In last weeks blog we outlined the dangers of hiring the wrong person, let’s now explore ways to reduce this risk and make better recruitment decisions in the future. Define the Role Clearly Ensure your job description is detailed and accurately reflects the skills and experience required. Clearly outline expectations, responsibilities, and company culture fit to attract the right candidates Improve Your Screening & Interview Process Go beyond the CV—use structured interviews, skills assessments, and reference checks. Behavioural interview techniques can help determine whether a candidate truly fits the role. Work with a Specialist Recruitment Agency A recruitment agency with expertise in your sector can help identify the right talent, saving you time and money. Agencies conduct in-depth candidate screening, ensuring a better match for your company’s needs. Look Beyond Skills – Assess Cultural Fit A candidate might have the perfect skills on paper, but if they don’t align with your company’s values, they won’t thrive in your workplace. Use personality assessments or trial periods to gauge long-term suitability. Invest in Onboarding & Training A strong onboarding process increases the chances of long-term success for new hires. Ongoing training and mentorship can help employees settle in and perform at their best. Hiring mistakes happen, but understanding the hidden costs of a bad hire can help you take proactive steps to avoid them. By refining your recruitment process and working with an expert agency, you can ensure you’re bringing in the right talent from the start.

Hiring the right candidate is one of the most important decisions a business can make. The right hire can boost productivity, enhance team morale, and drive success. But what happens when you get it wrong? A bad hire can be more than just a frustrating mistake—it can have a significant financial and operational impact on your business. The True Cost of a Bad Hire: Many businesses underestimate the impact of hiring the wrong person. The costs aren’t just financial; they can ripple across an organisation in several ways: Financial Losses Studies suggest that the cost of a bad hire can be three to four times the employee’s salary when you factor in recruitment, training, and lost productivity. Wasted salaries, severance pay, and the cost of rehiring all add up quickly. Lower Productivity & Team Morale A poor hire often struggles to meet expectations, leading to decreased efficiency and missed deadlines. Other employees may have to pick up the slack, causing frustration and burnout within the team. Reputation Damage A bad hire in a customer-facing role can negatively impact client relationships. High turnover rates can also harm your employer brand, making it harder to attract top talent in the future. Increased Workload for HR & Management Time spent on training and performance management for the wrong hire is time taken away from core business activities. If an employee needs to be let go, managers must go through lengthy HR processes, further delaying progress. Hiring mistakes happen, but understanding the hidden costs of a bad hire can help you take proactive steps to avoid them. Look out for next week’s blog on how you can avoid making the same mistake in the future.

We will all have no doubt heard the news that the likes of Amazon and Dell have scrapped their hybrid, flexible workplace policies for staff in favour of a return-to-office mandate. Up to this point, the return-to-office conversation had largely fallen silent for most of this year. Hybrid work arrangements were generally being accepted as the norm for office workers, while the number of options for ‘fully remote’ work has dropped in recent times. Where once company employees held the cards, with businesses desperate for talent as they tried to navigate the post-pandemic bounce back, the dynamic has shifted back in favour of employers. In fact, despite multiple studies suggest that flexibility regarding where they work boosts job satisfaction, work-life balance, health, morale, productivity and ultimately, the bottom line, KPMG’s 2024 CEO Outlook report, which surveyed 1,300 CEOs around the world, indicated that 83% of UK CEOs expect to see a full return to the office within three years. However, for those businesses hoping to make a full-time return to the office, there is plenty to consider and get right if you’re to retain your employees. The potential impact of return-to-office on retention: Whether it’s greater collaboration and innovation, a company culture to be proud of or a boost to your productivity, the rationales and arguments behind a decision to return to the office are understandable.  Yet, if not managed correctly, mandating a full-time return could have several ramifications for employee engagement and retention: Resistance and Resentment Many have grown accustomed to the flexibility of remote work. For them, it has improved work-life balance, reduced commuting stress, and allowed for a more suitable work environment. If staff believe their preferences and needs are being disregarded, feelings of resentment or resistance could set in. Talent Exodus If workers feel that their employer is not accommodating their desires for flexibility, they may seek opportunities elsewhere. Companies that mandate a return to the office risk losing top talent to companies that offer hybrid or fully remote work arrangements. Decreased Morale and Engagement Mandatory returns can lead to decreased morale, especially if employees feel that their input on work arrangements isn’t valued. This in turn can result in lower engagement levels, which can impact overall productivity and the quality of work. Diversity and Inclusion Challenges The push for a full return to the office can disproportionately affect employees with specific needs, such as those with disabilities, or those who live far from the workplace. This can create a sense of exclusion and inequity, further driving down morale and increasing turnover rates. Navigating the transition to a full-time return to the office. For employers, who feel that a return to the office will be beneficial, reluctance from employees can be tricky to navigate. It’s vital that any strategies chosen to be adopted to mitigate the potential negative impacts and ensure a happy workforce are well thought out and created with retention front of mind. Every company and its culture are different, but here are some key things to consider: 1. Open Communication Effective and positive communication of your plans and why they’re beneficial is a crucial first step. Involving your staff in the conversation about your return-to-office policies can lead to better outcomes. Conducting internal surveys, hosting focus groups, or facilitating open forums can provide valuable insights into employee preferences and concerns. 2. Allow Time for the Transition It’s important not to rush into any changes, but instead, give your teams time to come to terms with the changes and support them with what they need to feel more comfortable. Perceived knee-jerk changes or not allowing sufficient time to integrate new policies will not endear you to your employees. 3. Emphasising Purpose and Connection Companies should communicate the reasons behind their decisions clearly and highlight the value of in-person interactions. By emphasising the purpose of returning to the office – whether it’s for team building, culture, innovation or collaboration – if you can help your teams see the benefits of the changes, they are more likely to feel more positively about them. 4. Investing in the Office Experience If you’re asking your employees to return to the office, make it a place they want to be. Whether it’s collaborative spaces, social events, providing them with the right tools and tech, it’s important the office environment is welcoming and an atmosphere that promotes engagement and well-being. So, it’s clear then that the decision to bring employees back to the office full-time isn’t one that should be taken lightly. Alongside any reasons you have for this shift, your employees will have several of their own as to why they don’t see it as such a good idea. By fostering open communication and investing in a positive office environment, it’ll be easier to navigate this transition thoughtfully and retain your people. In the end, the key to success lies in balancing business needs with employee well-being and preferences.

The way we work continues to evolve and every year, new trends emerge that force us to shift how we think about our workplace and our colleagues around us. The past few years have seen the level of change accelerate, and there’s no signs of things slowing down in 2024. From generative AI and belonging to more people seeking purpose-led roles and a changing of the guard, we’ve done some digging and have highlighted 7 major trends that will be key 2024 and how they will impact the workplace in the months to come. 1. Increase in AI adoption As companies turn to AI to support them across their business and boost their productivity, this has resulted in a mixed reaction, with some excited about the opportunities it presents and some more fearful. These fears about AI are driven not only by the threat of losing one’s job, but also the uncertainty of whether they will have the skills they need to succeed in the AI era. Employers will need to be aware of the AI tools available and the direction the technology is going to allay these fears and ensure their teams have the necessary skills in place to be able to use them effectively in the future. 2. Employees seeking purpose-led roles Pay is far from people’s only motivator. Employees in 2024 are looking to gain more value from their jobs, find deeper connections with a company’s purpose and feel supported and empowered… and it’s important for employers to respond. The more employers don’t listen to their staff and limit the things that create a sense of purpose within the workplace, the more likely their employees are to seek a move away to a business that meets their needs. 3. Skills based hiring – competence over credentials Skills-based hiring has taken off, with many employers considering skills more effective when evaluating candidates than the credentials and experience on their CVs. As the competition for talent hots up and pressures mount on hiring manager, businesses are starting to rethink their approach and are widening their recruitment lens to capture the diverse skills and experiences of a changing workforce. Through changing to a skills-based approach, businesses can engage candidates from different backgrounds and experiences, which in turn leads to a more rounded and diverse workforce. 4. Plugging skills gaps with upskilling and development opportunities With many business leaders indicating there’s a growing skills gap across their teams, it’s never been more important to double down on providing staff with upskilling and development opportunities. It’s what employees are looking for too. They want personalised training that’s tailored to their individual needs and that has a direct link to their future career aspirations. Those that place learning and development at the heart of their proposition will see increased employee engagement, better retention levels, and more opportunities to hire great talent. 5. Creating belonging will be a key culture priority Alongside diversity equity and inclusion policies, there’s a greater emphasis being placed on people’s sense of belonging. Creating an environment that encourages people to thrive, fulfil their potential, and belong by being their true selves is essential when it comes to building a company that people want to work for. And companies are doing this effectively by embedding their commitments into their business and highlighting them across multiple touchpoints and throughout the employee lifecycle and the recruitment process. 6. The continuing return-to-office debate The calls for a return to the office have been getting louder in some sectors, and several big names have issued mandates putting a stop to their teams working remotely full-time. Yet there is no one-size-fits all solution and every business is different. With this topic high up on company’s agendas in 2024, the debate will rage on as they try to figure out the best approach in terms of productivity and employee engagement. It’s important they take a step back, engage with staff and look at the data to determine the correct course of action to take on this hot topic. 7. More GenZers than Baby Boomers in the workplace It’s been reported that GenZ employees are expected to overtake the number of Baby Boomers in the workplace this year. While Boomers value things such as job security from their employer, and Gen X workers want work-life balance and career progression, for GenZ employees, company ethics, DEI and having their voices heard are among their priorities. This represents a pivotal moment of culture change, and employers will need to seriously consider and make changes to their work environments, benefits, culture and more to attract and retain this new generation of talent. Final thoughts It’s true that change is the only constant, and 2024 looks set to be a year full of change for businesses and their teams. It’s therefore important to be aware of these trends and work to understand how they relate to your own working environment so you can be better equipped to navigate any changes as they come.

New job? Here’s how to hit the ground running and succeed! The application, the interviews, waiting to receive and offer… there’s a lot that goes into finding yourself a new job. Whether you’ve just landed your first role or you’re taking the next step in your career, amongst all the excitement, there’s sure to be some nerves as you enter a new environment with new people, systems, culture and new responsibilities. There’s a lot to consider and breaking the first few months down into a series of milestones is a great way to make the right impression and set yourself up for success. Likewise, you’ll be able to keep track of your progress and have points to refer back to as you become more embedded in your role. So, when it comes to navigating your first week, month and 90 days, here’s our guide to how you can hit the ground running.  How to succeed in your first week: Your first week is all about getting the balance right between making a great first impression and not putting too much pressure on yourself to get everything right immediately. Allow yourself a settling in period to learn about the business, your team and how things are done. Make those early introductions In your first few days, make getting know people a priority and enlist the help of others to make this happen. No doubt this will form part of your onboarding experience but commit to meeting as many people as you possibly can early on. Learning everyone’s names, roles and responsibilities is never easy so don’t be afraid to ask for a reminder or a breakdown of who’s who in each team. Ask questions and be a sponge Research shows the more questions new employees ask, the better they perform, so use this first week to understand how your team works best and how they communicate. Think about what’s most important to know and ask your manager and your team for it to get you up to speed as quickly as possible. Identify where you can add value early on While much of your first week will be focused on learning and getting to grips with how things are done, adding value to your team early goes a long way to succeeding in your new role. Offer a solution or fresh perspective to any issues the team may be having is always beneficial and a great way to add value to those around you. How to succeed in your first month: Now you’re getting settled in you can really start to demonstrate where your skills can be applied and what you can bring to the business. Equally, you’ll have a better connection with people and will be more aware of the culture and dynamic that exists both within your immediate team and the wider business. Establish and set good habits How does your team like to work? How do they manage their team and their tasks to make sure they stay on track? A new job is a chance to unlearn habits from previous roles, develop new skills or practices and work in a way that’s more in tune with your team. Determine what success looks like for you and your manager The first month is the perfect time to set mutual expectations with your manager regarding what they can expect from you and what you can expect from them. Use this time to define what tools and resources you need and how your performance will be assessed. Working with them early on to put performance metric in place, you’re set up to effectively review and measure your performance. How to succeed in your first 90 days: Use the first 90 days to take ownership of your role and demonstrate how you’ll add real value as an integral part of the team and the business. Identify the challenges and set your goals Consider the challenges you’ve already faced in your first three months and come up with a plan to overcome them alongside your manager and team. Having clarity on what you want to achieve and what goals you and your manager need to set to help you get there will make you more focused and valuable to your team. Applying yourself and being responsible for then hitting them will be significant in terms of your own professional and personal growth. Organise a review This may already be covered as part of your onboarding process or probation, but if not, it’s a good idea to book some time in with your manager to evaluate how things are going. Use this opportunity find out whether you’re meeting expectations and how you’re progressing. It’s also useful to set out new targets for the months ahead to keep you focused and motivated to succeed. Final thoughts Being proactive in your new role and taking the responsibility for your own learnings, development and milestones within the first three months of your role are an essential way to set yourself up for success. It’s important to be measured in your approach and to get the balance right by not trying to do too much too soon.

Irrespective of company size or industry sector, attracting and recruiting the best candidates in the market has long been one of the key challenges for businesses. In a candidate-driven market, the best talent is in such high demand that many have multiple options to choose from and the bargaining power lies in their hands. The response from many businesses has been to increase the salaries they offer or boost their benefits packages as they endeavour to remain an attractive proposition to candidates. Yet, with increased financial pressures caused by rising inflation rates, it’s becoming far harder for businesses to justify upping salaries in a bid to secure top talent. While candidates will always place remuneration high up on their list of requirements, the experience they have whilst interviewing for a new role is now more of a consideration than ever before. Why is candidate experience important? The way candidates engage with potential employers, and what they look for from them, has changed significantly in recent times. Feeling they’re valued, trusted and supported by employers is more important than ever before, due in part to the impact of the pandemic and resulting disruptions to many people’s careers and working practices. Through their hiring process, businesses can demonstrate the value they place in their people and effort they’ll go to ensure they’re engaged. From the initial application right through to the job offer, every interaction can positively or negatively impact a candidate’s decision-making process. Providing candidates with a positive experience has significant bearing on whether a candidate chooses to join or not. Therefore, to attract the best people, every stage of the recruitment process needs to be well thought out, with providing a positive candidate experience at the heart of it. So, how can you create a positive candidate experience? Develop a simple, streamlined recruitment process Have you considered whether your process is too drawn out, with too many stages? Do you require multiple team members to meet with candidates before making a decision? It’s important to be mindful of your candidate’s time and the journey they take throughout your recruitment process. If it feels too long or a decision is hard to come by, you might find the candidates you wanted are getting snapped up by companies that move quickly. Likewise, if your process involves unnecessary, multiple stages where candidates are asked similar questions, you run the risk of appearing disorganised and indecisive as a business. Review your job adverts Today’s candidates want to see more from a job advert than simply a list of ‘must-haves’ or generic information about the business. Ask yourself the question, “why would I want to work here?” To engage and attract the best people and create excitement about the prospect of joining your business, use your job ads as an opportunity to showcase exactly who you are as a business, what makes you unique, your core values and what the future has in store for them. In addition, give them clarity on what the role entails, what they can expect to achieve and what support they’ll be given in order to do so. Having this clarity early on will mean candidates will be more bought in to the opportunity and will enter the process with a better understanding of the role they’ll play and the impact they’ll have. Communicate regularly Candidates long to be kept in the loop and to know where they stand at every stage of the recruitment process. It’s important to set expectations from the beginning on when they should expect to hear from you and even more important to deliver on these expectations. By communicating regularly and sticking to timeframes, you’ll demonstrate that you and your company are reliable. Over-communicating will be far more appreciated than radio silence. Continuously review and adapt where needed Reviewing what you’re doing and taking stock regularly is a great way to ensure you’re delivering the best experience for your candidates that you can and that it’s in line with what they want. What’s important to candidates and the expectations they have of their employers is changing all the time, so being open to change and adaptable means your ability to recruit top talent won’t be compromised. Listening to your candidates and acting on their feedback is important as it allows you to continuously develop your recruitment process, ensure you’re delivering a positive candidate experience and stand out from your competition. Final thoughts The changes you make don’t have to be too great, but at a time where the best candidates in the market have more opportunities than ever before, placing their experience at the heart of hiring strategies could help towards overcoming some of the current recruitment challenges.