. So you’ll tend to get people who underrate their performance, or overrate their performance.
If you relate feedback to a specific project, incident or series of them, then people can actually process that information and better understand the impact of their behaviour, either positive or negative.
4) Involve your employee in the discussion.
As a reviewer, this is difficult, but essential. But if you are wanting people to improve, or keep doing the things that they are doing – then you need to start from the mutual understanding of where things are at. A good question to ask is “how would you rate your performance in this area?”
Many successful organisations make reviews a two-way process. This is one reason why.
5) Make notes and keep your promises.
Actions speak louder than words. If people know you plan to do something concrete about their career development in the new year, then logic says they’ll be less likely to want to move.
Need help with your performance reviews?
Our experience interviewing job-seekers in the new year suggest that these are a real issue with many organisations.
If you’d like the Christmas Grinch to leave your staff alone in the new year, call our Workforce Management Solutions team now on (02) 8221 0553.
In 1997, I founded Enigma HR with the philosophy: “be ethical; be professional; be friendly and serve my clients well.” We specialise in insurance and accounting placements and have been assisting professionals in this industry for over 20 years.
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