Guest Blog

  Congratulations, you’ve got an interview! Now the hard work really starts. As a candidate it’s worth remembering that there’s a part of the interview during which you’re in control of the questions. It’s normally at the end (after the hard work is over!) and you need to make the most of the opportunity. Remember that you’re still being judged, even when you’re the one asking the questions. You should have up to six questions prepared and bank on having time to ask around three. Is there such a thing as a wrong question? Absolutely. This is a fairly short opportunity for you to show off a bit of your research about the company, but also to seek information about what’s important to you. Don’t waste it asking how many days holiday you will get as this is likely to be non-negotiable and will only become relevant if you’re offered the job. Salary and benefits fall into this category too. So how do you decide which questions to ask? Deciding what to ask should come fairly easily if you’ve done your homework. Before any interview you should have: Spent time thinking about your values and what you’re looking for in a company – not a job. This could cover simple things like flexible working and location, but is likely to also include more sophisticated measures like culture and perhaps CSR activity Researched the company – see my other blog posted yesterday on deciding whether a company is the right one for you Identified topics you want to explore to help you decide whether you will really enjoy the job and what you will be doing, and whether you’d like to work there Common questions Regardless of what specific information you want to seek, there are some simple questions you might always want to ask. These could include: What’s the structure of the team? Who are the major stakeholders for the role? What does a typical day/week in the role look like? How is performance monitored and evaluated? Killer questions I’ve been asked some super questions in my time working in corporate HR teams. My favourite was a young person who asked me what were my top three reasons for joining the company, and whether it lived up to my expectations. This was a great way to uncover information about the culture of the organisation and the motivation of its employees. Other questions should show your research and interest in the business, for example: I’ve noticed your company values are prominent on your website and social media; can you tell me how these are lived across the organisation? I’ve noticed that you’ve recently won a new contract/an award (insert information from your research here). Can you tell me a bit more about that please? There’s a section on CSR on your website. How do employees get involved? As well as listening to the content of the answers, you should be watching the eye contact and body language of the interviewer to see what you can glean. Did any of the questions make them uncomfortable? Did the answers come easily? Were they able to give you specific examples, or were they a little sketchy on the detail? What to do with the information If you discover something you really don’t like during the answers to your questions, think about what you’ve learned and, if necessary, discuss with your recruitment contact why this means you’re not keen on working for that company. Make a note of what you’ve learned so you can remind yourself the next time you are researching a company. It may influence your decision on whether or not to apply for a job. Meg Burton is a career coach specialising in helping people land their dream job. See more at www.megburton.co.uk

  There’s a science to securing the perfect job that you shouldn’t underestimate. Because while you’re focusing on the title, job description, and salary, you’re missing a hugely important part of whether or not it’s the right job for you – the company itself. It could be the perfect role, but if you don’t like the culture of the organisation, you will quickly be miserable. There’s no getting away from it, the organisation you choose to work for matters as much as the job you do. So how do you know whether it’s the right company? The process of figuring that out starts with you. What won’t you compromise on? When thinking about the kind of organisation you’d love to work for, consider what you won’t compromise on. This is linked to your values. So if it’s important to you to be able to drop the kids off at school one day a week, you’ll need an organisation with a flexible, family friendly culture. If you love to develop yourself and want to continue to progress in your career, you’ll be looking for an organisation that’s willing to invest in its employees. Make a wish list of the things you’d like to see at your new company, and then highlight the ones you’re not willing to compromise on. Doing your research Researching a company should go beyond its glossy website – although there will be some information on there that’s useful, independent awards it’s won for example. But dig below the surface, you want real information and insight, not the corporate story it chooses to tell you. And there’s lots you can do to find out more about a company. Tap your network. Do any of your friends and family know someone who works there? Ask what they say about the company, whether they are happy at work, how long they’ve been there. Would they be willing to have a chat with you? Check out the company’s social media accounts to get a feel for what it thinks is important, and what its employees and customers say about it. If you can see lots of unhappy customers and no appropriate responses, this could be something you might want to explore further, perhaps by asking a question if you get an interview Use independent sites such as Glassdoor, or The Job Crowd which allow employees to provide reviews of the companies they work for. It’s like TripAdvisor, but for companies Make the most of an opportunity If you get an interview, use it as a chance to get a feel for the company. Once you’ve identified the things that are important to you, craft some questions to uncover information that will help you make a decision. After the interview, ask if you can see the office where you might be working. What’s the atmosphere? Are people talking or sitting alone in individual cubicles? And what would you prefer as a working environment? There’s no right or wrong as such but what best suits your preferences. Share what you’ve learned Once you’ve decided the criteria for the kind of company you want to work for, share it with your recruiter. While they are great, they aren’t mind-readers so this is really useful information to help stop them wasting their time, and yours, suggesting roles at companies you’d hate to work at. Meg Burton is a career coach and mentor specialising in helping people land their dream job. Find out more about Meg here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/megburton

  When looking at what makes a great leader, qualities like toughness, decisiveness or the ability to inspire are often top of the list, however people often forget or undervalue the most important managerial skill of all. The ability to recruit the best people to their teams. In their recent book “How Google Works” Eric Shmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg from Google say that they have found that recruiting the best people is the key skill for a manager. Why is that? Firstly, if you recruit the right people everything else becomes easier. This argument has two strands. Firstly, the right person adds value, but perhaps of more significance, secondly, the wrong person can actually be destructive. Lets’ look at those two elements. The right person is a combination of talent and fit. We want A players on our team. A players mean that as a manager you have the best people working on the toughest problems of your business. You can’t do everything yourself and can’t be an expert in all things, but by having the best people on your team you can achieve much more. Google argue that B players are more likely to recruit C players, (as they feel threatened by A players) and that this can lead to a downward spiral and under-performance. Rather than this we should be looking to hire people who are better than us. For example, If I was going to hire a HR Software programmer – I’d want someone who could do the job better than I ever could, freeing me up to focus on the larger HR strategy. But it’s not enough just to recruit talented people. It’s not just about having the right people on the bus, but also about having them on the right seats. As Jim Collins famously said in “Good to Great” we should look for a “First who then what” approach, where the best people are the most important factor and then we build strategy. So if we only want ‘A’ players, how do we attract them? In ‘Hire with your Head’ Lou Adler argues that the best candidates don’t want average jobs, they want better jobs. He argues that the offer has to be ‘30% more’ than the candidate currently has. That isn’t about salary; most of that 30% is about the role being a genuine career opportunity. To find out if a role is a real career opportunity people want to know about: • The role • The team • The manager • The company Often when recruiting the important roles of the manager as a coach and mentor and the role of the team can be underplayed. Recruiters (HR included) can focus so much on ‘selecting’ the right candidate they can forget to ‘recruit’ them. This is more important with ‘A’ players who will be more selective about their job opportunities and will want to know more about the opportunity and all it’s factors. So invest more time in your overall recruitment and selection process, enabling not just you to find out more about the candidates, but also allow them to find out more about you. After all, this is going to be a long term relationship and you wouldn’t move in with someone before you’ve had a few dates, so why the hiring is process that different? Which brings me on to the importance of fit. What if someone has all the right talents but they do not fit with the existing team or culture. This is a real balancing act. Having diversity and different ideas in the team is essential to enable a flow of ideas and creativity; however a complete mismatch is unsurmountable and potentially damaging. Google talk about the “LAX Test”. That is if you would not want to spend 4 hours in LAX airport with this person, that they would not hold your interest or that you just would argue, then why would you want to work with them? That’s a pretty hard test, but the point is that it’s really important that you have team members that fit with your culture. On the other hand Goffee and Jones say that a Dream Company has a culture that values difference beyond diversity; one where people can genuinely be themselves at work and difference is actually celebrated. My recommendation: Build a culture where difference is encouraged and then involve team members in your recruitment to ensure the team and the candidate both can judge if they will be able to work together and get benefit (development) from doing so. The wrong fit Ultimately the reason recruitment is so important is not just because getting the right person gives so much advantage, but the wrong person can cause so much damage. The difficulty with the wrong person in the team is: • It means less productivity, not just whilst they are there but also in any time spent in replacing them. • It takes a lot of your management time. • It can affect the performance of other team members. One often forgotten reality is that in a situation where a new recruit does not fit or is under-performing, the likelihood is that they are unhappy and it is not helping their career. So if we get recruitment wrong we not only hurt ourselves and our teams, but the appointee too. Ultimately our customers are suffering during all this and ultimately they could go elsewhere if the service or product quality drops. So what to do? If the signs aren’t good, obviously we want to give people the right training, guidance and opportunity to improve and make sure that we’ve done everything we can to support someone to succeed, but once you’ve identified that someone isn’t going to meet the standard then deal with it quickly. No one benefits from a situation where a poor performer or difficult team member is not dealt with promptly. In my experience one of the biggest criticisms of managers is of those who

It can feel incredibly daunting when you start to consider your return to work after having a baby. Switching your mind from all that being a new mum involves and the fuzzy-headed brain fog that lack of sleep brings can seem a monumental effort. This can also be true if you’ve taken a longer break to raise a family – the sleep may be improved but now your head is full of school related issues, clubs, activities, friendships, not to mention the huge list of jobs your days are crammed with, leaving you wondering how you’ll ever fit work in. Even those of you who were heading out on maternity leave still barking instructions to ‘call me if you need me’, ‘don’t forget to….’ and ‘let me know when…’ as your very able colleagues literally push you out of the door, can still find that returning to work is tougher than expected (yep this was me!). So, know first of all, that you are not alone. Returning to work at any time after a break can be a challenge both practically (childcare, all the extra things you need to do in a day) and emotionally (guilt, lack of confidence). If you don’t have a job to return to, perhaps you’ve chosen to start something new, were made redundant or your old job is just not doable for you anymore, you may find yourself job hunting and wondering where on earth to begin. Here’s some ideas to get you started: 1. Start gradually – if you can and if time allows – and take this time to: • Think about your routine – how much time do you actually have available for work? How will you manage childcare drop-offs and pick-ups? What about the school holidays? What help do you need from others – partner, family, friends? Talk to them about what they are prepared to do. Take the time now to be clear about what is possible so you can be looking for roles that fit. • Get your child or children settled into a routine before you start work, whether it’s school, nursery, with family or a childminder, so when you are at work you can relax knowing they are well looked after and happy. Any problems that might arise you can deal with then when you’re still at home. • Get yourself feeling work ready, sort your wardrobe, think about how you can adapt your current style to a work environment. If you’ve not been at work for a while your old work wardrobe might no longer feel like ‘you’ so take some time to think about what would work for you. It’s important to be authentic and choose a style that reflects who you are now, not who you were or who you think you should be, but who you want to be “. 2. When you are ready, get yourself into more of a work-based environment. You could: • Meet old colleagues or friends for a coffee during the working day, talk to them about work, find out what’s happening for them in their work worlds. • Attend a networking event relevant to the industry you are interested or join a women’s networking group – they often have great sessions with really inspiring stories to get you motivated. • Read business magazines, articles, blogs, news stories to get up to date. This is best to do when you have an idea of the area of work you are looking for so you can read relevant, industry specific news. • Update your profile on LinkedIn and reconnect with old colleagues, join relevant groups, expand your network. 3. Do an audit of your strengths and skills. If you have no idea what role you want, having a look at your strengths and skills can be a helpful starting place to consider what role might fit. There are some good tools for a personal assessment of your strengths – have a look at StrengthsFinder2 for example or Professor Martin Seligman’s Authentic Happiness website. Or take a look back over the past few years, ask yourself what achievements you are most proud of and consider what strengths and skills you used to make these successes happen. Remember to consider your whole life, not just your previous work achievements. It’s amazing how many skills we develop as a mum – communications, negotiations, staying calm in a crisis, organisation, planning, project management. These experiences and strengths and skills can help you with CV and application form preparation. 4. Next consider your work options. With your personal strengths and skills at the front of your mind, think about what you love to do and brainstorm some work ideas. Many of our clients tell us they want to do work that really matters to them after they’ve had children so it could be a role working for an organisation that you align to or for a cause you care about that is most important. What do you really value? And where might you be willing to compromise? Think about the negotiable and the non-negotiable – perhaps you’re ok with accepting a slightly lower paid role if it gives you greater flexibility. Perhaps you’d be happy with a 3 or 4 day role but working 5 days is an absolute no. Maybe the package is more important or perhaps you have a career plan already in place and you want to just get back to it. Or perhaps working within a 15 minute drive is at the top of your list. Be clear about what is right for you right now. It may be that the perfect solution isn’t available right now, you might need to develop your skills or experience in some areas or consider a compromise while you work towards your longer term plan – what is important is that you take the time to decide and make the choice that is right for you, right now. 5. You might need to

You probably already understand how important having the right staff in place is and how disruptive, time consuming and expensive the recruitment process can be. Added to this, as an employer, you need to be aware of candidate’s legal rights, and yes, prospective employees do have some even before they have been recruited. You need to make sure the recruitment process you follow and the questions you ask during the interview process are fair and do not discriminate against the potential candidate otherwise you may find yourself the subject of costly Tribunal proceedings on top of still needing to find the right people. If you have enlisted the help of Amy and Caroline at Human Recruitment, the initial part of the recruitment headache is over as no doubt they have already sourced you some great candidates. Now the pressure is on to make sure you follow a fair recruitment and selection process. At this early stage of the employment life cycle, the responsibility on the employer is to ensure that the recruitment process offers equal opportunities to those who are deemed by the law to have a “protected characteristic”. This means that candidates are not to be discriminated against on the grounds of their sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation or religion and beliefs. This may mean that assistance and reasonable adjustments are to be made to the application stage of the process as well as at interview. Consideration should also be given to any adjustments a disabled candidate may require in the work place if they are successfully recruited. Deliberately not offering the post to avoid making reasonable adjustments is an act of discrimination, a claim the individual has the right to bring in the Employment Tribunal. Unreasonably asking questions about a candidate’s health and disability may result in them making a complaint to the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Below are my 10 Top Tips to help you avoid the legal pitfalls when recruiting: 1. Use gender and language neutral job advertisements and application forms. 2. Issue a detailed job description to analyse the needs of the job role. 3. Prepare questions before interview and where possible ask all candidates the same questions. 4. Keep a record of questions and responses. Personally I find using a prepared template useful and using it for all interviews demonstrates consistency and fairness. 5. Consider whether any reasonable adjustments need to be made to any part of the recruitment process including practical tests and psychometric tests. 6. Avoid questions about health, disability and age and state that the process is designed to offer equal opportunities to all. 7. Positive action/ positive discrimination is encouraged and questions around a protected characteristic in order to place those who are underrepresented in the work place at an advantage is allowed. 8. Check at least 2 to 3 references and be clear at what stage of the process the references will be requested as well as making sure you comply with Data Protection obligations. 9. Seek confirmation of an individual’s right to work in the UK. It is a criminal offence to employ somebody who does not have permission to live or work in the UK. 10. Have a properly managed induction process. This does not need to be formal or lengthy but effective and should incorporate the employee’s probationary period. The focus when recruiting is to find the right person for the job but this is made much easier if you have the correct people involved in carrying out the recruitment process. At Taylor Bracewell our team of experts specialise in all aspects of HR and Employment law. Please do not hesitate to give us a call on 0114 272 1884 to discuss your concerns or needs.

In a competitive market we all need to stand out, having worked with Dan & Objective Creative for our website we approached them for advice for everyone. What makes your business different? Many SME’s struggle to promote their unique qualities, and the strengths that differentiate their business from competitors. Independent businesses often overlook the ‘little things’ they offer, that larger corporations struggle to provide. We develop marketing strategies for clients ranging from SME’s to global corporations. We often find that smaller companies are modest about their fantastic processes, procedures and people. We dig deep to uncover benefits to clients, and communicate these positive attributes to both existing and potential customers. Our job is to encourage and enable businesses to be confident, to recognise their special qualities, and to promote what makes them different. When developing your marketing strategy, speak to customers, suppliers and associates to understand what makes your business great (and different from the ordinary). These qualities can be promoted by developing headline messages, or even a customer promise, to be used across all marketing communications. The process will help crystalise your approach amongst your team. Once you have considered what makes your business great, and different to your competitors, its time to tell the world. Every business deserves significant returns on their marketing investment. Carefully consider the marketing channels that are most appropriate (and cost effective) for your key audiences. Ensure your marketing messages are appropriate for the marketing channels you choose. Understanding the format is as important as understanding your audience. How your customers read a letter differs from how they consume a social media post. There are many facets to delivering a successful marketing plan, but with planning (and a little help from colleagues, customers and associates), you will recognise what makes your business different, and ultimately great! Find where your (potential) audiences congregate, both online and offline, and you will have the foundations of a successful marketing strategy. Don’t be daunted, we are here to help, it is what we do. If you have any questions please contact Objective Creative on 0114 253 6756 or visit www.objectivecreative.com. Dan Broadbent is Managing Director of award winning marketing agency Objective Creative. www.objectivecreative.com Dan Broadbent Managing Director

  Workplace mediation is a relatively unfamiliar service to most employers yet when used appropriately we save companies thousands of pounds in lost time, loss of productivity and ultimately loss of valuable personnel. Mediation is not just about conflict resolution.  It has a number of applications including the facilitation of culture change.  In its most simple form employers gain the most benefit from our service in the immediate aftermath of an incident.  At this point emotions are often running high but, they are rarely so fixed that a solution cannot be pursued if a difficult conversation can be facilitated by an independent third party. Feedback from my clients has included comments which describe the process as being like a “magic spell”.  The reality is our involvement allows people to recognise their disagreements are often disguising a lot of positives.  If they can discard their grievances with each other and reinstate positive lines of communication within a few hours or day – there is the potential for the reinstatement of trust. Not all situations are suitable for mediation but, when used appropriately, if it fails – which is rare – it is likely due to the intransigence of one participant or the lack of adequate levels of self awareness in one or both people. Alternatively it could be that the exercise reveals an underlying issue unsuited to the process.  This could be something as sensitive as the existence of an undiagnosed mental health issue or something very serious like criminal activity.     There is also a third outcome which is not a “failure” as such but, more a delayed outcome.  This is where the participants do not have the time necessary to move them from their individual positions to discuss the issues in depth.  However, if emotions are acknowledged and calmed it is more likely participants will go on to find a solution once they have had time to reflect upon and revisit the reason they agreed to participate in the mediation in the first instance. Even where tensions are running really high and a situation appears very serious the opportunity to mediate is seldom seen as unwelcome when offered.   Certain types of information can be safely discussed that would otherwise not be aired between participants especially if legal implications exist.  Such is the nature of the confidentiality agreement – which functions in a “without prejudice” framework – most if not all aspects of an issue are safely open to discussion.  It is entirely the decision of participants what they bring to the table.  Mediators facilitate conversations – we do not direct them or advise those involved.  We believe you have the answers – our role is to ask the type of question that helps you locate them. I personally value the use of a Workplace Agreement.  While it is not legally binding the value of a written agreement that suits both participants serves as a reminder for all about what was agreed on the day.  This plays a helpful role in sustaining goals the pursuit of which will keep people committed to a collaborative relationship in the future. So what is the value of using mediation in the workplace or other similar environments?  Separate but complimentary to the measurable financial benefits for the employer is the culture change it can introduce.   Effective conflict management is a life skill we all can benefit from but, for some reason it is given little priority in our upbringing and education.  Most assume some people are just “naturally” better at dealing with conflict than others.  The reality is the majority of us benefit from learning the techniques and how to deploy them. Once I have trained people in the basics the feedback I receive is people feel more confident and self assured, experience improved inner calm and raised self esteem.  Much of this is due to the link between learning how to manage our emotions in tense moments.  Most people deal badly with conflict because they fear dealing with their own and others emotions more than the circumstances which are involved. Mediators like me whose focus is on assisting in the reduction of interpersonal conflict in the workplace have extensive experience of working in commercial settings of all types.  Our knowledge of commercial practice is wide and we can anticipate much of what people are experiencing both personally and professionally.  Our skills can be applied in different ways.  We can “coach” individuals to prepare how to manage conflict more effectively or, train groups of people to use conflict constructively as well as facilitating a formal mediation.  We understand the pressures facing everyone involved in a workplace dispute – irrespective of their role and always seek to deploy the most effective method of support. Email callthemediators@gmail.com or phone 07846 531 801 and speak with Jane Swain for more information about alternative dispute resolution in the workplace.