The First 90 Days: A Blueprint for New Hire Success in the Legal Sector

December 19, 2024

Settling into any new role takes time. Even employees with years of experience in similar Legal industry roles can struggle when faced with new processes, workplace requirements and team dynamics. That’s why business leaders and managers must invest in effective onboarding processes to streamline the path to productivity.

Implementing the right strategy for an employee’s first 90 days in your organisation doesn’t only ensure you get the most value out of your new hire as quickly as possible, but it’s also crucial to retaining top talent in a competitive job market.

A well-structured onboarding process that focuses on training, cultural integration, and development during the first three months helps to forge the foundations of a positive relationship between employees and the companies they support.

Here’s how you can set your new employee up for success during their first 90 days with your company.

The Importance of Employee Onboarding and Development

Studies show up to 20% of employee turnover happens within the first 45 days of a new hire joining the team. This makes the initial stages of welcoming an employee into your team crucial for talent retention. 69% of employees say they’re more likely to stay with a company for three years or more if they receive an excellent initial onboarding experience.

In a skills-short Legal space, employees are likelier to abandon roles that don’t meet their expectations. Companies could waste time and resources recruiting and training staff who may leave their roles within a few months.

Rapid turnover can significantly impact team morale and overall company culture, reducing productivity and performance. A robust onboarding process, particularly focusing on the first 90 days, sets the tone for a valuable long-term relationship between your company and your new hires.

It allows staff to build strong foundations in your business, provides them with rapid access to essential skills, and helps them forge relationships with other team members. You will reduce your risk of early turnover for new talent and streamline each team member’s path to success within your organisation.

The First 90 Days: Building Your Onboarding Roadmap

 The exact elements of a successful onboarding strategy will always vary depending on the Legal role you’re filling and the unique requirements of your new hire. However, the following blueprint will give you a helpful starting point when designing your onboarding strategy.

  1. Pre-Arrival Preparation (Days -30 to 0) 

A powerful onboarding experience starts before your new staff member arrives for their first day at your Legal business location. When an employee accepts your job offer, you should prepare to welcome them into the team.

Create a comprehensive and personalised onboarding plan for each new team member that outlines the required training schedule, objectives, and milestones. This will give your new starter an insight into what to expect ahead of their start date.

Prepare any hardware and equipment your employees will need, such as a computer, desk space, and any software they’ll need access to, so it’s ready for them when they walk through the door.

Assigning a mentor or buddy to each new team member is a helpful way to give them a go-to resource if they have questions about their role, tasks or the company. Arrange this ahead of time. Additionally, consider setting up meet-and-greet sessions with the key team members your employee will work with.

Communicate with your new employee before their start date, sending them a welcome email with essential information about their role and the organisation.

  1. The First Week (Days 1-7)

The first week in a new Legal role can be chaotic and nerve-wracking for a new team member. Ensuring your employee feels supported and informed during this time is crucial.

On the first day, focus on welcoming the hire into the team, introducing them to team members, and showing them around the office. Ensure they know where to find everything, from meeting rooms to bathrooms and lunch or break spaces.

Set expectations with your new team member immediately, but ensure you’re realistic about expected accomplishments. Remind your new staff member of the critical elements of your company’s culture and values, and ask them if they have any questions about their role.

Additionally, during the first week, scheduling initial training sessions covering the software your employees will be using or any essential processes they’ll need to follow is helpful. Plus, make sure you have a few regular check-ins scheduled with a manager or team leader so you can monitor your new hire’s progress.

  1. Weeks 2-4 (Days 8-30)

After the first week, you can dive into more role-specific training sessions for your Legal hire, focusing on developing core skills and overcoming potential weaknesses. Introduce the key projects your team member will work on and assign new responsibilities.

For the first month, avoid overwhelming your employees with complex tasks. Instead, ensure they have access to the resources they need to learn more about their roles and functions and build new relationships with valuable team members.

Consider introducing team-building exercises or arranging informal lunches to foster the development of positive connections and enable collaboration.

At the end of the first month, schedule your first formal feedback session, ensuring you both provide helpful guidance and collect insights from your new employee about their experience in the workplace.

  1. Month 2 (Days 31-60)

When they enter their second month with your business, your new Legal hire should start feeling more confident in their role. Start giving your staff members more autonomy and responsibility, ensuring they still have someone to turn to if they have any questions.

Help them set short-term goals and objectives based on their ambitions and your company’s broader goals. Additionally, ensure your staff member can access continued learning and development opportunities, such as training sessions and workshops.

At this point, infusing your new employee deeper into your business operations is essential. Encourage them to actively participate in team meetings and projects and ask them to share their thoughts and opinions regularly.

At the end of the second month, arrange another review and feedback session to assess progress and provide constructive feedback.

  1. Month 3 (Days 61-90)

In the third month of the onboarding process, your new hire should feel fully integrated into the business. You can begin to assign them more complex tasks and projects and ask them to take more initiative in their role. Begin looking for more specific opportunities for growth and development based on what you’ve learned about your hire’s strengths and weaknesses so far.

Arrange another meeting during which your Legal team member can tell you about their long-term career aspirations, and you and your colleague can begin to build a personal development plan for them.

At the end of the third month, invite your employee to a comprehensive 90-day review. During this meeting, you can discuss the employee’s goals and achievements and collaboratively identify areas for improvement. You should also begin to discuss long-term development plans and set clear goals for the staff member’s next 90 days in their role.

At this stage, you can also ask your employees for feedback about what they’ve liked and disliked about the onboarding experience. This will help you optimise and improve future onboarding strategies.

The First 90 Days: Best Practice

 Developing an onboarding strategy for your new hire’s first 90 days within their new Legal role is crucial to integrating them into your company culture and setting the foundations for future success. Some experts say an employee’s experience within the first 90 days in a role will significantly impact their long-term performance and contribution to a company.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind throughout the process:

Maintain Open Communication

Communication is key to strengthening the relationship between your new employee and your business. Ensure managers regularly check in with new team members to clarify expectations, offer feedback, and quickly address any concerns or challenges.

Personalise the Onboarding Experience

Every new Legal hire will have requirements and specific challenges to overcome when starting a role with a company. Make sure you personalise the onboarding experience based on the employee’s role, background, and individual learning style.

Leverage Technology

Taking advantage of technology can significantly improve the onboarding experience. Digital scheduling tools, learning management software, and communication solutions can automate and streamline processes throughout the onboarding journey.

Gathering and Acting on Feedback

Gather feedback from your new staff members during and after onboarding to determine what works well for them and what can be improved. This will show employees that you value their input and help continuously refine the onboarding experience.

Master the 90-Day Onboarding Process

An effective onboarding strategy ensures that your new Legal employee thrives in your organisation  Retaining crucial talent, enhancing your company culture, and building an effective team are important.

Follow the steps above to design your 90-day onboarding strategy. Remember to constantly optimise and improve the experience based on feedback from each new team member.

CV Gaps: Turning Career Transitions into Opportunities

December 12, 2024

Imagine this: you discover an incredible Office and Commercial career opportunity that aligns perfectly with your goals and priorities as an employee. But, as you prepare to apply for the role, you notice a problem: a glaring gap in your CV.

Maybe you spent a year or two “unemployed” while you dealt with personal priorities, or you struggled to find a new role for a while after leaving another job. Whatever the reason for the gap, you know you will most likely have to explain it to your potential employer.

The thought of explaining a gap in your work history can be daunting. You might assume it will paint you negatively or reduce your chances of getting a job offer. However, CV gaps are more common than you think, and they need not be a red flag to employers.

What matters is how you address the gap. Here, we’ll show you how to frame career gaps positively and ensure you take advantage of valuable opportunities.

Understanding CV Gaps

A CV gap is any period in an individual’s career history where they were unemployed. If this is you, you are not alone, as McKinsey found that 62% of all employees will have a gap at some point in their professional history.

Gaps can be caused by career transitions, such as when you decide to leave an old Office and Commercial role and don’t have a new opportunity lined up in advance. You might transition into a period of unemployment while pursuing personal development opportunities, taking ‘time out’ to travel the world or investing in your education.

Sometimes, CV gaps are because of family responsibilities (such as caring for children or relatives), health issues (physical or mental), and changes in priorities. For instance, you might leave a role to focus on a passion project or voluntary work.

There are plenty of instances where gaps in your career may not be something you could have predicted or prevented. Companies can close, lay off team members, and make employees redundant for various reasons, leading to unexpected career gaps.

The Importance of Transparency

Whether the gap in your Office and Commercial CV was caused by something inside your control or not, explaining it to a new employer can be anxiety-evoking. This is demonstrated by up to 53% of candidates in one study saying they’d feel more confident applying for roles if they didn’t have to disclose the reasons behind their career gaps.

Remember that having a gap in your work history doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll have less chance of getting the role you want. LinkedIn found that 79% of managers will happily hire candidates regardless of career gaps.

When you confidently address the reason for the gap with your prospective employer, showing how it benefited you or contributed to your personal development, you’ll seem more proactive and trustworthy to them.

Being clear and transparent about your career gap sets a positive tone for building a relationship with your employer. It shows integrity and self-awareness and allows you to control the narrative surrounding your career history.

Reframing Career Transitions as Opportunities

Many Office and Commercial candidates are concerned that CV gaps would make them seem noncommittal, flaky, or unreliable. However, how a hiring manager or employer perceives a career gap depends on how you frame it.

Even if the reason for your employment gap didn’t directly contribute to your value as a candidate (like a year spent earning an unrelated certification), you could draw attention to how the gap benefited you.

Your unemployment period contributed to your adaptability and resilience, showing you how to adapt to new challenges and periods of potential uncertainty. You might have had a chance to try different interim roles, whether as a traditional employee, contractor, or volunteer, to help you uncover new insights and skills.

Think about how you can draw attention to the gap’s positive results, even if it only helped you progress through a period of self-discovery.

Crafting a Compelling CV 

If you’re invited to an interview, you should have a chance to discuss your CV gap in more depth with your potential Office and Commercial employer. However, to improve your chances of getting to that stage, you must structure your CV correctly.

First, think about the format. Instead of using a chronological CV that lists all of your previous experiences in order, drawing more attention to gaps, highlight the experiences most relevant to the role you’re applying for in order of importance.

Begin your CV with a strong summary or profile section that encapsulates your professional identity, spotlighting your unique characteristics and the strengths you’ll bring to the potential employer. Instead of listing previous job titles, focus on tailoring your CV to draw attention to your achievements and accomplishments over the years.

If you notice a gap in your CV is pronounced, add bullet points explaining what you did during those periods. For instance, did you spend time volunteering, doing freelance work, seeking out courses, or travelling to expand your personal growth?

Addressing Gaps in Cover Letters and Interviews

Before you’re invited to an Office and Commercial interview, you can proactively use your cover letter to address a career gap. Don’t go too in-depth with your explanation in the cover letter, but briefly describe why you weren’t employed during this period, then redirect the focus back to the skills and experiences that make you suitable for the role.

When invited to an interview, prepare to provide a more in-depth explanation. Plan what you’re going to draw attention to in advance, focusing on:

  • What you learned during the period: Did you develop any new specific skills or learn more about the industry, your priorities, and your strengths and weaknesses?
  • Valuable experiences: What experiences did you have during the gap that contributed to your value as an employee? For instance, did you develop more resilience and grit?
  • Relevance to the role: Are there any experiences you had during the gap that are particularly relevant to the role? For instance, did travelling help you better understand the priorities of different Office and Commercial customers or clients?

Take note of your tone and body language while responding to interview questions about the gap. Maintain an open posture and make eye contact.

 

Committing to Continuous Professional Development

All the strategies above will help you frame CV gaps more positively when you’re applying for new roles. However, the best way to make explaining gaps feel less daunting is to proactively invest in constant professional development.

If you’re committed to continually improving your skills and abilities, particularly during unemployment, you’ll have a much easier time making gaps seem optimistic. During career transitions, look for ways to use your time effectively.

Take online courses and explore new certification opportunities. Learn about industry trends and experiment with the latest technology. Invest in networking and visit industry events. Consider freelance work, consulting, or voluntary Office and Commercial opportunities.

In your CV or cover letter, highlight these proactive personal development strategies and explain how they enhance your value as a candidate.

Don’t Fear the CV Gap  

Gaps in a CV are becoming increasingly common, particularly as Office and Commercial employees pursue new priorities and explore non-linear paths to progression. Therefore, explaining periods of unemployment in your career history shouldn’t fill you with panic.

Rethink how you look at these gaps and present them to potential employers. Suppose you can frame your career gaps as periods that enabled you to improve your skills or personal growth. In that case, it helped you become a more valuable prospective employee, enhancing your chances of getting the role.

Creating Irresistible Job Offers in a Candidate-Driven Telecommunications Market

December 3, 2024

Today’s Telecommunications’ hiring landscape is complicated. While new talent is always entering the market, following the big names in telecoms, making over 55,000 jobs redundant since 2023 with ongoing redundancies across the year and into 2025 – There is top talent out there and with those newly available candidates, comes years of expertise never before has the demand for their skill set been stronger, with smaller – medium Telecoms companies, across the country, looking to obtain their skills.

Your competitors aren’t those larger well-known brand names anymore and to entice the right skill set, you will need to be ahead of your game and the market.

The arise of AI in the division has seen many jobs become redundant but those using the software without any personable touch, have received backlash too… People still want to talk to people – Not robots.

Consider this before you release your people for AI. The importance of personality and genuine empathy is something all good business’ need.

The market whilst it is wide open and ready for an influx of suitable candidates – can be tricky to navigate for prospective employers. For those niche skill sets in cloud-based telephony, Network connectivity and Fibre(Optic) broadband – you will need to expand your offering and adapt your recruitment process accordingly, to meet the requirements of your target market.

Here’s how you can stay ahead of the game and obtain top talent for your business.

While numerous factors can influence your chances of recruitment success, from working with a recruitment company with a specialism in Telecommunications to building a strong employer brand directly, it’s important not to overlook the value of creating the ideal job offering.

The right offer, demonstrating the full value of working with your team to a candidate, can make or break your hiring process.

Here’s how to craft more compelling job offers in the current candidate-driven market.

The Candidate-Driven Telecommunications Market

Over the last few years, the Telecommunications hiring market has grown increasingly candidate-driven for several reasons.

First, the needs of employers are evolving. The rise of new technologies, regulations, and requirements in the workplace has left business leaders searching for more skilled employees and the rise of more telecommunications and technical managed services providers is saturating the economy.

As competition continues to grow in the industry, more employers are competing for the same candidates, with many receiving multiple job offers.

Secondly, candidates are becoming more strategic in choosing where to work.

With multiple options, including remote roles and development opportunities, candidates now have more freedom to select the role best suited to their priorities and needs. Not to mention, they know their value and the marketplace for their skills hasn’t gone unnoticed.

How to Craft Compelling Telecommunications Job Offers

Crafting job offers that appeal to your target candidates ensures you can improve your chances of an individual accepting a role at your company.

The last thing you want is to go through all the work of interviewing top talent, to have your ideal employee then tell you they’ve decided to accept a better offer elsewhere.

Here’s how to craft more powerful job offers in a candidate-driven market.

  1. Research Your Target Candidates

When companies create new products and design marketing campaigns to promote their services and solutions, to the customer, they should also be targeting their preferred employees too.

Are you marketing your values to your customers only? Or do you have a handle on what your staff deem as a good sell into working for you too? Many small to medium communications companies, in the UK– don’t make their company values or benefits visible to their targeted candidate market…

Those that do, ensure they can develop solutions that appeal to the candidate market that you want to reach.

The same strategy should apply to your recruitment process.

Learning what matters most to the talented team members you want to recruit ensures you can craft the ultimate “employee value proposition”.

Find out whether your ideal employees are more likely to value flexible work opportunities or unique benefits. What are your competitors doing, that you are not.

Prioritise development, appreciation and the importance that a staff member will place on a role. Conduct, surveys and encourage your current staff members to be honest about their own experience of working in your business – Take any feedback as constructive and use it to better your employee offering or take testimonials from them to entice your target market.

Working alongside a specialist within Telecommunications recruitment can help you identify the needs of your candidates and to navigate your niche candidate market with ease. With the tools, network and knowledge on your market – They can support you with many different things in your industry.

2. Offer Competitive Compensation

While today’s Telecommunications employees value more than just a significant salary, they expect to be paid what they’re worth. This is particularly true in an environment where economic uncertainty and cost of living issues affect us all.

Are you paying your sales and support staff at the market rate, are you failing to get above the curve and missing out on high end calibre candidates down to your salaries being out of the market?

Ask your recruitment partner to conduct an in-depth salary survey to ensure you’re offering candidates the remuneration that makes sense based on the value they’ll bring to your business. Ask yourself, are you in the competition OR are you in competition with your competitors?

Consider the additional financial benefits you can offer your employees on top of their salary too.

Are you offering structured pay scales with a built out progressive track for increments? Do you pay an annual increase based on performance not just inflation?

Is there more you can do, depending on the structure of your business?

You might offer access to regular bonuses, commission payouts, or profit-sharing options such as shares and so on already but again are you ahead of the curve?

Be clear about your limitations when discussing salaries with your candidates and let them know how regularly you’ll be willing to review and negotiate their financial package at the beginning of their career.

3. Experiment with Benefits

Even if you can’t offer your candidates a higher salary than other competing Telecommunications companies, you can still convince them you’re offering a better deal. Around 41% of employees say they’d switch to another job for better benefits, whether that’s more paid holidays, access to free wellness programs, or even equity options in the business.

Look at your compensation package holistically and ask yourself how much you can “add” to the mix by offering retirement plans, private health insurance, and other perks. Another example, is if you are offering the minimum standard holidays, in this candidate-driven market, the likelihood is, that you’re not competitive enough.

Unique benefits, such as access to mental health support, flexible work schedules, and paid courses, can also make your business more attractive to top talent. Think carefully about the benefits that will appeal most to your target candidates and be ready to adapt to the different needs for various generations of potential employees.

4. Prioritise Work-Life Balance

According to a report in People Management magazine, 56% of employees are willing to accept a lower salary in exchange for a better work-life balance. No matter how much your Telecommunications candidates love their role, they still want to ensure they have time to focus on their well-being and health.

Offering flexible work opportunities, such as remote work, flexible hours, or a four-day work week, can be an excellent way to show your candidate you’re committed to improving their work-life balance. If flexible options aren’t feasible for your company, look for alternatives.

Consider allowing employees to adjust their schedules when necessary so they can still manage other important responsibilities in their lives – Following the pandemic and the change in the economy, the offer of a healthy work life balance is important in this day and age, more than any other time.

5. Highlight Career Development and Growth Opportunities

In the Telecommunications industry, every employee has their own personal vision for their future. When they join your team, they want evidence that you will help them to achieve those goals. This is why offering extensive development and growth opportunities is crucial.

When presenting a job offer to a candidate, discuss the progression paths that might be available to them in the future and answer any questions they have about potential promotions. Be honest on time scales and performance here though, manage your candidates’ expectations fairly.

Tell them about the training and development opportunities you offer, whether it’s access to online courses and certifications or mentorship programmes.

Ask your candidates what they want to achieve in the future with their roles, and work with them on developing a plan for success.

6. Showcase an Incredible Company Culture

Around 88% of job seekers believe a strong culture is crucial to their career success. However, the factors that identify a strong company culture are always changing. Today, candidates are increasingly focused on diverse, inclusive, and equitable cultures where businesses support, respect, and assist people from all backgrounds. Telecommunications are an industry that definitely knows the importance of culture and a good team dynamic. Often working in smaller more integrated teams, this is even more important that in a corporate business with volume sales and support teams.

Many Telecommunications team members also seek team gatherings, events and fun team activities, incentives and appreciation for a job well done.  Look at what matters most to your target candidates and find ways to demonstrate the value of your company culture.

7. Optimise the Candidate’s Experience

One of the most crucial factors to focus on when looking for ways to improve your recruitment process and acquire more talent is candidate experience.

The nature of your hiring process, from how easy it is to apply for a role to how often you communicate with candidates throughout the journey, can influence the success of your offer.

When recruiting new team members, focus on delivering an excellent, intuitive, and personalised experience. Make sure you answer your candidates’ questions quickly and keep them informed throughout the decision-making process.

If you respect your candidates throughout their application journey, you’ll forge stronger relationships and a better reputation in the industry too boosting the chances of people accepting your job offers and even referring their own colleagues too.

8. Present the Offer the Right Way

Finally, a strategic approach is important when presenting a job offer to a Telecommunications candidate. Outline all the information your candidate will need to make the right decision, discussing salary, benefits packages, responsibilities, and all other future opportunities.

Look for ways to personalise the offer to the needs of each candidate you consider based on their specific priorities.

Concentrate on communicating the total value proposition of what you’re offering, providing an insight into what each candidate will get from working with your business.

Crafting irresistible job offers is crucial to ensuring you can acquire the best talent for your Telecommunications team.

Simply offering the right salary isn’t enough. You need to think about everything from the individual priorities of your ideal team members to the benefits you can offer, their path for development and growth, and the candidate experience.

Working with a recruitment company will improve your chances of success. When reviewing job offers, a recruitment team can introduce you to the factors that matter most to candidates and advise of ideas and strategies to improve your candidate experience with the end goal of landing you top talent and being a well-known employer, in a fast-growing industry.

Networking from Scratch: Building Better Professional Relationships

November 21, 2024

In many Legal Costs careers, who you know can be as important as what you know. The relationships you forge with other industry experts, colleagues, and managers can help you access roles and opportunities you’d never encountered.

What’s more, effective networking allows you to learn from other thought leaders and industry experts. In a j industry that’s constantly changing, your network can help you stay one step ahead of market dynamics, trends, and changes.

Reports show that around 80% of professionals say networking is crucial to career success. Yet, many people don’t know how to forge strong relationships effectively. Here’s how to build a more powerful network and use it to your advantage in the Legal Costs industry.

The Power of Networking in the Legal Costs Industry

Networking in the Legal Costs industry isn’t just about forging new relationships with colleagues and thought leaders. It’s about connecting with people who can help you to make consistent progress throughout your career.

In the current job market, where Legal Costs companies struggle to find talent in a skills-short setting, many leaders rely on their existing employees to direct them towards qualified candidates. Studies suggest referred candidates are seven times more likely to receive a job offer than someone who applies for a role through a job site.

This means members of your network can help you to access role opportunities you might not find elsewhere. Plus, a strong network gives you endless behind-the-scenes insights into the current Legal Costs landscape, new ways to learn from your peers, and even a way to hone valuable soft skills in areas such as communication and collaboration.

Starting your Networking Journey

The most difficult step is figuring out where to get started when building your network. The best results come from a strategic approach. Start with a professional assessment. Understanding your Legal Costs career goals, strengths, and weaknesses can give you an insight into what kind of people you should connect with to unlock new opportunities.

It also gives you the insights you need to create a “unique value proposition” for yourself as an employee. By examining your strengths, you can determine what sets you apart from other Legal Costs candidates and how you deliver value to your network.

Utilise what you discover about yourself, craft an “elevator” pitch – a 30-60 second introduction that communicates who you are, your values, what you do, and why you matter. This will help you position yourself as a valuable connection to other employees and form the foundation for your personal branding journey.

Building Your Online Presence

In today’s digital world, a significant amount of networking occurs online. LinkedIn alone is home to over 1 billion professionals constantly looking for ways to forge valuable connections with peers and draw attention to their brand.

Consider what people see when they search for you online. What do your social media profiles say about you, your personality, and your achievements? A strong LinkedIn profile should include a high-quality photo, a compelling headline that reflects your career goals and expertise, and a summary of your skills and experiences.

Regularly update your profile with new accomplishments, certifications, and work samples to keep it current and engaging.

Beyond LinkedIn, look for ways to demonstrate your knowledge of the Legal Costs industry and connect with other professionals through various channels. You can use X and Facebook to follow companies, recruitment teams, and other professionals in your space. You could consider creating a website where you share insights into your work.

Another option is to look into industry-specific forums or subreddits dedicated to the Legal Costs space to engage in discussions with like-minded peers.

Navigating Offline Networking

Although building connections with Legal Costs peers and experts online are key, face-to-face interactions, where possible, remain valuable. Meeting in person promotes stronger human relationships, making you more memorable than online interactions.

Plus, engaging in offline networking opportunities, whether you sign up for workshops related to Legal Costs industry or attend events and conferences, allows you to learn about industry trends and concepts as you build your network.

Look for relevant events that will positively impact your role and provide useful insights you can use to showcase your thought leadership. Consider joining professional associations in the Legal Costs space, and check out the online, offline and hybrid events they host.

Volunteering and getting involved in community experiences can help boost your offline networking efforts. Whether volunteering for a charitable cause or helping organize industry-related events, these activities allow you to meet professionals outside your usual circles.

Volunteering also demonstrates characteristics linked to leadership, commitment, and passion – these traits often resonate with the people you meet, leading to stronger connections.

Nurturing Professional Relationships

One of the biggest mistakes Legal Costs employees make when networking is failing to nurture and retain the relationships they build. After you meet someone relevant to your career, whether it’s online or offline, follow up with them.

Send a personalised email or message on a social media platform, discussing what you learned from them, asking a question, or offering an insight they can use in their career. Dedicate a portion of your time each week to reaching out to people you’ve developed connections with to discuss a newsworthy topic or ask about their latest accomplishments.

Remember, reciprocity is crucial. Avoid only asking your connections for advice or help in finding a new job; offer them value in return. Comment on their social media posts with your insights, share links to valuable articles, and endorse their skills on LinkedIn.

Leveraging Your Network for Career Opportunities

A strong network is more than just a tool for Legal Costs career progression; it can help unlock new opportunities when used effectively. Therefore, consider contacting the people in your network to ask for a referral or introduction when looking for a new job opportunity.

It’s advised to ask for referrals and introductions after you’ve dedicated time to building rapport with a connection. Explain why you feel it would benefit that person to introduce you to leadership at their company and express gratitude for the introduction.

During your job search and career transitions, pay attention to your network and any shares in useful information on job leads or opportunities. Don’t be afraid to ask members of your network for advice on preparing for an interview in your Legal Costs or how to optimise your CV and cover letter when applying for a new role.

Internal networking in your current organisation could also be of value. Building relationships with colleagues in your Legal Costs workplace can help boost your chances of future promotions and career advancement opportunities.

Overcoming Networking Challenges

Although networking is often crucial to success in the Legal Costs industry, we understand that this can be intimidating or uncomfortable for some. The key to success is starting small. Beginning with achievable goals, like having meaningful conversations with Legal Costs leaders online before attending a large event, could serve as an ice breaker.

If you’re an introverted person, leverage your strengths. Being a good listener is an asset, too and opting for smaller one-on-one meetings might be a more comfortable way of networking for some. A tip is preparing conversation starters and questions before a networking meeting or event.

Balancing professionalism with authenticity is key. Presenting yourself professionally and polishedly is crucial, and being genuine with the people you meet is important. Share your true interests and values.

Top Screening Techniques when Recruiting Healthcare Talent

November 14, 2024

For years, companies in the Healthcare industry have relied heavily on CV screening to identify which candidates have the credentials and experience required to thrive in their organisation.

However, CV screening isn’t as effective as it appears.

The higher the number of applications received, the more time it takes to examine every CV That’s why many recruiting managers spend less than 7 seconds scanning through a CV.

Also, CVs aren’t always great indicators of a good job fit.

CVs, despite sharing academic data and work experience, provide little insight into genuine abilities, personality traits, and characteristics. The good news is that various screening techniques exist that Healthcare companies can use to improve the success of their recruitment efforts.

Here are some of the top options to consider.

1.   Behavioural Interviewing Techniques

Behavioural/Behavioral interviews are a tested tool for Healthcare recruiting managers and
recruitment to assess a candidate’s “fit” for a role. In these interviews, which can be conducted in person, over the phone, or via video, interviewers ask candidates questions about their behaviour in past situations, similar to the situations they may encounter in their prospective role.

Candidates respond to questions often using the “STAR” (Situation, Task, Action, and Result) method, offering an overview of what they needed to accomplish, the challenges they had to overcome, and the goals they achieved. This form of interviewing provides a clear insight into how candidates reacted in real-life situations and specific results accomplished.

This helps recruiting managers make informed decisions about who to take to the next stage in the hiring process based on their proven skills, experience, and attributes.

2.   Skill Assessments and Job Simulations

A CV offers limited insight into what a candidate can accomplish in a prospective role, and this is where skill testing can give you an unbiased, effective way to verify a candidate’s expertise.

With a straightforward online test, you can identify candidates with the right critical soft skills ( communication and problem-solving) and technical skills (mathematical or analytical). You can also use personality tests for insights into desirable traits (like proactivity).

To take skill-testing a step further, candidates can be asked to participate in a “job simulation,” where they are required to complete a task related to the responsibilities of their roles. Seeing candidates “in action” gives the recruiting manager an excellent opportunity to make informed decisions based on clear evidence of the candidate’s skills and abilities.

3.   AI-Powered Screening Systems

For years, recruiting managers and companies in the Healthcare industry have used solutions like “Applicant Tracking Systems” to screen large numbers of candidates rapidly. In today’s world, these tools have become increasingly advanced with the addition of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

AI-powered systems, now used by around 79% of organisations worldwide, can accelerate the early stages of the screening process. AI solutions can be programmed to search for specific terms or references to certain skills in a CV or application. This saves companies hours of time they would otherwise spend reviewing CVs themselves.

However, it’s worth noting that AI-powered tools aren’t perfect. They can miss essential application details and generate biased results, which may rule out valuable candidates. It’s important to be cautious when implementing AI and automation and understand their limitations.

4.   Video Screening Techniques

Over the years, video screening and preliminary interview sessions have become increasingly popular, replacing phone screening. With video conferencing solutions, Healthcare companies can engage in face-to-face conversations with clients wherever they are. This makes it easier for firms to assess a wider range of candidates, often from across the globe.

Video interviewing and screening also allow teams to learn more about their candidates based on their nonverbal cues, communication, and presentation skills.

Aside from the above, companies can also choose an asynchronous approach. Asynchronous video interviewing allows companies to record and send questions to candidates, who can respond with their recordings within a certain deadline. This can save hiring teams significant time during the initial interview stages.

5.   Anti-Bias Screening Techniques

One of the biggest issues with relying on CVs for screening candidates is that it can lead to biased hiring decisions. With limited information, Healthcare hiring managers can unconsciously make decisions based on attributes like age and gender rather than skills.

To ensure you’re hiring diverse candidates to add to your teams, there should be a conscious focus on reducing bias in the screening process. This could include using:

  • Blind resumé screening: Using software or asking recruitment companies to remove details like age, gender, and location from CVs and applications.
  • Structured interviewing: Structured interviews, which involve asking every candidate the same questions in the same order, allow for a more objective comparison of candidates.
  • Diverse recruitment panels: Inviting various stakeholders to participate in the screening process can help companies make decisions based on varying perspectives.

It’s also advisable to provide everyone responsible for recruitment in the team with regular training to help them recognise signs of bias in hiring decisions.

6.   Social Media Screening

Individuals use social media channels to communicate with friends and share their insights, passions, and accomplishments. While there are limitations to how much you can learn about someone from their social media profiles and online presence, social media screening can give the recruiting manager more insights into the Healthcare candidates.

It is said that around 90% of employers check a candidate’s online presence during the hiring process to learn about their personality, work ethic, and other factors. The important point to remember when using social media for screening is that bias can be an issue.

Companies must ensure their team members pay attention to only the most relevant information on a candidate’s social profiles, ignoring details like their outside hobbies, political views, or religious affiliations.

7.   Cultural Fit and Value Alignment Assessments

A big issue with CV screening is that it provides little insight into a candidate’s values and personality or how they’ll mesh with existing company culture. Many people fail in their new role because of something connected to their attitude, personality, or values.

Conducting an effective interview, where you ask your Healthcare candidates about their priorities, goals, and expectations, can help you learn more about how well they’ll fit into your organisation. Personality assessments can also be useful alongside “trial work” periods, which allows you to see how your candidates interact with their colleagues.

Careful evaluation of what value a candidate will add to your company culture will help you to make better hiring decisions and increase talent retention rates.

Go Beyond the CV for Screening

Effective candidate screening ensures you make the best hiring decisions for your Healthcare company. However, CV screening can be flawed, offering limited insights into how effective someone might be in a particular role.

Advanced screening techniques, from skill tests to value alignment assessments, will ensure you make more informed, objective hiring choices. This can significantly reduce turnover rates for your business and improve your chances of building a diverse team.

 

Breaking Free: How to Overcome the Fear of Leaving Your Comfort Zone When You Move Roles

November 7, 2024

As humans, we’re naturally fearful of the unknown, which means that change can be scary. However, throughout your Legal career, allowing fear to rule your decisions can be stifling. To achieve professional and personal goals, you must feel free to move to different roles and companies, seeking new opportunities to learn and grow.

Studies show that most adults have had an average of 12 different jobs by the time they reach the age of 55, and in today’s world, “job hopping” is becoming more common, particularly among Gen Z candidates.

Most Legal candidates know that these days, moving to a new role can help access greater flexibility, better salaries, and a more suited company culture.

The challenge is figuring out how to overcome the natural hesitation most of us feel when leaving our comfort zones. To help with that, here’s our guide to conquering the fear of change.

Understanding Fear of Change in Your Legal Career

Psychology tells us that human beings often fear change. We grow accustomed to certain patterns in our lives, and the “predictability” that comes with consistent experiences in a specific role or job is comforting.

Moving into a new Legal role can surface various concerns. Some employees fear they won’t be able to thrive in their new role as they did in their previous positions. Imposter syndrome can also create issues, particularly for employees moving into roles with more responsibilities than their last position.

We often ask ourselves whether we have what it takes to excel in new positions. Plus, in today’s complex Legal landscape, there’s the constant fear of financial insecurity.

In a difficult economic environment, many employees worry that they won’t have as much stability in a new role or could lose their jobs if they don’t live up to expectations.

On top of this, each new job comes with unique challenges to overcome. You may find that you have skill gaps to address before you can thrive in a role, particularly if a Legal company is embracing new processes and technologies.

If you’re moving into a different role, perhaps as a contractor or hybrid worker, you may worry about maintaining a work-life balance.

This sort of uncertainty often prompts employees to stay in their current roles, meaning missed opportunities and forfeited career growth.

Overcoming the Fear of Change

Tackling the fear of change when moving to a new Legal role isn’t always easy. People generally experience some anxiety when starting a new position. An interesting statistic shows that around 53% of employees say starting a new role is scarier than a trip to the dentist!

If you are reluctant to embrace change, there are ways to conquer your fear, prepare yourself, adjust your mindset, and welcome every career growth opportunity that comes your way openly.

Step 1: Assess your Current Situation

Conducting a self-assessment exercise is an excellent way to prepare for a successful job transition. Looking closely at your current situation will help you define the reasons for wanting to move to a new Legal role.

Results may include that you’re unable to grow in your new role, you’re uncomfortable with the company culture, or you lack motivation and engagement in your current position – identifying the “why” behind your intended move will be helpful. This will allow you to highlight and remind yourself of the positive benefits of going through change when you feel nervous about it.

As part of the process, research can include looking into company culture (by reading employee reviews) or growth opportunities (by checking a company’s website). This will help define how moving jobs will help you achieve your long-term Legal career goals.

In addition, reviewing your current situation will allow you to assess your strengths and weaknesses areas. Knowing your strengths will help you to overcome feelings of imposter syndrome, while understanding your weaknesses will help you identify areas where you need to improve. This way, you can develop skills that will help you excel in your new position.

Step 2: Preparing for the Transition

After your self-assessment, you should hold enough valuable information to help determine how to prepare for a Legal job move. This will put you in a position to compare your list of strengths and key skills to the role description you want to transition to.

Ask yourself how you can overcome gaps and weaknesses in your skills with a personalised development plan. You might invest in online courses and workshops or seek a mentor to help you through the migration process. We suggest focusing on both soft and technical skills when working to overcome any gaps.

Remember that your recruiter is skilled in all these areas and can help.

If you don’t have a new role lined up already, consider how you can prepare for the “job search” journey, including:

  • Building your network: Optimise your online presence on channels like LinkedIn. Attend industry events and try to develop strong connections with other employees.
  • Preparing for interviews: Research common interview questions, learn about the companies you want to work for and prepare STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) responses to interview questions.
  • Enhancing your job search: Work with recruiters to access a wider range of job opportunities, tailor your CV and cover letter to each company you want to work for and use more targeted job search strategies.

Step 3: Overcoming Mental Barriers

Mental barriers can pose the biggest hurdle for Legal employees moving into new roles. It’s natural to feel anxious and uncertain. However, the wrong mindset can exacerbate your fears and prevent you from making crucial moves in your career.

Start by assessing your anxieties. Ask yourself what you’re worried about and what you can do to alleviate those concerns. If you’re nervous about not meeting your employer’s expectations, look at skills you can develop to make yourself feel more confident in your application.

If your main concern is managing work balance in a new role, establish boundaries early on. Discuss your limitations with employers before accepting a job offer, and ask about their approach to improving employee wellbeing. Implement a strategy for self-care during your career transition, and practice developing your time management skills.

Transitioning Into Your New Role

After you’ve dealt with the anxieties associated with searching for a new job, completing interviews, and preparing for a different Legal role, moving into your new position can be challenging, too. To boost your chances of immediate and ongoing success:

Embrace the Onboarding Process

Proactively seek information about company processes and culture before your start date, and ask leadership or your team leader for access to onboarding materials you might need. Consider creating a 30-60-90-day plan for your new role. Base this on your own goals and the expectations your employer has set.

Integrate into the Culture

If you’ve researched, you should know what to expect from a new company’s culture. However, actively observing and learning from colleagues around you will help you to embed yourself into the environment more effectively. Maintain an open mindset about new ways of working, and be ready to ask for advice when necessary.

Be a Team Player

Don’t just be a part of the company culture; build genuine connections with team members around you. Attend company events team-building activities, and schedule one-on-one meetings to learn from relevant Legal colleagues. Find a mentor or buddy within the organisation and ask for their regular feedback.

Stay Adaptable

In the Legal industry, your responsibilities and team dynamics could change unexpectedly. Stay informed about industry trends and emerging technologies in your company. Regularly assess and update your skill set and seek opportunities to learn and grow. Invest in building your abilities over time and strengthening your network.

Think Long-Term

Remember to keep an eye on your long-term career goals. Think about how you can take advantage of development opportunities and unique projects to take new steps in your career. Look at how you can develop transferrable skills to assist you in future roles.

Breaking Free from Comfort Zones

We all have our comfort zones, which sometimes can be helpful, particularly when setting boundaries. However, if a fear of change stops you from progressing in your career, it’s important to find ways to push beyond this roadblock.

The strategies above will help you to step out of what feels comfortable and assist you in achieving new career goals. Despite being able to tackle this on your own, working with a professional recruitment company can set you apart from the competition. Your recruitment partner can help you identify priorities, find and highlight opportunities that match your goals, and assist you in making positive decisions throughout your career.

How to Thrive in Your Healthcare Career During Uncertain Times

October 17, 2024

The Healthcare job market is currently experiencing transformation and turbulence. Advanced A.I. algorithms and automation impact all jobs and influence which skills employers prioritise in candidates.

Geopolitical uncertainties and macroeconomic factors influence hiring decisions, leading to an influx in green jobs and new tensions in global hiring. Economic issues continue to impact the market, forcing certain companies to implement hiring freezes, lay off portions of their workforce, and find other ways to cut costs.

In this landscape, it’s becoming increasingly important for Healthcare candidates to find ways to become more flexible, adaptable, and resilient. So, how can you navigate the uncertainty of the current job landscape and build a career that thrives?

Preparing for Economic Uncertainty

Despite positive economic shifts last year, such as reduced inflations, financial issues still disrupt hiring practices. According to one report, the number of jobs available in the U.K. decreased by 25% between 2023 and 2024.

At a time when Healthcare  job stability is fragile, now is the time to prepare yourself for financial headaches and job-seeking complexity.

Assess how to accelerate and improve your job-seeking process by working with recruiters and building a strong personal brand. A recruitment team can help direct you towards roles you will not find on your own.

An effective personal brand, characterised by a strong online presence, will help make you more ‘attractive’, particularly now that companies rely heavily on social media for recruitment.

Handling Technology Disruptions

Although concerns about A.I. and automation eliminating roles in the Healthcare industry are often highly exaggerated, there’s no doubt that technology will cause disruptions for many employees. The World Economic Forum predicts between 40% and 60% of jobs will be influenced by artificial intelligence in some way.

In disruptive and fast-moving industries like the Healthcare landscape, there’s a good chance new developments in the technology landscape will lead to changes in your responsibilities and tasks. Investing in digital literacy is the best way to prepare for this shift.

Learn as much as you can about the technologies affecting your sector and the skills current employers seek. Take online courses and classes, and follow industry leaders online to stay up-to-date with current trends and evolutions.

Explore how you can make yourself more valuable to your employers to minimise/minimize the risk of technological unemployment. Think about the unique skills you can offer as a human being, such as empathy, adaptability, and creativity.

Adopting the Right Mindset for Resilience

In turbulent times, Healthcare employers are increasingly screening candidates based on their technical skills and personality traits, such as resilience and adaptability. Business leaders know hiring employees with a growth mindsetmeans they’ll benefit from flexible team members who can learn from their mistakes and consistently improve their skills.

Cultivating a growth mindset by embracing challenges, actively seeking feedback from colleagues, and reframing failure as a learning opportunity can make you more attractive to Healthcare business leaders. The right mindset will also help you to preserve your mental health and wellbeing as you face the stress and anxiety of an uncertain landscape.

Assess your current thought processes and emotional intelligence, and ask yourself how to reframe your mindset from a positive perspective. Celebrate your wins, learn from your losses, and regularly practice self-reflection.

Embracing the Era of Flexibility

In a difficult Healthcare job market, it can take six months or more to find a new role.

Flexible roles have become increasingly popular for people searching for greater work-life balance and higher salaries. However, they do come with their challenges to consider. For instance, contractor roles lack the benefits of full-time positions and may not offer the same level of consistent income.

Consider your options for contractor work carefully, and ask yourself whether you’re comfortable navigating the challenges of a different career style.

Investing in Constant Skill Development

As mentioned above, one of the best ways to ensure your career in the Healthcare industry is truly unshakeable is to make yourself invaluable to your employer. The more beneficial you have, whether technical skills related to tasks that can’t be automated or soft skills like exceptional communication and problem-solving abilities, the better.

To ensure you’re investing in the right skill development opportunities, review the trends in your industry and speak to your Healthcare recruitment company to identify which skills employers are focusing on right now.

Remember, skill requirements can change rapidly. According to the Boston Consulting Group, 37% of the top 20 skillsrequested for the average U.S. job have changed in the last 8 years. Once you’ve identified valuable, transferable skills, look for various ways to develop them. Take courses and online workshops, or consider working with mentors from different backgrounds.

Staying Informed about Healthcare Industry Changes

Information is power when becoming a resilient Healthcare employee. The more you know about the trends happening in your sector, the faster you can adapt. Ensure you read up on employment policy changes to ensure your employees are treated fairly. Learn about how things like climate change and green jobs will affect your role.

Joining online groups and LinkedIn forums can help you gather valuable information to use as you work on your career development. However, investing in various networking forms is also a good idea. Connecting with people both online and offline through conferences, events, and workshops will give you access to a wide range of insights.

Developing an effective network will also help you strengthen your personal brand, boost your credibility, and allow you to share more engaging, thought leadership-style content across social media platforms.

Working with a Recruiter

Finally, working with a recruitment company is one of the best ways to improve your chances of achieving your career goals, regardless of uncertain times. A Healthcare recruitment company can help you with strategic career planning, ensuring you can identify your strengths and weaknesses, decide which skills you should be prioritising, and set effective goals for the future.

Your recruitment company will give you real-time insights into market trends and help you connect with companies looking for your skills, even if they’re not openly advertising new roles. They’ll also give you valuable tips on how you can optimise your CV and cover letters and prepare for various types of interviews.

The key to success is ensuring you get as much value from your relationship with your recruiter. Constantly communicate your goals, priorities, and expectations with the company, and pay attention to their feedback.

Become Unshakeable in Turbulent Times

The world and the Healthcare industry are changing at an incredible pace, directly impacting candidates in search of the right roles. To ensure you can continue to survive and thrive during this difficult time, it’s important to have a strategy for resilience.

Following the steps above to diversify your income streams, improve your skills, and optimise your job search strategy will ensure you can continue progressing towards your career goals. Work with the right recruitment team if you need help finding the right role in a difficult landscape, improving your brand, or preparing for interview success.

Contact Everpool Recruitment for insights into how we can help you navigate uncertain times in the Healthcare industry.

Skills vs Attitude Vs Potential: The Great Hiring Debate in Legal Costs

October 10, 2024

Hiring the best Legal Costs talent isn’t easy, particularly when skill shortages are increasing. The cost of making the wrong decision can be huge. Not only do you waste time and resources onboarding and training the wrong employee, but your team’s productivity can suffer, too.

So, how do you ensure you’re making the right hiring choices? Focusing on skills is common, particularly for companies trying to avoid unconscious bias. Prioritising skills over attributes ensures you can hire team members with the right abilities to thrive in a specific role.

However, while more than 80% of employers say they take a skills-based approach to hiring, focusing on skills alone may not be a good idea. After all, the skills Legal Costs team members need are constantly changing, and while you can teach employees how to leverage new skills, it’s much harder to shape a team member’s attitude or potential.

Here’s what you need to know about hiring for skills, vs attitude, vs potential.

The Current Job Market Landscape: Hiring Challenges

The Legal Costs job market has changed significantly in recent years. The competition for top talent is increasing in an environment where every company faces significant skill shortages. Worldwide, more than 75% of companies struggle to find skilled workers.

Additionally, employee priorities are changing. Following the “Great Resignation”, candidates focus more on finding roles that offer the perfect blend of work balance, development opportunities, and a strong focus on diversity, equity and inclusion.

To attract and retain top talent, companies can’t afford to rely exclusively on scanning resumes for evidence of the right education or experience. CVs offer a stunted insight into a candidate’s potential, focusing solely on their achievements.

A more comprehensive approach to analysing a candidate’s “potential matrix”, based on their hard and soft skills, personality traits, and ability to adapt to changing situations, ensures you can hire more resilient, successful employees.

The Case for Skills-Based Hiring

Skills-based hiring, which involves prioritising candidates based on their abilities, does have value. Deloitte research found that companies that take a skills-based approach to hiring are 63% more likely to achieve the results they need from their teams.

Evaluating the skills of your potential employees ensures you can look beyond how many years of experience a candidate has in the Legal Costs sector or which certifications they’ve earned to focus on how well they’ll be able to carry out specific responsibilities at work.

This can reduce the risk of unconscious bias in hiring and lead to benefits like:

  • Quicker hiring decisions: Skills are often relatively easy to verify through portfolios, certifications, and practical tests, accelerating your hiring decisions.
  • Immediate productivity: Employees with the right skills can instantly contribute to your workforce without additional training.
  • Reduced costs: Because your candidates will already have the skills they need to thrive in their role, you can spend less money on training, mentoring, and development.
  • Improved retention: Some studies show that skills-based hires have a 9% longer tenure at their companies than traditional hires.
  • Competitive advantage: Focusing on emerging skills, such as digital literacy, can help you give your organisation a competitive advantage in the Legal Costs industry.

Focusing at least partially on skills is often crucial for virtually all roles and positions. Ensuring your team members have the right competencies to complete the tasks essential to their roles means you can hire more efficient, productive team members.

However, there’s a risk to focusing on skills alone, particularly in a world where experts predict employers will need to reskill more than 1 billion people by 2030, thanks to changes in the workplace. That’s where a focus on attitude and potential becomes a priority.

The Benefits of Prioritising Attitude and Potential

Skills are undoubtedly important in any role, but they can’t accurately predict a person’s chances of success in your organisation alone.

They’re either missing motivation, don’t have the resiliency to adapt to changes, or can’t thrive in the culture your company offers. Technical skills can be easily taught in the Legal Costs industry with coaching, training, and mentorship. Adjusting someone’s attitude is much harder.

Focusing on attitude and potential by examining a candidate’s personality, soft skills like communication and adaptability, and work ethic drives incredible results, such as:

  • Greater resilience: In the fast-moving Legal Costs industry, companies need adaptable employees who can adjust quickly to changing challenges. Hiring employees focusing on continuous learning, improvement, and a growth mindset improves resilience.
  • Improved retention: Studies show that 90% of new hires lose their job due to their attitude or personality. Hiring for attitude improves your chances of retaining critical team members who mesh well with your team.
  • Enhanced performance: Candidates with the right attitude and soft skills are more effective at collaborating with team members, serving customers, and solving problems. This can significantly improve the performance of your teams.
  • Diversity: By hiring for attitude and potential over technical skills, you can improve your chances of building a more diverse workforce, boosting your employer brand.

Of course, hiring for attitude alone also has its setbacks. If you focus on personality over skills entirely, you’ll need to invest more in training and development programs and spend more time evaluating candidates for personality traits.

Balancing Skills and Attitude: The Hybrid Hiring Approach

Ultimately, the best option for improved Legal Costs hiring strategies isn’t focusing on skills, attitude and potential independently – it’s taking a holistic approach.

When hiring a new team member, focusing on certain essential skills, such as proficiency with certain software or exceptional communication and customer service skills, will help streamline the recruitment process and reduce the cost of future training.

Skills-based hiring will also ensure you can hire team members who are immediately productive in their role, improving the ROI of your hiring strategy. Plus, it can reduce the risk of unconscious bias in your hiring decisions, ensuring you can assess each candidate objectively.

However, focusing on attitude and potential by evaluating a Legal Costs candidate’s soft skills, personality traits, and work ethic ensures you can choose diverse candidates who can contribute to your company culture and remain resilient in a shifting landscape.

Here are our top tips for hiring for skills, attitude and potential.

1.    Identify Essential Skills Carefully

Assess the roles you need to fill carefully and determine which skills are crucial to your candidates’ responsibilities. Focus on prioritising skills that would be difficult or time-consuming for staff to learn on the job.

For instance, while it’s easy to show a candidate how to use a new piece of Legal Costs software, delivering comprehensive skills training for things like accounting, analytics, or customer service would be much harder.

Once you’ve identified the most crucial skills your employees need, search for those capabilities consistently across all applicants. Take additional steps to minimise unconscious bias in your hiring decisions, such as using structured and standardised interview questions and blind resume screening.

2.    Determine Valuable Attitude Traits

After assessing the most essential “technical” skills your candidates will need, consider the attitude and personality traits that will make them a good fit for your business. Focus on things like:

  • Soft skills: Great time management or communication skills.
  • Mindset: A growth mindset and commitment to continuous learning.
  • Personality traits: Such as proactivity, intrinsic motivation, and flexibility.

Identify how you’ll examine these indicators of “potential” in your candidates. For instance, competency-based interviews with situational questions, behavioural interview questions, and personality tests can offer valuable insights.

Peer interviews can also be extremely useful, as they allow different team members to understand how well a new Legal Costs employee will fit into or contribute to your workplace dynamic. You could even consider hiring employees on a “trial” period for insights into how well they integrate with your team and their effectiveness in their roles.

3.    Commit to Continuous Development

Finally, ensure you have a strategy for continuously developing your new Legal Costs team members. While you might not be able to change their attitudes, you can improve their potential and enhance their integration into your workforce with group training and coaching sessions.

You can also look into options for improving your staff member’s soft skills, such as offering communication and collaboration training resources.

Regardless of the technical skills your team members already have, make sure you’re constantly offering access to new development opportunities. Think carefully about the future needs of your business, and offer access to a range of solutions to boost skills in digital literacy, technology, and niche-specific capabilities.

Take a Balanced Approach to Legal Costs Hiring

Ultimately, neither skills-based hiring nor focusing entirely on attitude and potential will ensure you can hire the right employees for your Legal Costs team. The right results require a holistic approach, focusing on skills, attitude, and potential in equal measure.

With a holistic strategy, you can ensure you’re hiring employees who contribute to your company culture, respond well to changing circumstances, and perform well in their roles.

Contact Everpool Recruitment today to learn how we can help you make the right hiring decisions based on skills, attitude, and potential.

Are You Working For The Wrong Accountancy and Finance Company?

October 3, 2024

The average person spends one-third of their waking life at work. It’s little wonder that we all want to work for a company we’re passionate about in a role that works for us. Finding the right company to work with isn’t just about ensuring happiness in your Accountancy and Finance job.

Working for the wrong company can make reaching your career goals harder, harm your motivation, and drain your energy. As employees worldwide continue to recognise just how important the “right role” is, more employees are shifting to new positions, searching for better company culture, compensation, and opportunities.

So, how do you know whether to contact a Accountancy and Finance recruitment company for help finding your next role?

It starts with assessing your current situation and identifying how it aligns with your goals, priorities, and skills.

Step 1: Assessing Cultural Fit

There’s more to thriving in a Accountancy and Finance role than finding a job that offers competitive compensation or allows you to use your skills effectively. Cultural fit is crucial, too. More than 88% of job seekers believe a healthy company culture is vital to their success at work.

The collective attitudes, values, and practices that guide the processes in your workplace directly impact your motivation levels and job satisfaction. Everything from a management style that doesn’t align with your work ethos to a lack of focus on inclusivity and diversity can leave you feeling stressed and unhappy at work.

If you’re unhappy in your current company, invest in learning more about the culture of the companies you’re considering joining. Read current employee reviews and social media posts, or speak to your recruitment company for extra insights.

Step 2: Aligning Personal and Company Values

Today’s Accountancy and Finance employees want purpose and meaning from their roles. They want to work for companies that share their values, whether passionate about sustainability and innovation or believe in the benefits of work-life balance, equality, diversity and inclusion.

Working for a company that shares your values makes you more likely to be intrinsically motivated, leading to higher engagement levels and improved job performance. Plus, a role that aligns with your values can help boost your morale and make you feel happier and more loyal to the company you’re working with.

To identify your values and assess how they align with your company’s, start by reflecting on what matters most for you. Do you care about ethical practices or opportunities for growth, for instance? Consider how your employer shows the same values by investing in sustainable strategies or offering development opportunities.

Step 3: Analysing Diversity, Inclusion and Adaptations

Diversity and inclusion are becoming a priority for Accountancy and Finance companies. Studies consistently show that diverse companies can earn 2.5 times greater cash flow per employee, and their teams are up to 35% more productive.

Unfortunately, not all organisations effectively create diverse, equitable workplaces. Many business leaders struggle to bridge the gaps between different generations and cultures in the workplace, leading to conflict and silos among teams.

Ensuring you’re working for a Accountancy and Finance business that is adaptable, diverse, and inclusive can positively impact your career, opening the door to new learning opportunities, chances to perfect various skills, and routes for growth.

Look for signs that diversity thrives in your company, such as diverse leadership, equal opportunities for all team members and open, transparent communication. Implement strategies to contribute to workplace diversity by actively listening, engaging with colleagues from different backgrounds, and challenging your assumptions.

Step 4: Assessing Flexibility and Work-Life Balance

Up to 77% of employees say flexible working practices, such as the ability to choose when they attend an office environment, are more important to them when selecting a role than a higher salary.

However, even if flexible work is a priority for you, it’s important to look beyond whether a company offers hybrid work or four-day work weeks when choosing the right role. You’ll also need to consider how those organisations support and empower a distributed workforce.

Think about your current company’s approach to managing diverse workplaces. Do hybrid and remote workers get the same recognition and support as in-office employees?

If you’re already working remotely, how easy is it to build connections with your distributed team members and stay in tune with the company culture?

Step 5: The Search for True Job Satisfaction

As mentioned above, there’s more to being happy in a Accountancy and Finance role than ensuring you’re paid a fair salary. If you want to feel truly fulfilled by the work you do, you need to ensure you’re working for a company that invests as much time and energy into you as you do for it.

When assessing your current company, ask yourself:

  • Do you have purpose? Does your role give you a sense of purpose? Do you feel like you’re actively accomplishing something, whether making the world better or progressing towards personal goals? Or are you just watching the time tick by each day?
  • Are you going somewhere? Do you feel like you’re moving forward in your role? Are there clear opportunities for promotions in the future, or do you regularly have a chance to take on new responsibilities? Does your company invest in training and development?
  • Are you engaged and motivated? How motivated do you feel when you’re at work, and how often do you find yourself daydreaming about something else? Do you spend your nights dreading the sound of your alarm in the morning?

If the answer to any of those questions is “no”, there’s a good chance you’re working for the wrong Accountancy and Finance company.

Don’t Settle for a Bad Fit

Work takes up too much of our lives for us to settle for a role with a company that doesn’t invest in our growth, happiness, and fulfilment. Staying with an Accountancy and Finance company you’re unhappy with might seem the easiest option in the short term, but it prevents you from making positive steps forward in your career and life.

If you assess everything from your company’s culture to its focus on diversity and inclusion and find a clear misalignment, now might be the time to consider moving somewhere new.

Creating Irresistible Job Offers in a Candidate-Driven Property Market

September 12, 2024

Today’s Property hiring landscape is complicated. While new talent is always entering the market, skill shortages present significant issues to hiring managers and business leaders.

While numerous factors can influence your chances of recruitment success, from working with a recruitment companyto building a strong employer brand, it’s important not to overlook the value of creating the ideal job offer.

The right offer, demonstrating the full value of working with your team to a candidate, can make or break your hiring process.

Here’s how to craft more compelling job offers in the current candidate-driven market.

The Candidate-Driven Property Market

Over the last few years, the Property hiring market has grown increasingly candidate-driven for several reasons.

First, the needs of employers are evolving. The rise of new technologies, regulations, and requirements in the workplace has left business leaders searching for more skilled employees.

As competition continues to grow in the industry, more employers are competing for the same candidates, with many receiving multiple job offers.

Secondly, candidates are becoming more strategic in choosing where to work. With multiple options, including remote roles and development opportunities, candidates now have more freedom to select the role best suited to their priorities and needs.

These market dynamics have led to an environment where 83% of HR professionals struggle to recruit quality candidates. Crafting better job offers is just one of the ways you can boost your chances of attracting the talent you need.

How to Craft Compelling Property Job Offers

Crafting job offers that appeal to your target candidates ensures you can improve your chances of an individual accepting a role at your company. The last thing you want is to go through all the work of interviewing candidates to have your ideal employee tell you they’ve decided to accept a better offer elsewhere.

Here’s how to craft more powerful job offers in a candidate-driven market.

1.    Research Your Target Candidates

When companies create new products and design marketing campaigns to promote those solutions, they research their target audience. This ensures they can develop solutions that appeal to the customers they want to reach. The same strategy should apply to your recruitment process.

Learning what matters most to the talented team members you want to recruit ensures you can craft the ultimate “employee value proposition” for candidates. Find out whether your ideal employees are more likely to value flexible work opportunities or unique benefits.

Look into their priorities regarding development, DEI in the workplace, and team dynamics. Surveys, interviews with existing employees, and discussions with your Property recruitment company can help you identify the needs of your candidates.

2.    Offer Competitive Compensation

While today’s Property employees value more than just a significant salary, they expect to be paid what they’re worth. This is particularly true in an environment where economic uncertainty and cost of living issues affect us all.

Use salary benchmarking to ensure you’re offering candidates the remuneration that makes sense based on the value they’ll bring to your business. Consider the additional financial benefits you can offer your employees on top of their salary.

For instance, depending on the structure of your business, you might offer access to regular bonuses, commission payouts, or profit-sharing options. Be clear about your limitations when discussing salaries with your candidates, and let them know how regularly you’ll be willing to review and negotiate their financial package.

3.    Experiment with Benefits

Even if you can’t offer your candidates a higher salary than other competing Property companies, you can still convince them you’re offering a better deal. Around 41% of employees say they’d switch to another job for better benefits, whether that’s more paid holidays, access to free wellness programs, or even equity options in the business.

Look at your compensation package holistically, and ask yourself how much you can “add” to the mix by offering retirement plans, private health insurance, and other perks.

Unique benefits, such as access to mental health support, flexible work schedules, and paid courses, can also make your business more attractive to top talent. Think carefully about the benefits that will appeal most to your target candidates, and be ready to adapt to the different priorities shown by various generations of potential employees.

4.    Prioritise Work-Life Balance

According to a report in People Management magazine, 56% of employees are willing to accept a lower salary in exchange for a better work-life balance. No matter how much your Property candidates love their role, they still want to ensure they have time to focus on their well-being and health.

Offering flexible work opportunities, such as remote work, flexible hours, or a four-day work week, can be an excellent way to show your candidate you’re committed to improving their work-life balance. If flexible options aren’t feasible for your company, look for alternatives.

Consider allowing employees to adjust their schedules when necessary so they can still manage other important responsibilities in their lives.

5.    Highlight Career Development and Growth Opportunities

In the Property industry, every employee has a vision for their future. When they join your team, they want evidence that you will help them achieve those goals. This is why offering extensive development and growth opportunities is crucial.

When presenting a job offer to a candidate, discuss the progression paths that might be available to them in the future and answer any questions they have about potential promotions. Tell them about the training and development opportunities you offer, whether it’s access to online courses and certifications or mentorship programmes.

Ask your candidates what they want to achieve in the future with their roles, and work with them on developing a plan for success.

6.    Showcase an Incredible Company Culture

Around 88% of job seekers believe a strong culture is crucial to their career success. However, the factors that identify a strong company culture are always changing. Today, candidates are increasingly focused on diverse, inclusive, and equitable cultures where businesses support, respect, and assist people from all backgrounds.

Many Property team members also seek collaborative environments where employee cooperation and relationships are valued and championed. Look at what matters most to your target candidates, and find ways to demonstrate the value of your company culture.

For instance, you might share information about previous employee achievements on your website and social media. You could introduce potential employees to team members and allow them to share their insights into working with your company.

7.    Optimise the Candidate Experience

One of the most crucial factors to focus on when looking for ways to improve your recruitment process and acquire more talent is candidate experience. The nature of your hiring process, from how easy it is to apply for a role to how often you communicate with candidates throughout the journey, can influence the success of your offer.

When recruiting new team members, focus on delivering an excellent, intuitive, and personalised experience. Make sure you answer your candidates’ questions quickly and keep them informed throughout the decision-making process.

If you delight candidates throughout the candidate experience, you’ll forge stronger relationships, boosting the chances of people accepting your job offers.

8.    Present the Offer the Right Way

Finally, a strategic approach is important when presenting a job offer to a Property candidate. Outline all the information your candidate will need to make the right decision, discussing salary, benefits packages, responsibilities, and opportunities.

Look for ways to personalise the offer to the needs of each candidate you consider based on their specific priorities. For instance, some employees may be enticed by the opportunity for remote work, while others are more interested in the free courses you offer.

Concentrate on communicating the total value proposition of what you’re offering, providing an insight into what each candidate will get from working with your business.

Crafting irresistible job offers is crucial to ensuring you can acquire the best talent for your Property team. Simply offering the right salary isn’t enough. You need to think about everything from the individual priorities of your ideal team members to the benefits you can offer, their path for development and growth, and the candidate experience.

Working with a recruitment company will improve your chances of success. When reviewing job offers, a recruitment team can introduce you to the factors that matter most to candidates and give you ideas and strategies to improve your candidate experience.

Consider seeking professional support that will help you constantly refine and optimise your approach to recruitment.