Advice For Hiring Managers.

Finding and securing top talent for your business can depend on a number of factors including: 

• How competitive your salary and benefits package is

• If you allow remote or flexible working - this is highly desirable to many employees 

• What skills you require and if there is a talent shortage in your area

• How desirable you are as an employer - is your employer brand attractive to candidates?  

If you’re struggling to recruit, why not take a look at everything we can offer? 

Finding top talent in a rural location can present unique challenges, but with the right strategy, you can attract skilled professionals who are a great fit for your company. 

Some strategies include: 

• Harnessing the power of referrals - in rural areas, word of mouth can be a powerful tool. When recruiting, encourage your employees to spread the word about job openings and what it is like to work there. 

• Offer a competitive salary - if your talent pool is small, offering a competitive salary will make you much more desirable to jobseekers. 

• Offer remote or hybrid work patterns - this will expand your talent pool immensely as jobseekers aren’t restricted by geography to apply.  

If you're struggling to attract applicants for your job postings, several factors could be at play. Identifying and addressing these issues could increase the volume of quality applications which you receive. 

Jobseekers might be dissuaded for a number of reasons including:

• A poor job description - Writing a killer job description is critical to attracting quality applicants. Check out our recent blog, How To Write a Job Advert That Actually Works to discover the 9 most important elements to include on a job advert. 

• An uninspiring job advert - on a busy job board, job adverts need to inspire candidates to apply. Have you considered what differentiates you from another employer? Our recent blog, How To Make Your Job Advert Stand Out, covers everything you need to know to make your job adverts stand out. 

• Feeling unwelcome - does your job description unintentionally dissuade jobseekers from applying? It’s important to make sure your job adverts are inclusive ensuring everyone feels valued and welcome.

• An uncompetitive salary - it’s fairly obvious to assume that if your salary and benefits package is uncompetitive, you will lose out on quality applications. 

If your business can’t afford to offer a higher salary, it would be prudent to shout about other things which make you an attractive employer such as offering remote or flexible working. 

If you’re struggling to attract candidates through your own methods, or if you simply don’t have the time to do it, working with a recruitment agency is a great way to ensure the recruitment process is taken care of and you have a flow of top talent coming through. 

If you’re recruiting, why not take a look at our specialisms to see how we can help? 

A recruitment agency works as an intermediary between employers looking to hire and jobseekers searching for employment. 

How a recruitment agency operates will depend on if it works in the public or private sector, whether the jobs are temporary or permanent, and the agency’s area of expertise. 

Generally speaking, a recruitment agency will work alongside the employer to discover what they’re looking for in terms of skills, attitude and company fit. The agency will then proceed to advertise the job, headhunt candidates, collect applications, screen and vet applicants and arrange interviews on the employer's behalf. 

Following the interviews, the recruitment agency will gather feedback, negotiate the salary (if necessary) and help to onboard the candidate if successful. 

If you’re struggling to attract and recruit top talent or you're bound by time constraints, recruitment agencies are definitely worth it. 

As Steve Jobs said “Hiring the best is your most important task” and we couldn’t agree more. Securing the right talent is absolutely critical to driving business growth, enhancing productivity and building a competitive advantage. 

If you’re recruiting, why not take a look at our specialisms to see how we can help? 

If you’re looking to attract Gen Z talent, there are a number of things you can do including highlighting the company's values, making wellbeing a priority and providing clear development opportunities. 

An Applicant Tracking System (or ATS for short) is a software application used by companies to manage their recruitment and hiring process. The primary function of an ATS is to streamline the process of finding, interviewing, and hiring new employees by automating many aspects of the recruitment workflow. 

The main functions of an ATS include posting and distributing job adverts, collecting applications, parsing CVs into a CRM, screening and filtering candidates, scheduling interviews and reporting on the effectiveness of recruitment campaigns. 

This totally depends on the size of your business, your recruitment team and the goals of the business. If you receive a high volume of applications, an ATS might help you to manage the volume coming through. 

If you receive a moderate amount of applications but you’re a small recruitment team, an ATS might help you to streamline or speed up the process. 

There are a number of Applicant Tracking Systems available to cover different levels of budget and need so it’s worth shopping around before committing to one. 

Candidate screening refers to evaluating and assessing job applicants to determine whether they meet the necessary qualifications and are a good fit for the role and the business.

Screening candidates is a crucial step in the recruitment process to ensure that only the most suitable candidates are invited to the next stage, this is often the interview stage. 

Depending on the size of your business and the technology available, candidates can be screened in a number of ways. 

These include: 

• Checking the candidates CV to see if their skills, education and experience meet the basic criteria. 

• Checking the candidate's CV to see if they have demonstrated tangible results in a previous role. Candidates with strong accomplishments are often favourable candidates. 

• Searching for red flags which may dissuade you from progressing their application. This may include finding that the candidate has lied on their CV.

Employee retention refers to a company's ability to keep its employees and reduce turnover.

Employee retention is a critical factor for an organisation's long-term success, and it plays a major role in stability, productivity, and growth. 

Retaining employees can help to reduce recruitment costs, enhance employee morale, increase employee productivity and improve customer satisfaction. 

A ‘retention rate’ is the percentage of employees who stay with the company over a specific period; it is usually calculated annually. 

On the flip side, a ‘turnover rate’ is the percentage of employees who leave a company within a specific period. Again, this is usually calculated annually. 

Employee retention is usually calculated by ‘the number of employees who are still with the company at the end of a set time period’ divided by ‘the number of employees at the start of the time period.’ Then, multiply this number by 100. 

The time period calculated is usually one year.  

For example, if you have 90 employees remaining, but you started with 100, your sum would be 90 divided by 100, multiplied by 100. This would give you a retention rate of 90%

The phrase ‘quiet quitting’ emerged on social media in 2022, and is used to describe employees who do the bare minimum required for their job. 

Examples of ‘quiet quitters’ include employees who avoid overtime, adhere strictly to working hours and are disengaged within the workplace. 

If you’re looking for tips to prevent quiet quitting, our blog delves into the signs of quiet quitting, how to prevent it, and how it impacts the workplace. 

The term Company Culture’ or ‘Work Culture’ refers to the shared values, beliefs, behaviours, and practices that characterise an organisation and influence how work gets done.

It encompasses the environment created by the company's leadership, policies, communication styles, and overall approach to work. Work culture plays a significant role in shaping the employee experience, influencing job satisfaction, productivity, and retention.

A company culture can be classified as ‘good,’ ‘bad’ or even worse ‘toxic’ by its employees. 

Changing a company culture can be difficult but it is achievable. It’s important to understand what your current company culture is by conducting surveys and interviews with employees. By understanding this, you can identify what needs improvement and how you are going to achieve it. 

A baseline will also give you something to measure against; once you have made changes, you can conduct more surveys and interviews to see if the results have changed. 

A company culture can be improved in many ways including listening to your employees, offering flexible working, celebrating achievements, rewarding success and investing into professional development. 

A company that values wellbeing, promotes diversity and inclusion, and leads by example will be thought of well by employees. 

A company's culture can play a significant role in shaping the overall work experience for employees. This can impact many things including job satisfaction, productivity, and overall employee wellbeing. 

For example, if there is a positive company culture which values inclusion and fosters a sense of belonging, employees are more likely to feel valued, respected, and motivated to do their job to the best of their ability. 

If there is a negative company culture, employees may feel undervalued, morale may be low and there may be a high employee turnover rate. 

A positive company culture is extremely important and something which every employer should strive for. If an employee is engaged, they are much more likely to be happy, loyal to the company, and perform better in their role. 

If you consider that the average employee spends 35 hours at work, this is a significant amount of time; if an employee is unhappy due to a negative or toxic company culture, it is unlikely that they will stay with the business. 

Changing a toxic company culture can be very difficult but it is achievable. It’s important to recognise where the root cause of the toxicity is coming from in order to eliminate it. Is it your senior leadership team? Is it a certain employee or team causing issues? 

Once you have identified the root cause, you can set about making changes and modelling positive behaviours. To convince employees that you are committed to change, it must start at the top. If you don’t lead by example, employees will become disengaged fand lose faith in you as an employer. 

Diversity and inclusion are two related concepts that aim to create a welcoming and representative environment. This can be in or out of the workplace. 

Diversity and inclusion are crucial in the workplace because it is essential for fostering innovation, improving team performance, enhancing decision-making, and creating a positive environment where everyone feels valued and respected. 

A diverse and inclusive workforce will bring varied experiences and ideas to the table, be more innovative and creative with solutions, and make better decisions. 

Employers who prioritise diversity and inclusion attract a higher volume of skilled candidates, build trust with customers who value diversity, and contribute to a more equitable society, supporting the broader social good.   

A diversity and inclusion policy is a formal statement of an organisation’s commitment to creating a workplace that values and respects differences and promotes equal opportunity.

The purpose of a diversity and inclusion policy is to demonstrate the businesses intent to foster a diverse and inclusive environment, to promote fairness and equal opportunity, to mitigate bias, and to establish standards for behaviour. 

Diversity and inclusion are not the same but they are closely linked. 

Diversity refers to the presence of differences in human attributes within an environment; this can include race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, physical abilities, socioeconomic status and religion.

Inclusion is the practice of creating an environment where people feel welcome, valued, respected, and empowered to participate fully. While diversity might focus on who is present, inclusion focuses on how they are treated.

To make your company more diverse and inclusive, you could 

• Develop and communicate a clear strategy with measurable D&I goals

• Revise you recruitment practices to ensure the hiring process is unbiased and job descriptions are created with inclusivity in mind

• Encourage open communication for employees to feel safe, supported and celebrated 

• Provide diversity and inclusion training for employees and senior management 

Employee wellbeing is a holistic approach to supporting the overall health, happiness, and satisfaction of employees. It can include the physical, mental, social, financial and emotional wellbeing of employees. 

Employee wellbeing is crucial to increase engagement and productivity, reduce absenteeism, boost job satisfaction and improve health outcomes. 

To improve employee wellbeing, there are a number of approaches you can take including

• Encouraging a healthy work-life balance, for example, offering flexible or hybrid work arrangements 

• Providing wellness programmes, for example, offering free gym memberships, fitness classes or challenges 

• Offering mental health training, awareness and resources 

• Providing counselling 

• Encouraging open communication for employees to safe and supported 

• Supporting professional growth and purpose 

Employee wellbeing can be measured through a combination of quantitative data and qualitative feedback. This can include

• Conducting employee wellbeing and engagement surveys

• Tracking absenteeism and presenteeism 

• Measuring retention and turnover rates

• Reviewing feedback in 121s or focus groups

Generally speaking, yes! A happy and healthy employee will usually take fewer sick days, be more focused, have higher energy levels and be more productive at work. 

The 6 pillars of employee wellbeing are

• Physical wellbeing

• Mental and emotional wellbeing

• Financial wellbeing

• Social wellbeing

• Career wellbeing

• Purpose and community wellbeing

Mental health support in the workplace is important because without sufficient support, mental health conditions can have a significant effect on a person’s ability to carry out their job role.

In a recent blog, we delve into how employers can support mental health in the workplace.