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Managing people
Recruiting staff
Do your interviews allow the best candidates to shine?
A clear set of selection criteria and consistent assessment techniques
are the best way to get the person you want. Make sure you’re on
the right track with these simple steps…
Shortlist
Ideally your shortlist should be no longer than five candidates. Eliminate
CVs according to your essential selection criteria. Your final five should
meet all your critical requirements. If you can’t narrow it to
five, a preliminary telephone interview may help to rule out applicants.
The interview: put your candidate at ease
Begin informally - make your candidate comfortable with some small talk.
Give a brief introduction to the role, perhaps asking them what they
know about the organisation as a starting point.
Look for their strengths
Remember that the best person for the job may not be the most vocal.
It is in your interests to discover the strengths of a reserved or nervous
interviewee – use their CV to pick out points of interest. An example
might be: “I understand your last role was with Clarke and Morrow.
What kind of projects did you oversee?”
Get a clear picture
If the candidate is being vague, try to draw out specifics to see how
they relate to the role. Use the five Ws to get precise answers - who,
why, when, where or what. 'What steps did you take to improve the situation?'
'When might you apply that experience?'
Stay neutral
You may need to ask some sensitive questions – for instance, when
enquiring about a gap in a candidate’s CV. Avoid judgemental statements
and make sure your tone is neutral.
Take all sensible measures to avoid legal action. Please note that questions
pertaining to relationship status, religious/political affiliations and
whether the candidate plans to have children are not suitable and may
result in you going to court.
Take notes
Make sure you record points of interest as you may not remember them
later.
Provide incentives!
Make sure you emphasise the benefits of the job. If the interviewee
is a strong candidate, they will receive other offers. Don’t assume
they’ll take the job if you don’t sell its plus points.
Concluding
Ask the candidate if they have any further questions. This is an excellent
chance to see if they’ve researched your company. Lastly, explain
when and how candidates will hear if they’ve been successful.
Seek guidance
To make sure you’re up to date with relevant legislation, check
with an employment compliance service that you’re doing all you
should. See our product and service pages for further details.
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Finding the right employee
The right staff are vital to your business. Make sure that when you’re
recruiting, you use the best means possible to pick them…
Start with a clear job description
Specify skills, experience and personal qualities. This allows candidates
to present themselves effectively, and gives you a checklist to assess
them thoroughly.
You may want to distinguish between desirable and essential criteria.
Although salary and benefits will be important to applicants, remember
that they may also be motivated by training opportunities, the chance
to progress and to take on new responsibilities.
Advertise
Use word of mouth. Make sure your contacts know you are looking for
a new member of staff.
Adverts with national/local press, trade publications and radio can
all offer a high response rate. Recruitment agencies, despite high fees,
offer a valuable service by saving you the time taken to filter applications.
Shortlist
You should have no more than five candidates in your final shortlist.
Only include applications that meet your full list of criteria.
Interviewing techniques
Consider who can best contribute to the selection process and select
your interview panel accordingly. Remember that the larger the panel,
the greater the pressure on your interviewee.
Your questions should be pertinent to your selection criteria - e.g. “Can
you give an example of when you managed a project from start to finish?” Listen
to their response attentively and do not interrupt.
Assume nothing, and follow up their responses if you want further information.
Ask about inconsistencies in their CV and interview. Assess hard skills
with tests if necessary e.g. audio typing, use of computer software.
Use your Selection Criteria
Your business will benefit from a new employee who complements your
department and brings the skills you’re looking for. Do not base
your decision purely on personal liking.
References
Verify references before offering the job. Make sure that the information
on the CV is confirmed by the reference. Remember, if you suffer loss
from employing a person on the basis of a misleading reference, you can
take legal action.
Protect Yourself Legally
Some people are automatically entitled to work in the UK. Others may
have restrictions on how long they can stay, whether they can work or
the type of work they can do.
You should check the entitlement to work in the UK of every worker you
plan to employ - regardless of their race, ethnic or national origin,
colour or nationality.
If you fail to do this and employ someone who is found to be an illegal
worker, you may face a civil penalty, an unlimited fine and/or a criminal
conviction if you are found to be knowingly employing an illegal migrant
worker.
You can find out more from Business Link at http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/layer?topicId=1073981874
Seek Guidance
To make sure you’re up to date with relevant legislation, check
with an employment compliance service that you’re doing all you
should. See our product and service pages for further details.
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Finding the Right Skills
Employees with the right training and expertise can enhance the growth
and success of your business
What practical steps can you take to ensure that you can find
suitably skilled staff?
Identify your needs
Ask yourself if your needs absolutely require extra staff. There may
be more economically viable options for you.
Appreciate the skills you have
Regular staff appraisals will help you identify the skills and ambitions
of your current workforce.
Training and encouraging staff development will motivate workers as
well as cut down the costs of new recruitment. It will also increase
your attractiveness to new recruits who will recognise your commitment
to their personal growth.
Existing staff also understand your business and can enable new ideas
and processes to be easily integrated into your current procedures.
Cutting training costs
Training can cost money and time. There are a number of options that
can help:
Learning and Skills Council/Learndirect - provide financial support,
help and advice.
e-learning – available for a wide variety of subjects, online
courses can be more easily fitted around work
For more information on e-learning visit our product and service pages.
Maximising investment
Encourage trainees to share their findings with other relevant workers.
Encourage trainees to make positive changes to the way they or the business
works based on what they have learnt.
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The Benefits of e-Learning
“Whatever business or technical area you want to strengthen, you
can access resources as long as you have an Internet connection.”
Keeping your small business going is demanding and varied work!
It’s important to have a wide skills base when you don’t
have the resources to hire consultants and third party specialists. And
whether you’re pitching to a new client, updating your website
or staying on top of invoices, you need confidence in your knowledge
and experience. If you don’t have the right training, you can place
your business at risk – but fitting in courses can be a drain on
working hours and finances.
There is an answer – a cost effective, flexible route to learning.
Computer based training (or “e-learning”) is the ideal solution
to your training needs.
Training for wherever you are
A range of distance learning services such The Open University, Learndirect
and Mindleaders offer all the courses you could wish for. Academic subjects
all the way up to postgraduate level, professional training and courses
for pleasure are all catered for in a computer based format. Depending
on the course you select, you may be accredited with a recognised qualification,
or provided with a certificate verifying your course completion.
Whatever business or technical area you want to strengthen, you can
access resources and in some cases tuition as long as you have an Internet
connection. Many providers issue resources on video and CD-ROMs – while
the most sophisticated are available online to download on a subscription
basis, keeping files small and allowing you to access them as soon as
possible.
Once you’ve enrolled and paid for your course, you are free to
access the resources as often as you want.
For small business needs
e-learning is an exciting means of improving your business – whether
that be through honing your management skills, learning HTML or getting
to grips with accounts. With options available for different levels of
experience you can be sure of progressing at a rate suited to your requirements.
Most importantly, its flexibility allows you to train and still meet
the demands of your business. You can choose your study hours to suit
you – at manageable times, around your work.
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Time-saving for businesspeople
Working hard but not getting results? It might take just a few simple
changes for your efforts – and those of your staff – to really
pay off…
Early to bed and early to rise?
Are you at your best in the morning or evening? If you know when you’re
most focused, you can prioritise your work accordingly.
Set proper boundaries
When you need to focus on an important project, delegate call taking
and administrative tasks. Make it clear you can not be disturbed.
Overcome the urge to be accommodating - say “no” when requests
are unreasonable.
Take time out
The human attention span is approximately 40 minutes. You might want
to keep your nose to the grindstone until you’ve finished, but
take regular breaks and your mind will be at its most active.
Make the most of modern technology
If you have an urgent task to complete, use voicemail to take your calls,
and ask colleagues to forward concerns to you by email which you can
respond to at a less pressing time.
Set aside fixed times for checking voicemail and email. Try to keep
it to half an hour, and no more than twice a day.
Delegate!
Worry about bothering your staff? Hate losing control of a project?
Stuck in old habits? Don’t do work that you could delegate. Your
team is there to help your business function – use them.
Enhance your environment
Stale air and too much VDU work could be bad for your health. Make sure
your office has efficient ventilation. Prevent headaches and eye strain
by using anti-reflection screens. Alternate activities so you can take
regular breaks from your PC.
Keep your desk and work equipment organised. Looking for notes on a
messy desktop is stressful and wastes time. Your telephone, regularly
used files and diary should be within easy reach.
Schedule treats
When you’ve finished a task, do something you enjoy. Whether it’s
a bar of chocolate or a night out you can motivate yourself with a reward.
For information of users: This material is published
for the information of clients. It provides only an overview of the regulations
in force at the date of publication, and no action should be taken without
consulting the detailed legislation or seeking professional advice. Therefore
no responsibility for loss occasioned by any person acting or refraining
from action as a result of the material can be accepted by the authors
or the firm.
© Copyright JE Consulting 2010. All
rights reserved.
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