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How to Build Empathy into your Restructure

How to Build Empathy into your Restructure

In this economic climate, the reality is that many businesses are needing to restructure to remain viable. For those employees affected, a job loss, in addition to the multi-faceted anxiety that pandemics, flood and the cost of living has created, can be devastating.   

We all necessarily have to take note of the legalities of how to implement a change process in a way that is fair and minimises the risk of any personal grievances being raised.

Rigidly following due process does minimise potential risk. It can also sometimes leave the impression, with both those affected and those employees who remain in the business, that the employer is cold hearted and uncaring. Given the past few years, these perceptions can be especially strong.

Change processes are more successful for all involved with empathy built in along the way.

The feeling that exists within the organisation during the restructuring process and afterwards is a clear indicator of morale and also how employees view how the process has been handled and communicated. This in turn affects engagement and productivity, as well as potentially leaving an indelible mark, either positive or negative, on the organisation’s employment brand.

So, the ideal is to strike an even balance by following a fair process but doing so with a very strong sense of caring and empathy for all of those affected, both directly and indirectly.

Outlined below are some practical pointers of how to show caring during the process:

  • Ensure that you plan the restructure very carefully so that it is professionally done
  • Make sure that an essential element of your plan includes a filter of empathy and caring throughout
  • Develop well thought out and carefully worded communications. As with any communications on a difficult subject, the facts have to be stated, but it is how you say and communicate them that makes the difference. Maintaining confidentiality is important. However, it is helpful to have others in the team understanding the need to be supportive of those directly involved
  • Take the time to put yourself into others’ shoes and tread lightly
  • After outlining the proposal, offer to allow impacted individuals to go home for the rest of the day or deliver the proposal mid-afternoon and let impacted employees go home then
  • Understand that different people respond differently and take that into account at the time
  • Outline access to the company EAP service or in the absence of this, the Government funded ‘Need to Talk? 1737’ service for counselling support
  • At the proposal meeting, offer time to employees during the work day to get their thoughts straight around what feedback they may wish to provide and prepare for the feedback meeting. Arrange cover if they need it
  • Realise it can be a difficult process for all concerned – CEO, Manager implementing the change, impacted employees and other employees. Be available to hear and discuss concerns from anyone throughout the process. If the issues raised are beyond your skill set, encourage people to access EAP or 1737 or seek other appropriate outside assistance
  • Sometimes the content of a proposal may take a while to process. Be available for additional questions or meetings if you think your employees require it
  • For those whose roles are disestablished, provide support with up-dating CV’s, LinkedIn profiles and practical guidelines on navigating the job market at this time

Separating from a business is counter-intuitive for a human being’s natural desire for social connection and approval. Showing caring and empathy never goes amiss, and can work towards reducing the stress for all concerned. Apart from being the right thing to do, especially at this time, it also sets your organisation up as one that will be respected for its ethos.

This will have positive spin offs of loyalty, commitment and engagement from those remaining.

If you need help navigating restructuring, please make contact with us. Positive People have over 25 years of experience partnering with medium sized businesses. Call us on 09 445 1077 or email info@positivepeople.co.nz 

Chanel Finnigan No Comments

POWER Skills for Leaders

As we have thankfully advanced towards the Covid exit gate, it has become clear to perceptive leaders that things have changed in their relationships with employees. The hybrid working model has become almost the norm and working hours, working patterns and work locations are, in many organisations, up for negotiation. Some Companies have resolved these easily, some not so.

As a leader and manager, it requires you to stand back and take some time to assess how well are you managing the people in your organisation in the current employment climate. Have you just picked up where you left off and are you carrying on as before? Or have you done some deep thinking as to what your team now need from you to perform at top levels?

A quantum leap in thinking on leadership and management skills is required.

This entails re-evaluating what have traditionally been known as hard and soft skills. Hard skills have historically been the skills most valued as they are relatively easy to teach and are strongly focused on the job at hand. So-called soft skills have historically been grudgingly acknowledged as a requirement for managers to have, but really existing as a side show to supplement technical skills. If there was a choice to be made, hard skills won every time.

This is no longer the best paradigm to use to guide both the recruitment, and predict the success, of leaders and managers.

The reality of today’s working world is that the so-called soft skills have come out on top and emerged as the most critical for any manager to have. They are now rightfully referred to as Power Skills and are the essential skills that any manager needs to create a top performing team that can successfully drive an organisation forward.

In the past, the use of the word “soft” has in fact discredited their value and has been a real barrier to their adoption within organisations.

If creating the right working environment for employees to flourish and prosper in an organisation is seen as key, then ensuring that leaders and managers have Power Skills is essential.

Companies find their biggest challenges not so much in the technology space, but in the values, strategy, innovation, change, ethics, culture, diversity and growth arenas.

What are Power Skills?

Power skills are basically behavioural skills:

  • Communication style
  • Creating and promoting a Vision
  • Negotiation ability
  • Team building
  • Reading a room and responding appropriately
  • Innovation and creativity
  • Changing to accommodate different circumstances
  • Understanding non-verbal cues
  • Successful collaboration

Power skills are complex and are difficult to acquire.

They require emotional intelligence and the ability to be aware and mindful of what is right in front of you, rather than hinged to pre-conceived notions. They are closely linked to life skills but in a work environment also have a commercial slant. They require an element of wisdom to successfully apply. They also require a deeper understanding of what makes people behave the way they do.

Because they are behavioural, Power Skills require leaders to lead by example in both what they do and, importantly, how they do it.

Hard skills still, of course, have a critical role to play in determining success. Employees and customers alike expect a leader to have a wide and deep understanding of the technical details and workings of the products or services on offer. However, there is now a real acceptance that Power Skills are such a huge determinant of organisational success that they have been elevated to the front row.

So, how can Power skills be learned?

A commitment by the Senior Leadership Team to the central importance of Power Skills is the starting point. This will usually translate into Leadership Development programs that encourage collaborative learning. Collaborative apps can also have a part to play here.

Commit to elevating Power Skills in your organisation and reap the benefits.

Have the discussions around the benefits of having Power Skills elevated to be a non-negotiable and central management and leadership skill. Then fashion and deliver a leadership development program, one step at time, to train and grow your senior team.

We can guide and support you to have the important discussions and develop a customised Leadership Development program that moves your organisation’s thinking and implementation of Power Skills forward.

Call us on 09 445 1077 or email info@positivepeople.co.nz

 

Chanel Finnigan No Comments

The Biggest Employee Recruitment & Retention Challenges!

Right now some of the biggest concerns facing the country are about the massive cost of living increases we are all experiencing, the mortgage rate rises and the pessimistic economic predictions, not to mention the crazy weather patterns.

A tough environment in which to successfully run a business!

This last year has shown us how difficult it is to find the right talent to drive your organisation forward. This has led to a close and careful scrutiny of what is motivating employees to join, to stay or to leave.

Standing at the centre of every business’s success are it’s people, and the need for management to attract and retain it’s top performers. Your people will not be immune from the winds of worry sweeping across the country.

These concerns, which are mainly about money, are parachuting into the employment field.

When Covid was at it’s peak and was pretty much all that anybody spoke about, the employment focus was very strongly on employee wellbeing, and on the flexibility that was needed to successfully run an organisation. As the intense concentration on Covid has eased, the flexibility that was required then has become embedded in most organisations as a primary employee requirement for happy employment. The Government’s tardy rejigging of the Immigration settings helped usher in and exacerbate a period of labour and skill shortages that is still with us today. It has meant that employees have been, and still are, in a strong position to dictate employment terms.

Wellbeing continues to stand as a work in progress in many organisations, and still demands attention. However, flexibility is now predominantly a given and was really more last year’s news.

Flexibility has mainstreamed.

Employees are being hard hit with a weekly grocery reality check and believe that a worrying picture of what their personal financial situation is likely to look like going forward is clearly emerging for them.

Flexibility has now been overtaken by PAY as a primary consideration challenging employers.

Pay is now becoming top of mind for employees.

So, what can you as an employer do to ensure that you can attract top performers, and also retain your best people?

  1. Review your remuneration policy to see that it realistically addresses the 2023 employment situation and talent shortage
  2. Review your organisation chart and identify the top/key people that you cannot afford to lose. Also identify key roles in your organisation.
  3. Conduct a market check to ensure that you are paying at the correct level for identified people/roles
  4. Make sure that you are having regular catch ups with your people, and ask them how they are going at these sessions. If you understand their thinking you may be in a position to accommodate their needs and prevent them leaving. There is nothing worse than a resignation surprise
  5. Look to see how you can stretch your salary/wage budget
  6. Do some innovative thinking to see how you can pro-actively retain these key people. This may require some different solutions fashioned for each key person
  7. Make sure that your flexibility offering really is up there to meet employee needs
  8. Keep working hard at developing an organisational culture that is attractive to be in

The overall message is that things have moved along quickly from Covid’s big days, and that pay has edged flexibility as the big front of mind issue for most employees – although flexibility is still right up there as a must have element. As employers, it is imperative to assess the situation within your own organisation. Give deep thought to what influence you believe the pay you offer will affect the recruitment and retention of the talent you need in the next year.

Positive People have over 25 year’s experience working with organisations to ensure that their pay offering hits the mark. Call us on 09 445 1077 or email info@positivepeople.co.nz

 

Chanel Finnigan No Comments

Developing the right HR plan for 2023

If nothing else, the past few years have taught us all how important it is to have the right people, with the right skills and motivation in our businesses. Having staff that will cope with change, support each other and make the right decisions has been a critical part of organisations successfully weathering this extremely difficult period.

And 2023 is shaping up already to be another year full of curve balls and surprises that your business, and team, must cope with.

Being prepared, focusing on the right HR areas, and having a strong HR plan in place will take centre stage this year as we navigate the year ahead.

So, how do you get the right plan in place?

  1. Start with your business goals.

Key to having the right HR plan in place is being clear about your business goals for 2023, and understanding what you need from your people to achieve them.

  • Are you planning growth? Then you will need a strong employment brand and recruitment strategy to attract top quality candidates
  • Are you changing your product or service offering? This will mean you need a team which is comfortable with change, and ready to grow and develop their skills.
  • Do you expect it to be a tough year? Your team will need to be resilient and engaged, to help them cope with the challenges this brings.

Knowing what you need from your team for success will enable you to focus on the right areas and ensure your plan is meaningful.

  1. Conduct an environmental scan.

Legislation, economic conditions and immigration settings all impact on your people. In today’s world it is essential to understand what is going on around you and to plan how you can work around impediments by having strong HR initiatives which enable performance and deliver staff retention.

  • Do you expect a fair pay agreement to be initiated, or has one been already?
  • How will immigration impact your talent pipeline? Do you need to work hard to retain staff as it is difficult to recruit?
  • How will your people cope with the increased cost of living? Do they need help with financial planning and are your wage levels keeping up with the market to support them through this?
  1. Assess your current HR practices.

Most Companies have gaps or improvement areas in their HR practices. Having a real understanding of deficiencies by working through each HR topic thoroughly will give you a clear overview of potential focus areas. It is important to dig deeper and go beneath the surface when undertaking this assessment.

  • You may have a performance review process in place, but do the reviews actually happen? And does it result in improved performance or is it a tick box exercise?
  • If you do conduct engagement surveys, do you create a strong plan off the back of them? And does your plan improve engagement?

Be honest as a business on what you do well and what areas don’t work as intended. This will ensure you identify the right areas to work on.

  1. Prioritise and create your plan.

Once you have assessed your current practices and highlighted areas for improvement, it is time to link these back to your business goals and environmental scan.

  • What HR areas will have the most impact?
  • What improvement initiatives will support your business goals the most?
  • What areas will cause your plans to fail if you don’t get them right?

In every business there are always any number of people initiatives that you can introduce.

Identifying the key actions in your HR plan will ensure you take the right steps in 2023 to create a highly engaged and productive workforce.

Positive People has been helping businesses create fit-for-purpose HR plans for organisations for over 25 years. Contact us now or call 09 445 1077 to discuss your 2023 HR Plan.

 

 

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Hot HR topics for 2023!

Hasn’t it been some start to the year??!!

After a seemingly never ending 2022, and the slow but apparent disappearance of the nasty Covid experience, most of us were looking forward to a long, relaxing, sunny Christmas break. However, the challenges just keep coming!

Being well prepared for whatever the year might throw at us is of paramount importance in 2023, as we look to settle back into the work routine and set our goals for the year.

With 2023 being an election year, we predict more uncertainty in both the labour market and with employment legislation. There may be changes to immigration settings, Fair Pay agreements may be halted, and we still haven’t seen how much change our new Prime Minister will make to current policies.

Operating in an environment where the future is unpredictable can be a challenge. The key to successfully navigating through this will be knowing what is important to your team, focusing on what you can control and doing it well.

Our predictions for what will be important in 2023 in the HR space are:

  1. Wellbeing and resilience

A Wellbeing strategy is no longer a “nice to have”. With all the challenges and uncertainty in the environment, it is a critical focus area. The success of your business will rely heavily on your team’s ability to cope with change, external economic pressures, and the stress this can cause. Having a well-planned and executed Wellbeing plan will help your team navigate through this period personally and ensure it doesn’t impact their performance.

  1. The talent shortage will continue.

While the labour market has cooled slightly, and even with changes to the immigration settings in some sectors, the talent shortage looks set to continue. We anticipate that the massive pay offers we saw last year won’t be repeated, as businesses start to realise the long-term impact of these, but it will still be competitive. Your employer branding and offering must be enticing and unique if you want to ensure top quality people join you and stay.

  1. Culture as a priority

The ‘talent disaster’ sparked by the great resignation has highlighted how important it is for people to be aligned with the Company’s mission and values. A positive and strong Company culture is essential to attract and retain top talent. Toxic workplace behaviours have been exposed and are no longer tolerated by staff. Having a real understanding of your Company culture and what needs to change is essential.

  1. Employee Experience

The recent staff shortages have turned the tables and meant a strong focus needs to be placed on what you can offer your staff. Recognition, growth, career opportunities, rewards and flexibility have become “non- negotiables” for employees. More and more staff are looking for a Company that genuinely values them and offers them what they need at work.

  1. Learning and Development

Much of the personal and skill development of staff has been on hold over the past few years, and motivated team members will be keen to move forward, learn and progress their career. Continuous learning supports change readiness, and staff are more open to trying new things and moving forward. It also is a key motivator for most people. Reassessing your development programs to ensure they are hitting the mark, and that you have options across all your team will pay dividends for you as your business moves forward this year.

Now is the time to truly reflect on your HR practices, culture and employee experience.

  • Do you have it right for 2023?
  • Is what you offer enough?
  • What do your team think?

Create a strong HR Plan

Creating a strong HR plan, which develops these aspects of HR and ensures you and your team are ready for success in 2023 will have you well placed to weather any other storms which come our way this year.

We can help with the development of your HR Plan. Working with you, Positive People have over 25 years of HR knowledge and experience. 

Call us on 09 445 1077 or email info@positivepeople.co.nz

 

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Leading your team through change

Change is inevitable, and as businesses adapt to rapidly changing markets it is more certain and more frequent than ever before. But how do you effectively lead your team through a restructure, relocation or major system or process change? Almost as certain as the need for change itself is the likelihood that you will encounter some form of resistance.

We embrace many massive personal changes in life like moving homes, marriage and new jobs. But these are elective changes that we’ve chosen for ourselves. Imposed change can bring about quite a different reaction.

This might be due to:

  • Loss of control
  • Fear of losing our job, status or responsibilities
  • Having to deal with ambiguity and additional workload during the transition
  • Being pushed out of our comfort zone resulting in concerns about whether we have the right skills or experience to be successful in the new environment
  • Loss of things that are valued

These are some of the reasons that people even with relatively minor changes proposed to their job can strongly resist.

To successfully negotiate change as a leader you must seek to understand and address the different emotional impact on each person in your team.

Most of us will move through a cycle of denial, resistance, exploration of options and information and finally commitment or acceptance of the change. Recognising where each member of your team is at will help you to move them through the process.

  • Denial – allow people time and space to let things sink in, provide as much information as possible and clarify why you are making the change
  • Resistance – encourage involvement, provide channels for feedback, keep communicating and reinforcing your key messages
  • Exploration – share the progress that has been made and what needs to happen next
  • Commitment / Acceptance – measure and celebrate successes, set short and long-term goals and focus on embedding the change and continuing to make improvements

If you’re still facing negativity and resistance, encourage your team to focus their energy only on what they can change or influence and then take action. Set up a session to discuss their concerns and divide these concerns into three groups:

  • What they can change or control themselves
  • What they can influence
  • What is outside of their control or influence

Follow this up by brainstorming what actions they can take to change or influence the issues from these categories. You can also talk about strategies for letting go or moving on from what cannot be controlled or influenced.

Lastly – look after people impacted by change, and look after yourself!

In restructuring processes, it’s important to check in with your team regularly. Offer them support and encourage them to seek support from others in their network. This could include family, friends, a counselor, careers counselor or financial adviser. There are a number of government-funded organisations and resources available as well as services your company can access to assist and support your employees.

Remember to:

  • Acknowledge and celebrate the wins – big or small
  • Accept people’s actions and behaviours as their responses to change and don’t take them personally
  • Take care with your own responses
  • Vent when you need to – but to the right person
  • Take care of yourself by eating well, getting enough sleep and making time for exercise and relaxation

 

In any change or restructuring process, it is essential that you follow proper HR processes.

 

Here at Positive People we have a proven track record in managing successful change processes that meet legislative obligations and support you to help your team feel respected, supported, involved and informed throughout the process. If we can help you with a change process, please call us on 09 445-1077.

Chanel Finnigan No Comments

Fair Pay Agreements – What could they mean for you?

The Fair Pay Agreements Act has now been passed, and applications to initiate bargaining can be made from 1 December 2022. This raises a raft of questions about how this will work and what the implications will be for employers.

Unfortunately, even though the legislation has been published, many of these questions remain unanswered. We anticipate a lot of change and a number of challenges in the implementation in 2023.

So how will it work practically?

Initiating and bargaining parties

  • The process begins when an eligible Union applies to MBIE for approval to start bargaining as they have either 1000 workers or 10% of the workforce who would be covered supporting the application. It can also be initiated by a public interest test showing that the employees who would be covered receive low wages.
  • Once bargaining has been approved employer associations may apply to be the employer bargaining party. If no one steps forward as an employer bargaining party after 3 months, a default bargaining party will be invited to participate and given one month to respond. If they decline, then the Union can apply to the Authority for the terms to be set without bargaining.
  • Bargaining must be publicly notified by the Union and efforts must be made to notify all employers in writing, who may have employees who will be covered.

While at this stage most employer associations have not agreed to be employer bargaining parties, with the default setting being a determination by the Authority it is in business’s best interests to come to the table on this – or risk having no say in the terms.

The bargaining processes

The bargaining process is very similar to normal collective agreement negotiations. Employers will need to:

  • Act in good faith
  • Provide information to their employees around bargaining
  • Provide employee information to the Union (unless employees opt out of the process)
  • Allow employee bargaining representatives on-site to provide information to employees
  • Allow employees to attend up to two, two hour paid meetings about the Fair Pay Agreements

Mandatory clauses

All Fair Pay Agreements (FPA) must have certain mandatory clauses, like pay rates, overtime provisions, penalty rates (if they apply), training and development arrangements and leave provisions, amongst others. So it will be worth reviewing your agreements now to see what’s likely to change and consider your approach. If you pay a higher base hourly rate and no overtime, you may end up having both once an FPA is in place, so we encourage you to consider your position now.

If my workforce isn’t currently unionised, will this change?

A FPA would cover all employees in an occupation or sector, even those that are not Union members. You will however have to understand how to manage your work force with several agreements in place. Employees can still have an IEA and an FPA can also be in place. However, they are covered by whichever agreement is most favourable, so you could have multiple agreements to balance.

Which Industries are likely to have Fair Pay Agreements first?

Several Industries have been signalled as first cabs off the rank (Security, Bus drivers, Cleaning, Early Childhood Centres, Hospitality, Forestry and Supermarkets). There are reports that at least one Union has already started collecting signatures to start the initiation process. Heavily Unionised industries would be easiest to target first, and with a real chance of a change in Government next year, Unions will want to move as fast as possible to secure an FPA before then. The speed with which this can progress will be hampered by the Unions’ resource constraints and the ability of MBIE to process requests. As this is new territory, we anticipate it will take a while to get set up and will have teething problems, which is likely to mean a slow start to any processes.

However, as employers, being prepared will be key.

What can you do to get ready?

While there isn’t much an employer can do to influence which industries are targeted first, or when bargaining for an FPA is initiated, you can make sure that you are tight with whatever industry or sector bargaining forum you may belong to.

You can also ensure you provide good communication and dialogue with your team if and when you are approached for either Union access or to start the process. Ensuring your team receive accurate and thorough information from you will help to keep your relationship strong and stand you in good stead for the future.

As this new legislation spreads into workplaces, as always, your best strategy within your own business is to have a strong bond with all your employees. This will ensure that any inevitable challenges and hiccups that arise are successfully ridden out in your business.

Positive People have over 25 years’ experience in Industrial Relations and can support and update you through the changes Fair Pay Agreements will bring. Contact us now to discuss any questions you may have.

Call us on 09 445 1077 or email info@positivepeople.co.nz

 

 

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What do your people want from you?

A secure job, fair pay and good working conditions?

That would have been the most common answer some time ago. Today it is way more complex. While these may still hold true for some employees, in this changed environment there are now a variety of considerations.

Top of the list is what the employee experience within your organisation is like for each individual employee.

Does your Company satisfy the workplace needs of each and every one of your employees? Do you explore with your employees to find out what these are?

Whatever their individual workplace needs may be, the solution to satisfying these needs and therefore promoting high motivation, lies in aligning employee experience with engagement and the organisational environment in which they work.

Enhance the employee experience

From the moment a potential employee casts their eye over the job advertisement the employee experience begins. When they go through the application process, receive communication about the role, the interview, the remuneration and conditions negotiation, the offer or the regret letter, the discussion about the start date, the on-boarding process and the induction, and then the day-to-day working, the employee experience is being established and burned in for that employee. It will also establish your true employment brand and indicate to an employee if working for your business truly gives them what they want.

Lift engagement

Engagement is one of the key priorities for any employer to focus on. Not only is it about providing meaningful work that is understood and enjoyed by every employee, but it also embraces the whole culture of your organisation and how it feels to be part of it.

Creating an environment where employees WANT to be involved and committed is the key to high motivation. This responsibility rests with you – the employer. What can you do?

  • Find out what your employees want from their workplace
  • Find out what they think and feel about working for you

Do this through a combination of short sharp engagement surveys and discussion groups.

  • Put in place some fixes that address any of their concerns
  • Embrace their suggestions and improvements
  • Measure their thoughts and feelings again

In these ways you will gain some understanding of how engaged your whole team is with your business. And then you will be able to take steps to enhance their engagement.

Promote a great culture

Review all your systems, processes and people initiatives to see if they truly do enhance the employee experience. You may have to introduce new or fine-tune current systems. You may have to make some big changes.

Ideally you would tie all this together as part of your People Strategy driven by a practical HR Plan.

In order to implement a program that enhances the employee experience and lifts morale and motivation, draw up an HR Plan. This sets out what you have decided to do to improve your organisational culture in a straight-forward and practical way. It gives you targets, deadlines and a way of measuring your progress.

Here at Positive People we have been assisting businesses optimize their people contribution for over 25 years.

Call us on 09-445 1077 or email us at info@positivepeople.co.nz to talk about how we can help.

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Don’t miss an important talent option!

The war for talent is tough right now.

It seems to be a candidate market, salaries are being driven higher, the number of applicants per role is significantly down and roles can stay vacant for months.

But perhaps there is a trick missing? What about your internal talent?

Are you making the most of some fantastic people you already have? 

Sometimes in our haste to fill a gap that a resignation leaves, we miss taking the chance to reflect on our current team. We can miss the best talent that is already right under our noses.

Now is the time to do things differently, take some calculated risks and build stronger loyalty with our current team by giving them opportunities to develop and shine.

  • Could you take someone working in a different part of your business, who is proactive, knows your business and has loads of potential, and upskill them to fill the role?
  • Could an HR Advisor transition into a H & S leadership role with some development in this field?
  • Could someone who is ready for leadership in a sales team lead an operations team?
  • Could your new IT recruit be a really smart technical Customer Services Rep?

They may take a bit longer to get up to speed, but if you already know they have the capability to learn and the drive to make it happen, then seriously consider it.

Surely that is less of a risk than leaving the role vacant for months while you search for someone your think may be right. And perhaps end up compromising and settling for less than ideal anyway.

4 easy steps to make this happen

  1. Know your talent . Do you have a talent identification process in your business? If you don’t, now is the time to start. This helps you understand who has the capacity to grow in the future. It also allows you to make a plan to ensure you retain them.
  2. Review each vacancy afresh as it comes up for the skills you really need. We often draft up job ads with a wonderful long list of required skills. The current situation is an ideal time to look at this critically.

What can you train? What could be developed by an external course if a candidate is really motivated? Do you              really need extensive experience in a role?

Often if we have someone who is capable of learning and has the right behaviours, attitude and aptitude this                   will predict 90% of their success in a role.

  1. Take a calculated and bold step forward. Once you know what’s essential in a role, it is time to review your talent list. Instead of thinking who ticks “most of” the boxes, think about who has the potential to achieve in the role in the future.
  2. Create a thorough development plan. If you are moving someone into a new role where some development is required, taking responsibility for ensuring they receive this development is critical. You want to set them up for success and show you believe in them.

While the market is tough right now, it will pass.

However, if you have an open approach to your internal talent development, you may well be pleasantly surprised. You will also develop a culture of growth and opportunity that will help you emerge as an employer of choice, with a strong successful motivated team, primed for the future.

Positive People has over 25 years’ experience helping businesses develop talent. Call us today on 09-445 1077.

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Recruiting successfully in a tough market.

Speed is of the essence

Candidates will be making several applications at once. You can avoid a bidding war by moving quickly and securing them first.

  • In the past having an “applications close” date on your job ads was the norm. This allowed you time for all possible candidates to apply. You could then select the best. In today’s market if you try this approach, by the time you are making calls the best candidates will have been snapped up already. Making time to review applications every day means you can move quickly to interview talent and have the best chance of getting them on board.
  • Long recruitment processes with several interviews and tests can take weeks to complete. By the time you have proven you have the perfect person you will likely have lost them to another offer. Take the time to streamline your process – you can still make a robust selection decision in a couple of days if you are smart, creative, and flexible with the process. Make sure you know what is essential and cut out anything which isn’t.

Make your role stand out.

In a situation where a candidate is in the mix for multiple roles, think through how you can be different and make sure you are their number one choice.

  • How engaging is your job ad? Does it reflect your organisation and what candidates are looking for in a role? Flexible working, job security and career opportunities are top considerations so think through what you can offer that’s attractive and make sure it is highlighted.
  • The first impression counts. Think through your phone screen and initial contact. How can you make them excited about the role? What’s special about your business? How do you make them feel comfortable? Having a warm, engaging first up conversation will go a long way towards making your role their first choice.
  • Remember an interview is a two-way process. While you are assessing the candidate’s job fit, they are also assessing you, the role, and the business. Make the interview as engaging and interesting as possible, and that every person involved in the hiring process is right on top of their game.

Increase your sourcing channels

Placing an ad on SEEK and waiting for the magic “perfect” candidate to apply may leave you disappointed. Widening your channels will increase your reach, and your candidate pool.

Think about:

  • Linkedin
  • Referrals
  • Local social media pages
  • Professional networks
  • Training organisations

Make sure you have the offer right.

The market has shifted over the past year and is far more competitive. Do your research before your recruit so you know you have the right salary band for the current environment. If you don’t, you will turn candidates off at the first conversation, or with your job ad. And once a candidate has turned you down the chance of getting them to change their mind is minimal.

It is a candidate’s market right now. Your traditional approach probably needs a shake-up if you want to be successful. The right candidate is out there. If you understand the market and are creative with your approach, you will find them!

Our Positive People team understand the market and have the skills and experience to help you recruit well.

Contact us today if you have a recruitment need. info@positivepeople.co.nz

Or 09-445 1077 or 021-1845 661