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.

Effective Health and Social Care Candidate Screening: Top Strategies for Success

August 15, 2024

An effective strategy for candidate evaluation is crucial to ensuring you make the right decisions on who to add to your Health and Social Care team. While hundreds of people might apply for a job, many companies only invite a small percentage to an interview.

The screening process is how business leaders shortlist candidates based on their skills, experience, and attributes. However, not every screening strategy is alike.

To ensure they’re not missing out on valuable talent or adding unnecessary complexity to the hiring process, companies need to analyse and implement the right screening methods for their specific needs. Here, we’ll explore some of the best ways to screen candidates this year.

CV Screening Works With Limitations

CV screening is among the most commonly used candidate evaluation methods. CVs and cover letters provide companies with a quick insight into a candidate’s experience, critical skills, and capabilities.

Unfortunately, CV screening has limitations.

If you receive hundreds of applications for a specific role, manually reading through everyone you receive takes time. Since HR teams have a lot of additional work to do each day, it’s easy to “rush through” reviews (even with the help of AI) and miss important details.

What’s more, a paper or digital document cannot provide a complete view of each candidate. It’s difficult to understand how well a candidate will fit into a company’s culture based on this method alone.

That’s why it’s so important for companies to take the right approach to screening by:

Using Technology

Leveraging technology, like automated screening tools, can help businesses or their recruitment partner rapidly sort through applications, searching for mentions of keywords or terms relevant to the job role. This can help companies quickly create short lists of candidates with the correct skills or capabilities.

Combining CV Screening with Other Methods

Companies should consider combining insights from CVs with other screening methods rather than relying exclusively on this method to find the right fit for a role. Conducting skill tests, using profiling tools, or working with a recruitment company to conduct initial phone interviews can be a great way to unlock additional insights into each candidate.

Profiling Tools for Candidate Evaluation

Profiling tools are an excellent way to dive deeper into the specific capabilities and personality traits of a potential Health and Social Care candidate. Companies can use various types of profiling solutions. For instance, personality profiling tests are an excellent way to learn about candidates’ attributes and determine how well they might fit into your company’s culture.

Options like the DiSC profile can help companies determine which candidates will fit well into leadership roles. Skills tests are also extremely useful, allowing companies to validate candidates’ competencies before they invite them for an interview.

Certain tests can examine critical soft skills, such as communication and collaboration skills, resiliency, or time management capabilities. Aside from helping companies shortlist candidates faster, skills tests can even help to reduce bias in hiring decisions, ensuring companies choose staff members based on their abilities.

Video Interviews

Video interviews have become increasingly common in recent years. They offer a fantastic replacement for in-person interviews, allowing for more flexibility, eliminating the need for candidates to travel long distances and employer scheduling challenges to arrange in-person interviews.

Video interviews can also be excellent for Health and Social Care candidate evaluation. They offer a fast-paced and convenient way to interact with multiple candidates, ask standardized questions, and get a feel for each applicant’s personality and communication skills.

Thanks to the rise of video conferencing and recording software, scheduling and conducting synchronous and asynchronous interviews is easier than ever today. Asynchronous video interviews can be particularly valuable for candidate evaluation, as they allow applicants to record answers to pre-set questions at a time that suits them.

Business leaders can then review these videos, compare them, and make notes throughout the process to help enhance their hiring strategies.

When conducting video interviews, it makes sense to focus on a few key things, such as making the interview process as simple as possible for candidates and asking questions that offer insights into soft and hard skills.

[Add your offer here for those who use video interviewing as part of your process.]

Leveraging AI and Automation in Hiring

Advanced technology, such as AI and automation solutions, can streamline hiring strategies and enhance the screening process. Already, many organisations use some form of automated technology to help optimise screening.

For instance, applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) can help shortlist Health and Social Care candidates instantly by searching for mentions of specific phrases and terms in cover letters and CVs. AI in hiring is increasingly common as companies leverage intelligent tools to analyse, and match candidates to job descriptions.

Both automation and AI in hiring processes can save companies time and effort in the screening process. However, it’s important to be cautious when relying on these tools.

Some automated solutions can disregard applications from valuable candidates simply because they haven’t used a specific keyword in their CV.

Additionally, AI systems can demonstrate bias due to limited data sets.

Additional Screening Methods to Consider

Alongside the four popular candidate evaluation methods mentioned above, some Health and Social Care companies will benefit from using additional strategies for screening. For instance, in highly regulated industries, background checks are an excellent way to confirm a CV accuracy and learn more about a candidate’s history.

References are another excellent tool, allowing companies to gather insights from previous employers who can confirm a person’s skills and behavioural traits.

Best Practices for Better Candidate Evaluation

Regardless of which screening methods you choose to evaluate Health and Social Care candidates, there are some best practices you should keep in mind, which we have shared here.

Use Multiple Screening Methods

Rather than relying exclusively on one screening strategy, like reviewing CVs, combine various methods for a comprehensive picture of each candidate. Consider using phone or video screening to help inform your hiring decisions.

Be Consistent

Build a comprehensive, standardised screening strategy, and use it every time you hire a new team member. A consistent approach will make it easier to assess candidates rapidly and ensure you’re making decisions fairly, with minimal bias.

Collaborate

Get multiple stakeholders involved in making hiring decisions. Ensure everyone has access to the same screening insights and data. This will help to reduce bias in hiring decisions. You can also work with Health and Social Care recruitment companies, who can conduct some of the screening process for you and save you considerable time.

Remember Candidate Experience

Put the experience of the candidate first throughout the hiring journey. Ensure you provide clear assessment instructions, make it easy for candidates to attend video screening sessions, and follow up with candidates after each stage in the hiring process.

Optimise and Improve

Gather feedback from your candidates (including the people you don’t hire) for insights into how you can improve the screening process. The right feedback will help you make your hiring strategy more efficient and improve your employer brand.

Final Points To Consider

Candidate evaluation is critical. When screening potential employees, you’ll need to consider various factors, from a person’s skills to how well they’ll fit into or improve your current company culture. Leveraging the right technology and process can help you streamline your screening process, but remember that you still need to keep human beings at the heart of your process.

Working with a Health and Social Care recruitment company can save significant time, effort, and money if you struggle with a time-consuming and complex screening process.

The right partner will be able to handle various aspects of the screening process for you, optimising candidate experiences and boosting your chances of making the right decisions for your team.

Efficient Hiring: Strategies to Streamline Your Property Recruitment Process

August 1, 2024

Hiring the right people is crucial to the success of any Property company. Unfortunately, recruitment can be time-consuming, complex, and expensive in today’s skills-short environment.

If you don’t have an efficient hiring strategy, you could spend months struggling to fill the gaps in your team. Every extra day you spend finding and screening candidates contributes to additional lost opportunities and dipping morale among team members.

So, how do you make talent acquisition more efficient? Business leaders can explore a few strategies; however, the best method in the current challenging marketplace is to work with an experienced recruitment company.

The Role of Recruiters in Efficient Hiring

Working with Property recruitment is the best way to make your hiring process more efficient and effective. Recruiters come in many forms, from internal recruitment teams to external companies and specialised hiring experts.

More than 90% of companies rely on recruitment companies to help them access wider talent pools, overcome skill shortages, and optimise their recruitment strategies.

They deliver excellent results regarding improving talent acquisition. External recruitment teams focused on the Property industry are experts at streamlining hiring processes.

They handle various complex and time-consuming tasks, from sourcing candidates from different environments, ensuring you can build a diverse talent pool, and even giving you ways to improve the candidate experience.

The Benefits of Using Recruiters in the Hiring Process

On a broad level, working with a recruitment doesn’t just allow you to access top talent faster. It expands your talent pool, helps you make better hiring decisions, and can elevate your employer brand, attracting more people to your team.

A recruitment company delivers:

Access to Larger Talent Pools

Recruitment companies in the Property industry spend significant time building incredible networks and databases of potential candidates. They attend industry events, connect with new candidates and help you find passive candidates, comprising around 70% of the job seekers available to companies.

Time Savings

One of the biggest benefits of working with an experienced company is that they save your company a lot of time. Recruiters deal with various stages in the hiring process, identifying the right talent for the role, searching for and screening candidates, and shortlisting potential employees based on their skills and experience. This significantly reduces the workload for your HR team and helps accelerate the decision-making process..

Expertise

Recruiters specialising in the Property industry have in-depth knowledge they can share with business leaders. They offer detailed insights into where you can find talent to fill gaps in your team and provide ways to enhance your employer brand and employee value proposition. They can help you understand what candidates want in the current market and determine which skills and characteristics you should be prioritising when making hiring decisions.

Enhanced Candidate Experience

A great candidate experience is crucial today, as an employer’s branding increasingly influences Property candidates. Recruiters can help enhance the candidate experience, offering ways to conduct efficient interviews and managing candidate relationships to ensure applicants remain informed throughout the hiring process.

Cost Savings

Business leaders in the Property industry often assume working with a recruitment company will be expensive. However, while recruiters charge for their services, they can save companies money in the long term by accelerating the recruitment journey and delivering better candidates.

Working with Recruiters on an Efficient Hiring Strategy

Working with a recruitment company is the best way to enhance your recruitment process, improve efficiency, and make better hiring decisions. However, there are several ways to improve your work with your Property recruitment company.

1.    Choose the Right Recruiter

The first step in ensuring you get as much value as possible is choosing the right partner to work with. The best recruitment company for your needs will have extensive experience, expertise, and a strong track record of success.

Do your research and talk to them about their approach to hiring, how they build candidate databases, their success rate and what they do to ensure you make the right hiring decisions.

2.    Know Your Requirements in Advance and ask for Their Advice

An effective Property recruitment company can offer advice on the skills and characteristics you might need to prioritise when making hiring decisions. However, have a clear idea of what your company needs in advance.

Speak to leaders throughout your company about the key skill gaps you must fill to improve your performance. Think carefully about the responsibilities your new hires will have and what competencies they’ll need to deliver results in their role.

  1. Collaborate on Stronger Job Descriptions

A Property recruitment company can help to connect your company with countless candidates and talented professionals. However, you must still attract the right people to your role with effective and clear job descriptions.

A great job description should clearly outline the responsibilities assigned to your new hire the skills and attributes they need. Prioritise writing diverse, inclusive job descriptions without discriminatory or biased language, and ensure you’re drawing attention to your employee value proposition.

4.    Perfect the Screening Process

Your recruitment partner can screen candidates for you, conduct background checks, read cover letters, and assign skill tests to potential team members. Since effective screening is crucial to focus your time on the right candidates, ensure you know your recruitment team’s methods and strategies.

Provide the recruitment company with clear instructions on what to look for when reviewing applicants.

5.    Work With Recruiters on a Better Candidate Experience

Delivering an excellent candidate experience is crucial. The experience you give candidates will influence whether they accept any job offers you provide. It will impact your overall employer brand and ability to attract talent in the future.

Ask recruiters to communicate regularly with candidates throughout the hiring process. Let them know what kind of interviews you’ll be conducting so they can help candidates prepare effectively. Tell them how long it will take to decide so they can keep candidates informed after an interview has been conducted.

You can also ask your Property recruitment company to help standardise the interview process, reduce the risk of bias in your hiring decisions, and accelerate talent acquisition.

6.    Integrate Recruiters into Your Full Hiring Strategy

Finally, look for ways to embed your Property recruitment company into your overall hiring strategy. Ask for their feedback on improving the candidate experience, sourcing more candidates from diverse environments, and streamlining your interview process.

Ask them to gather feedback from candidates you can use to enhance your employer brand in the future. This will give you a pool of relevant candidates you can tap into whenever a new gap emerges in your team. However, it will require you to commit to constantly communicating with the people in your network and keep them updated on the latest developments.

Recruitment companies are experts at streamlining hiring processes, enhancing talent acquisition, and providing crucial direction and guidance to business leaders.

Investing in an efficient hiring strategy is crucial for today’s Property business leaders. The more you optimise your recruitment process, the more time and money you’ll save when building an effective team. Recruiter collaboration is the number one way to drive better recruitment results.

At Everpool Recruitment, we specialise in assisting Property in acquiring top talent. We understand the unique needs of the Property industry. If you’re looking to enhance your team with skilled professionals or explore new opportunities, contact us today at 0151 556 2090 or email us at info@everpoolrecruitment.com.

The Most Common Hiring Mistakes Happening in Engineering This Year

July 5, 2024

Recruiting new employees for your Engineering team might seem simple enough, but the process is full of complicated challenges, particularly in the current market.

Talent shortages are everywhere, candidate expectations are evolving, and the impact of a poor hiring decision is growing, costing companies not only money but also their time and reputation.

A successful recruiting company requires a careful, calculated and considered approach based on understanding the challenges you’re likely to face in the quest for the ideal candidates.

In this article, we’ll cover some of the most common hiring mistakes Engineering companies are making this year and what you can do to overcome them.

1. Hiring Too Slow

A gap in your Engineering team can be extremely detrimental, leading to lost opportunities, diminished team morale, and poor productivity. Unfortunately, even though many hiring managers know this, they delay the recruiting process.

In today’s competitive landscape, where the best talent is in high demand, a sluggish hiring process can be detrimental to employers in numerous ways.

Firstly, prolonged hiring timelines can result in missed opportunities to secure skilled candidates, as talented individuals may accept offers from faster-moving competitors.

A slow hiring process can tarnish an employer’s reputation, making it appear indecisive or disorganised to potential candidates, which may deter future applicants.

Delaying hiring decisions can hinder a company’s ability to innovate and adapt to market changes, putting it at a significant disadvantage compared to its competitors.

Working with an experienced Engineering recruitment and implementing a structured process can help you identify the right people for the role while reducing your chances of making the wrong decision.

Before diving into the recruitment process, ensure you have a clear plan. Determine how you will evaluate candidates (focusing on skills to reduce bias). Think about how you’ll manage the screening process and conduct interviews.

2. Neglecting The Impact of Your Employer Branding

In today’s skills-short environment, it’s more important than ever for companies to “sell themselves” to the ideal candidate. The top Engineering talent will likely have plenty of opportunities, and you can’t always rely only on a competitive salary to convince them to choose you.

In addition, focus on presenting yourself as the “ideal employer” with a brand that conveys your focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, supporting employee development, and nurturing an exceptional company culture.

Invest in building your employer brand in various ways. You might start with an active social media profile on LinkedIn, where you share thought leadership content, highlight your employees and demonstrate your accomplishments.

Ask your team members to contribute to your branding by sharing testimonials about their experiences with your company.

3. Relying Solely on Traditional Recruitment Channels

In a skills-short Engineering market, business leaders need to be more creative about how they search for candidates. Simply posting job listings on your website or a job board isn’t enough to attract the level of talent with the skills your company needs.

A logical strategy is working with experienced Engineering recruiters to tap into their network of candidates.

Many employers don’t realise that recruiters are mapping the Engineering market for the best people daily, so you or your internal talent team don’t have to.

4. Overlooking Soft Skills and Cultural Fit

While technical skills and valuable Engineering qualifications are undoubtedly essential to choosing the right candidates, they’re not the only things worth considering. First, it’s more important than ever for organisations to consider the value of transferrable soft skills.

Around 93% of employers say assessing soft skills is critical to choosing the right candidate. Skills like exceptional communication and teamwork will be valuable in any role. Resiliency, agility, and adaptability are becoming increasingly crucial in a dynamic and ever-changing industry.
If you haven’t read our blog on recruiting agile employees, you can read it here. [Add a link to this month’s agile blog.]

Alongside soft skills, evaluating how each hire will fit into or contribute to your company culture is important. Employees with the same values, priorities, and principles as your existing team members will more easily migrate into their new roles. This can improve employee morale, reduce turnover and increase productivity.

Add behavioural and cultural fit assessments into your hiring process, and prioritis choosing candidates that have the right blend of hard and soft skills, and core attributes.

5. Neglecting Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity and inclusion are key in today’s Engineering landscape. Not only do employees prefer companies that demonstrate a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, but prioritising these factors will also help you build a more effective team.

Diverse teams and inclusive company cultures drive greater innovation and creativity, enhance employee satisfaction, and help your businesses unlock new opportunities. Unfortunately, many Engineering employers struggle to nurture diversity and inclusion, thanks to unconscious bias and poorly structured hiring strategies.

Work with a recruitment company to mitigate these issues, using strategies like blind resume screening and diverse interview panels. Consider how you can appeal to a broader selection of candidates with unique benefits and support programs/programmes that support well-being. Prioritising diversity and inclusion will increase your talent pool and help you build a more creative and resilient workforce.

6. Failing to Prioritise Candidate Experience

The candidate’s experience is one of the most important factors in the hiring process, determining how likely candidates are to accept a job offer. A strong candidate experience helps to shape and augment your Engineering employer brand, particularly in a world where candidates regularly review companies online.

Consider how quickly your team follows up with candidates and keeps them informed throughout the hiring process. Ensuring you write clear and informative job descriptions can improve the candidate experience. Plus, creating comprehensive onboarding and training programs for new hires will help ease them into your company culture and transform them into advocates for your brand.

Overcome Common Hiring Mistakes with the Right Support

Ultimately, there are many hurdles to successfully hiring the ideal Engineering employee. If you want to avoid the mistakes listed above, you need a proactive approach to optimising your recruitment strategy.

All the listed strategies will help expand your talent pool, boost your chances of making the right hiring decisions, and pave the way for success.

The right recruitment can help you enhance your employer brand, diversify your recruitment channels, screen candidates effectively, and foster diversity and inclusion. Plus, they can improve the candidate experience for every professional you interact with.

8 Easy Ways to Keep Legal Teams Motivated

June 20, 2024

Motivation is the lifeblood of a successful Legal team. Motivated employees are more productive, engaged, and creative than their counterparts. They’re also more likely to stay with your business and adapt rapidly to changing workplace dynamics.

That’s crucial when the Legal industry is navigating constant evolution and growing skill shortages. Unfortunately, motivation can be difficult to cultivate and preserve. Even the most committed team members can lose their drive and enthusiasm over time.

The good news is there are ways to nurture motivation in your workforce. Here, we’ll examine some of the easiest but frequently overlooked ways you can reinvigorate your team.

1.   Unify Your Team Around a Shared Vision and Goals

A person’s motivation is largely affected by their sense of purpose in the workplace. It’s hard to feel enthusiastic about a role and the tasks you complete each day if you don’t know what you’re working towards or how your efforts are paying off.

Unfortunately, many business leaders and managers in the Legal industry fail to share their vision with their team. Simply helping your employees understand their purpose in the workplace, what their targets should be, and why their work is important makes a huge difference.

Based on your knowledge of your company’s goals, set clear, realistic, and measurable goals for your team members, and help them understand how their targets align with your organisation’s “bigger picture”.

2.   Cultivate a Culture of Appreciation with Regular Recognition

A Nectar study found that 83.6% of participants believe regular recognition directly impacts how motivated they feel at work. Praising your Legal employees’ efforts and celebrating achievements helps reinforce good behaviours in the workplace and keeps teams pushing towards new targets.

There are plenty of ways to reward your team members, from giving them additional paid time off, financial bonuses, or flexible work opportunities. However, expressing genuine gratitude with a personalised message or comment can make a huge difference.

Additionally, when giving positive feedback, it’s worth explaining exactly what you’re commending your employee for. Don’t just tell your team members they’ve done a “good job”; tell them you appreciate their creativity, intuition, or adaptability.

3.   Provide Opportunities for Growth and Development

Legal employees are more likely to feel motivated if they see they’re making genuine progress in their careers. Prioritising your team’s development doesn’t just help them become more efficient and productive in their roles; it also improves their job satisfaction.

It also shows your team members that you believe in their potential and see a future for them within your business. Provide your staff members with various ways to improve soft and hard skills through training, mentorship, and online courses.

Try to tailor these development opportunities to each employee’s professional goals and aspirations, as well as the needs of your business. This will boost motivation and ensure your Legal company can benefit from a more skilled, adaptive workforce.

4.   Build an Inclusive, Collaborative Environment

A supportive, collaborative, and inclusive company culture is crucial for success in the Legal landscape. A recent study by Forbes revealed that companies with robust cultures have up to 72% more engaged employees, and engagement is closely linked with motivation.

First, focus on building an inclusive environment where every team member feels respected and valued by their managers and colleagues. Next, ensure you’re constantly strengthening the bonds between your team members with cross-departmental collaborative work, team-building activities, and regular meetings.

Encourage staff members to get to know each other and praise employees who empower and elevate their colleagues. When hiring new team members, consider how they’ll contribute to the company culture you’re trying to build.

5.   Create a Feedback Loop

We’ve already mentioned the importance of sharing positive feedback with your Legal team, but all feedback forms are valuable for growth. Constructive feedback, even when addressing an error or mistake, directs your team members.

It shows them that you believe in their ability to improve and inspires employees to keep progressing with a growth mindset. Crucially, however, feedback shouldn’t be one-way.

Opening yourself up to feedback from your team is also important. When team members can freely share their thoughts and opinions, they feel more invested in the company. Additionally, showing your staff you value their input shows trust and respect, improving team morale.

6.   Promote Work-Life Balance and Wellbeing

Burnout and stress harm employee motivation and engagement. Unfortunately, in today’s fast-paced Legal workplace, it’s easy to overlook the importance of employee wellbeing. Creating an environment that promotes good mental and physical health reduces the risk of burnout and shows your team members you care about them.

Consider offering access to flexible work schedules to ensure your team members can balance their work with their personal responsibilities. Encourage teams to make the most of their time outside the office and allow them to “disconnect” from the workplace by turning off notifications.

You could even look into implementing wellness programs, giving employees access to discounted therapy sessions, gym memberships and healthy food. The happier and healthier your teams are, the more motivated they’re likely to be.

7.   Empower Through Autonomy

In the competitive Legal landscape, it can be difficult for managers to let go and give their employees independence. However, micromanagement stifles creativity, demotivates employees and even increases turnover. Up to 69% of peoplesay they’ve considered leaving their role after being constantly micromanaged.

Show your employees you trust them by giving them the freedom to complete tasks in their own way and make their own decisions. If you need to monitor the progress of a project, arrange an end-of-week meeting where you can discuss things with your team and plan the next steps.

You can even improve autonomy by clarifying how often you expect your team members to check in and provide updates at the start of a project.

8.   Embrace Frequent and Open Communication

Communication also has a direct impact on how motivated your employees feel. The more your team members can connect and share information with their colleagues and supervisors, the more clarity they’ll have on their goals and targets.

Additionally, creating an environment of open communication, where everyone is encouraged to share insights, feedback, and ideas, nurtures creativity. Committing to constant and transparent communication with your Legal team is also beneficial.

Regularly keeping employees up-to-date about project changes or important things happening in the organisation makes them more likely to trust their managers. It’s hard to feel motivated when you don’t know whether you’re being kept out of the loop.

Finally

Consistent motivation is crucial to success in any industry. However, nurturing high motivation levels in your Legal team requires more than a commitment to setting goals and occasionally distributing rewards. By implementing the strategies outlined above, you can boost your chances of keeping your staff members motivated and engaged.

What’s more, you’ll benefit from a stronger, more attractive company culture that helps reduce talent turnover and attract new employees.

Need help with team motivation strategies? Contact us today to see how we can assist your legal team.

Email: info@everpoolrecruitment.com or Telephone number: 0151 556 2090

What To Expect and Ask At Your Final Stage Office and Commercial Interview

June 6, 2024

Making it to a final stage Office and Commercial interview is both exciting and daunting. If you’ve got this far, it means that your potential employer is seriously considering offering you a job/role/position. However, you’ll still be competing against a selection of other, equally qualified candidates.

Ensuring you’re properly prepared to make the right impact on a hiring manager or business leader is crucial to ensuring you don’t stumble at the last hurdle.

How well you demonstrate your hard and soft skills, and knowledge, as well as a strong level of cultural fit, will determine whether you walk away with the role you want.

Here, we’ll guide you through the process of preparing for a Office and Commercial final stage interview, discussing everything from the research you’ll need to conduct, to the questions you should ask.

The First Step: Demonstrating Cultural Fit

The first step in being successful in your Office and Commercial final stage interview, involves carefully researching the culture of the company you want to work for. The chances are you’ll already have a basic knowledge of things like team dynamics and business values, based on previous interviews and assessments and information from your recruitment company.

At this stage, it’s important to refine your understanding of the company’s culture, so you can demonstrate how well you’ll fit into the organisation. According to a study from Glassdoor, up to 25% of new hires leave a role within 6 months, and one of the most commonly cited reasons, is poor cultural fit.

Since employers don’t want to waste time and money replacing new hires, they often use the final stage of the interview process to evaluate cultural fit carefully. Being able to demonstrate that you understand and share the company’s values will make you a more compelling option.

Dive into previous interview notes, examine the company’s website, and look for insights into the company’s goals, mission, and vision and how they align with your personal work vision. Consider if you have any anecdotes or stories you can share about previous projects you’ve worked on, that demonstrate potential cultural alignment.

For instance, if your company values intuition and creativity, you could talk about a previous project you launched, and how it benefited a previous employer.

Showcasing Your Skills and Experience

While your CV, and previous interviews or assessments should have given your potential employer  insight into your skills or experience, many will still use the final interview to gather additional information. They’ll be looking for specific examples of your Office and Commercial expertise, and how your competencies align with their specific needs.

Prepare some “STAR” (Situation, Task, Action, Result) stories to dive deeper into your experience. Outline achievements with clear numbers or statistics, and remember to base your responses on what you know about the company and the responsibilities of the role.

While it’s important to showcase your technical skills, don’t forget to draw attention to relevant soft skills too. Showing a high level of resilience and adaptability will significantly boost your chances of getting the right role in a dynamic Office and Commercial landscape.

Highlighting important transferrable skills, such as the ability to problem solve, collaborate cohesively with team members, and lead others can also be extremely helpful. Remember to convey confidence in your abilities, but know when to acknowledge your weaknesses, and discuss what you’re going to do to overcome them, such as investing in additional training.

Showing a growth mindset and commitment to continuous learning and improvement can give you an edge over other candidates, even if they have more experience than you.

Asking Insightful Questions

The final stage interview isn’t just an opportunity for potential employers to evaluate your suitability for a role. It’s also your opportunity to learn more about the position the company, and the responsibilities you’ll have in this Office and Commercial position.

Asking insightful questions demonstrates that you have a genuine interest in the role, and are committed to being the best possible new hire. It can also show you’ve done your research into the company, showing you have initiative and drive.

Consider asking questions such as:

  • What are the key performance indicators you’ll be tracking in my work?
  • How would you describe your company’s approach to professional development?
  • Which staff members will I be working with on a daily basis?
  • What would you say your number one goal is for the company in the next year?
  • What would you consider to be the biggest challenge for someone starting in this role?
  • Which skills would be most important for me to develop when I start this role?
  • How does your company show a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion?
  • What does your typical onboarding process involve?

When formulating a list of questions, look for ways to show your focus on delivering value to your employer. Be careful not to ask questions that are clearly answered by the job description, or the company’s website.

Preparing for Different Interview Formats

Only around 20% of the people who apply for a Office and Commercial role will reach the final interview round, and each company can take a different approach to how they manage the interview process.

Some companies, looking to save time and money on the recruitment process, will conduct virtual interviews using video conferencing software. If your employer takes this approach, make sure you treat the virtual interview just like any other interview. Don’t assume the conversation is casual or informal, just because you’re not attending an office in-person.

Different Office and Commercial companies will also add different elements to the interview process. Some will ask you to talk with a panel of business leaders, others will ask you to present case studies from your past work, or take technical assessments.

If you’re not sure which approach your potential employer will take, you can ask the hiring manager or recruitment company you work with what the interview will involve so you can prepare.

Make sure you familiarise yourself with the company’s products, services, and goals, and research the trends in the Office and Commercial industry when preparing responses to possible questions. It can also help to host “practice” interviews with friends or family members. This should boost your confidence, and help you identify any issues with body language or anxiety before the interview.

Preparing for Your Final Stage Interview

Reaching the final stage of the interview process with a Office and Commercial company means you’ve shown a hiring manager or team that you potentially have the skills and experience required to excel in their role. However, if you fail to impress during the interview, you could miss out on a job offer.

By researching the company’s culture, demonstrating your skills and experience, and asking insightful questions, you can maximise your chances of success.

Preparing for different interview formats will also ensure you have the confidence you need to excel during this stage.

Remember, regardless of the outcome of this interview, you should view it as a valuable learning experience that you can use to support your career path and professional development. If you’re unsuccessful, ask your recruitment company or the hiring manager for feedback on how you can improve and prepare for future interview success.

Marketing Yourself As The Ideal Candidate Property Employers Need To Hire

May 23, 2024

Though skill shortages remain high in the Property landscape, the market for candidates is still extremely competitive. In 2024, it can take an average of 3-6 months to get a job offer, and there’s no guarantee you’ll want to dive into the first opportunity that appears.

To improve your chances of getting job offers for valuable roles faster, you need to know how to market yourself to prospective employers and recruiters who are involved in the process.

Here is the thing to remember.

As effective marketing can convince consumers to invest in a product or service, the right strategy can help employers see you as the ideal candidate.

From working with a recruitment company to developing a strong personal brand, this guide will show you how to create the ultimate ‘marketing strategy’ and achieve your Property career goals.

Partnering with Recruiters: The Value of Specialist Support

The right Property recruitment is an extremely valuable tool in your goal of getting the ideal next role. Reputable companies with experience placing candidates in your field will help you access a wider range of relevant job opportunities.

What’s more, they can help position you effectively in front of potential employers, allowing you to write the ideal CV and master the interview process.

When working with recruiters, make sure you:

  • Set clear objectives: Define your priorities for a new role. Are you more interested in positions with excellent work/life balance and flexibility, or are you looking for opportunities to develop new skills or join a company with a diverse culture?
  • Build relationships: Connect with your recruiter and help them understand everything there is to know about you. Highlight your strengths and weaknesses, skills, experiences, and career goals so they can offer a tailored level of service.
  • Collaborate strategically: Pay attention to the suggestions and guidance your recruiters give. Ask them for advice on preparing for interviews or creating a stronger online presence.

Developing Your Personal Brand

Your brand helps differentiate you from the other Property candidates in your field. It’s how you highlight your strengths and value as an employee and capture the attention of employers. 70% of hiring managers say a strong personal brand is as important as an excellent CV.

Creating a personal brand starts with a self-assessment.

Conduct a “SWOT” analysis, identifying your strengths and where you need to improve. Look at the threats posed by other candidates in your industry (such as having more experience) and the opportunities you can explore to improve your appeal (such as investing in additional learning).

Once you have a clear view then:

Identify your unique value proposition:

Determine what makes you the ideal candidate for the roles you’re applying for. Have you had unique experiences in the industry? Do you have skills other candidates don’t have, or do you have an excellent work ethic?

Craft your story:

Develop a compelling narrative or “personal branding statement” that communicates your professional journey. Highlight accomplishments, aspirations, and key experiences that you’ve had to demonstrate your value.

Preserve consistency:

Ensure your brand identity is consistent across all platforms, from your CV, to your LinkedIn profile, other social media accounts, and professional website or portfolio. Use consistent messaging, imagery, and language.

Conducting Research: Know the Skills Employers Want Right Now

A big part of effective marketing is knowing your target audience. You need to understand what Property employers are looking for so you know what to highlight in your CV and online profiles. Start by examining job postings listed by the types of companies you want to work for, paying close attention to the skills and attributes they value.

Next, consider the current trends in the Property hiring market and the transferrable skills countless employers are searching for. In 2024, for instance, there’s a growing demand for:

Digital literacy and technological proficiency:

The world is becoming more technologically advanced with new software, AI solutions and hardware. However, only 1 in 10 workers possess the digital skills they need to thrive in new roles. Demonstrating a high level of digital literacy can give you an excellent advantage.

Adaptability and flexibility:

In a complex economic landscape, employers want professionals who are resilient, adaptable, and able to pivot to rapid changes in market dynamics. Show employers how you’ve overcome and adapted to previous challenges, and demonstrate a commitment to continuous learning and improvement.

Emotional intelligence:

Though technical skills are crucial in many Property roles, soft skills, like emotional intelligence and resilience, are becoming more important. Demonstrating a high self-awareness, empathy, and the ability to communicate and collaborate with others will boost your chances of success in the current market.

Optimising Your CV

Once you’ve conducted the right research, it’s time to optimise your CV and the cover letter you send to potential employers. Crucially, every CV/Resume and cover letter you send should be tailored to the specific employer and role you’re applying for.

According to data from Glassdoor, 63% of recruiters say they prioritise CVs personalised for the role. Before applying for anything, research the company you want to work for. Look carefully at the job description and the employer’s highlighted skills and attributes.

Try to match their language and focus on demonstrating the key skills that showcase your capacity to excel in the role. Additionally, make sure you:

Quantify your achievements:

Provide concrete examples of your success in similar roles. Use numbers, metrics, percentages, and statistics to validate your impact.

Format carefully:

Keep your CV, visually appealing, and concise. Make sure it will be accepted by any company using ATS software.

Add a personal touch:

Implement a personal touch to your cover letter. Consider referencing shared values based on your knowledge about the company and their ambitions or goals.

Enhancing Your Online Presence

While your CV, and cover letter are still crucial in 2024, many recruiters and hiring managers are turning to the web for deeper insights into candidates. Approximately 72% of recruiters look at LinkedIn, the professional social media platform when hiring new talent.

With this in mind, complete and optimise your LinkedIn profile. Ensure a clear summary of your achievements, insights into your experience, education, and skills, and numerous endorsements from previous employers and colleagues. Use keywords relevant to your industry to improve visibility online. You should also:

Share engaging content:

Sharing insightful articles, industry news, professional updates, and thought leadership content could demonstrate your expertise and help you engage in your network. Remember to participate in professional networks and groups to expand your reach and connect with potential employers.

Network consistently:

Actively connect with professionals and peers in your industry, such as recruiters, and alumni. Personalise your connection requests with a message tailored to each person. Consider attending virtual events through LinkedIn to expand your network further.

Align other online assets:

Ensure you’re making the most of your other online assets, such as your portfolio, professional website, and additional social media channels, to present a consistently strong view of your value as an employee.

Demonstrating continuous learning by adding new skills to your LinkedIn profile regularly and completing LinkedIn courses for certifications can also make you more appealing to employers.

Market Yourself as the Ultimate Property Candidate

For the best chance of getting the right role in today’s competitive Property landscape, you must do more than respond to job postings. Learning how to market yourself as the ultimate candidate with the right CV, personal brand, and online presence is crucial to success.

Working with a Property recruiter and ensuring you focus on developing your skills in the key areas crucial to today’s employers will give you a significant edge in the job market.

Give yourself the best chance of career success, and hone your marketing skills.

Ready to take the next step in your Property career? Contact us for tailored guidance and support. Our dedicated team is here to help you navigate the intricate steps of career planning, ensuring your next move is a strategic leap towards success. Call us at 0151 556 2090 or email us here info@everpoolrecruitment.com.

How to Use a Go-To-Market Strategy for Engineering Recruitment

April 24, 2024

In today’s candidate-driven Engineering job market, attracting and retaining the right talent is more challenging than ever. Candidates have more options when selecting the ideal role for their specific needs, and their priorities are changing.

This means business leaders and recruiters need to take a new approach to connect with potential employees if they want to overcome the challenges of a major talent shortage.

Recruitment now has a lot in common with effective marketing. Just as companies need to establish an effective “go to market” strategy to engage buyers and demonstrate value to customers, they also need a similar approach to intrigue top talent.

A strong go-to-market (G.T.M.) strategy framework paves the foundation for a powerful product launch, gaining customer trust and differentiating a brand from its competitors. A similar “G.T.M.” approach to recruitment can help companies target the right talent, strengthen their employer brand, and build deeper connections with employees.

Here’s how to embed a go-to-market strategy into your Engineering recruitment process.

What is a Go-to-Market Strategy? The Basics

A go-to-market strategy is a tactical plan companies use to determine how to bring a new product or service to their target audience.

It’s an exercise that outlines the steps a business should take to engage a potential customer, differentiate themselves from the competition and increase sales.

With a strong go-to-market strategy, business leaders determine why they’re launching a product, their target market, and how they will convince consumers to buy what they’re selling.

Similarly, in the Engineering recruitment world, a go-to-market strategy outlines the key information businesses need to capture, engage, and retain the right talent.

Business leaders answer questions such as: “Why are we hiring this professional?” and “What value can we bring to employees?” This gives them the guidance they need to position their roles more effectively in the competitive talent market.

Moreover, a go-to-market strategy can help companies consider any issues candidates might experience with a role, such as a lack of clarity around responsibilities or a complex interview process.

Here’s how companies can approach Engineering recruitment with a “go-to-market” mindset.

Step 1: Align Recruitment Goals to Business Goals

As mentioned above, when organisations establish a go-to-market strategy for a product, one of the first questions they ask is why they’re launching this new solution or offer. Similarly, when you use a go-to-market strategy for Engineering recruitment, you’ll need to define why you’re looking for a specific employee to fill a gap in your team.

The first step is developing a clear understanding of the current business goals. For instance, you might want to expand your Engineering company into new markets in the years ahead and need new talent to help you identify and serve the right customers.

Alternatively, your goal may be to innovate and evolve, using new tools and strategies to improve team productivity and efficiency. Defining your goals will help you understand what key attributes and skills your new Engineering employee will need. It should also ensure you can provide your candidates with clear insight into their roles.

Crucially, aligning business and recruitment goals also means you’ll be able to identify how you will evaluate your candidate’s success after they join your team.

Step 2: Identify your Employee Personas

Once you’ve established your goals for your go-to-market recruitment plan, the next step is deciding what kind of Engineering employees you want to attract.

A key component of creating a go-to-market strategy for a product is defining who the ideal buyer will be.

In the recruitment world, you’ll need to understand the key attributes and characteristics of the candidates you want to attract. Think about the essential soft and Engineering skills your new team member will need to have and what their educational background should look like.

Think about what kind of people are most likely to thrive in your existing Engineering company culture, what their personality will be like, and what values they might have. You could even create a candidate persona, which you can use to inspire and guide your team when creating job descriptions, interview questions, and onboarding strategies.

Step 3: Building Your Employer Brand

When bringing a new product or service into the market, companies must determine what benefits and values they can offer above and beyond their competitors. In today’s competitive Engineering recruitment space, you must also take the same approach to engaging candidates.

Ask yourself and your team what sets your company apart from other organisations with similar roles available to candidates. If your company is relatively small, you might not be able to compete in salary, but you could offer other benefits by providing flexible working opportunities or access to more training and development options.

Look at your “employee personas” values and ask yourself how you can build a brand that appeals to your target candidates. This might include focusing on things like:

  • Unique opportunities: Do you allow Engineering employees to work remotely, choose their hours, or get involved with training initiatives and mentorship programs?
  • Corporate Social Responsibility: How can you appeal to your candidate’s ethical values? Do you have a strong focus on diversity, inclusion, and equity? Do you take a sustainable business operations approach or give back to charitable organisations?
  • Company culture: What are the core components of your company culture? How do you ensure your team members feel supported in your team?

Step 4: Creating Your Outreach Strategy

In a typical go-to-market strategy, companies need to build a “market strategy”, which involves thinking about how they’ll position their product and connect with consumers. You can take a similar approach in an Engineering recruitment-focused G.T.M.

Start by thinking about the messaging you will use and how you will highlight the unique components of your employer brand in your job descriptions and social posts.

For instance, alongside listing job descriptions on your website, work with an Engineering recruitment company to create a job description and leverage their ability to promote your vacancy into the market and within their database and connections.

Step 5: Prepare for the Interview Process

Finally, you’ll need to think about how to connect with candidates once you are in an interview situation. As companies use offers, discounts, demos, and promotions to increase conversions, business leaders use interviews to assess candidates and provide talent with an opportunity to evaluate their company.

Constructing an effective interview process is essential to boosting the power of your Engineering employer brand. Ensure you have a plan to eliminate common issues like bias. This could mean training your interviewers and providing them with scorecards to help them focus on specific attributes. Your recruitment partner can facilitate all of these processes.

Provide interviewers with step-by-step guidance on evaluating each candidate, and consider the questions your would-be employees might ask you in return. At the same time, remember to think beyond the interview to the full onboarding process.

How can you give your candidates a good first impression of your company?

Commit to constant, transparent communication, and look for ways to empower your staff members with the right training and support from day one.

The Go-To-Market Strategy for Engineering Recruitment

A go-to-market strategy is a powerful tool for businesses bringing new products and services to their customers. However, many of the components of these strategies can also be applied to the recruitment world. Taking a go-to-market approach to hiring can help you target the right candidates, differentiate your company from competitors, and engage the best talent.

With the help of an Engineering recruitment company, you can build a full go-to-market strategy designed to fill the gaps in your team, improve your employer brand, and strengthen your connections with existing and future employees.

At Everpool Recruitment, we specialise in assisting engineering firms in acquiring top talent. With a track record of successfully placing thousands of candidates, we understand the unique needs of the engineering industry. If you’re looking to enhance your team with skilled professionals or explore new opportunities, contact us today at 0151 556 2090 or email us at info@everpoolrecruitment.com.

How to Become an Employer Of Choice in the Fashion Industry

April 11, 2024

The hiring market in the Fashion industry has been candidate-driven for some time.

Countless companies are now competing for candidates with critical skills to help their organisations thrive in a challenging economy. This means talented professionals have more freedom to select positions that align with their priorities and values.

Positioning yourself as an “Employer of Choice” (E.O.C.) in Fashion is critical to reducing the costs and complexity of the recruitment process, as well as accessing the right talent.

How do you develop a reputation as the “ultimate” business to work for?

Here, we’ll look at some of the most valuable strategies business leaders can use to position themselves as an employer of choice.

Attracting Top Talent: Why It Matters Now

Rampant skill shortages and increasing competition for talent have led to a complex recruitment environment for Fashion companies. Up to 80% of businesses in the U.K. are having trouble persistently filling roles, and the issue extends worldwide.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports that there are currently 9.5 million job openings in the U.S. and only 6.5 million unemployed workers.

Simply put, the number of talented professionals in the job market is dwindling, and these candidates are becoming more discerning about which companies they choose to work for.

Employees now expect organisations to offer a combination of diversity, equity, inclusion, a supportive company culture, a commitment to the environment and sustainability, and exceptional growth opportunities.

All the while, they’re still searching for flexibility and compassion from employers.

This trend will only continue as Gen Z enters the workforce, prioritising ethical behaviour, wellbeing, and workplace perks ahead of higher salaries.

Hiring the wrong candidate isn’t an option, with a poor hire costing companies from 30% of a hire’s first-year salary up to £240,000 for senior hires. This means companies must invest more heavily in positioning themselves as the ideal employer for their intended workforce.

Becoming an employer of choice:

  • Increases productivity and profitability: Well-supported, satisfied, and happy staff members are more productive and profitable.

    Companies with a positive people-first company culture achieve four times higher profits than their competitors.

  • Simplifies recruitment and retention: Passive candidates and top talent are more likely to apply for a role with a company considered an “employer of choice”.
  • Enhances brand equity: A satisfied workforce is likelier to speak highly of their employer, refer new team members to the company, and deliver excellent results.

Key Strategies to Become a Company People Want to Join

Becoming an employer of choice in the Fashion space requires a multi-faceted approach to addressing the needs and expectations of your candidates. Several strategies in today’s hiring market can boost your chances of attracting and retaining talent.

1.    Cultivating a Strong Company Culture

Culture is increasingly crucial to top talent in the Fashion landscape. Employees want to work with a supportive, empathetic, and flexible company. According to an Inc.com survey, winning companies consistently demonstrated a more significant commitment to building a culture that delighted and engaged employees.

Building a strong culture in the current environment involves:

  • Concentrating on employee engagement: Look for ways to consistently engage employees, delivering feedback, recognition, and rewards for their work. Enable consistent collaboration and communication between teams, and invest in team-building exercises.
  • Offering flexibility: 93% of candidates say they want a flexible role. While remote and hybrid working might not be an option for every Fashion company, there are other ways to offer flexibility, such as giving employees more ownership of their schedules.
  • Supporting work balance: Wellbeing and work balance are crucial concerns, particularly for younger Gen Z employees. Encouraging team members to use their paid time off or allowing them to manage their work schedules around their lives is becoming increasingly essential.

Additionally, employees are searching for more ethical employers committed to protecting the environment, supporting different communities, and treating people compassionately.

2.    Offer Competitive Benefits and Compensation

While many Fashion candidates are looking beyond salary in the search for the ideal role, the right remuneration is still crucial to attracting candidates. A complex economic environment and cost of living issues are prompting many employees to leave their old roles for better income.

A Gallup study found the importance of a higher salary had risen in priority from no four to no one since 2015.

Ensuring your remuneration packages align with or exceed the industry standard will help you attract more loyal, engaged employees.

However, it’s crucial to look beyond direct remuneration, too. Gen Z and X members say they would quit their jobs tomorrow for one with benefits supporting their wellbeing. Consider which benefits are most likely to appeal to your target candidates.

Many standard drivers for many employees are flexible, remote, and hybrid work. However, access to other benefits, such as mental and physical health support or the ability to spend time volunteering for causes they care about, will be valuable to some Fashion candidates.

3.    Invest in Employee Development and Growth

A strong employee development program has always been a priority for the best Fashion candidates. Every employee wants to expand their skill set and become more valuable to their employer. More importantly, they want to see a future with your company.

This is particularly true in recent years, as employees continue to worry about the growing issue of job insecurity. With this in mind, invest in your employees’ development and look at opportunities to help them enhance critical hard skills (digital literacy) and soft skills, such as communication, collaboration, and resiliency.

Explore options such as:

  • Online learning and courses: Online learning initiatives can give Fashion employees more freedom to choose and manage their development path. They can explore a range of courses related to their role in their own time.
  • In-person training: Empower employees to attend in-person classes or workshops. Allow them to visit events and conferences where they can expand their network.
  • Mentorship: Consider creating a mentorship program where your high-level employees can provide consistent guidance to newer staff members.
  • On-the-job development: Create opportunities for team members to participate in additional projects or lead a project. Delegate tasks to them that will stretch or develop
    new skills, or build their competency.

4.    Embed Inclusivity and Diversity

Fashion candidates, particularly in the Gen Z and millennial landscape, believe inclusivity and diversity is critical to building an enduring company culture. They’re looking for employers who deliver supportive, equitable environments to team members from all backgrounds.

Reports from analysts like McKinsey also show that companies that are diverse, equitable, and inclusive are better able to respond to challenges, find top talent, and address the needs of an evolving customer base.

Communicate clearly with your employees about your diversity and inclusion efforts and how they relate to your organisation core values. Introduce training initiatives focused on diversity and inclusion. Explore cross-team collaboration exercises that encourage people from different backgrounds to collaborate and share perspectives.

You can also demonstrate your commitment by ensuring you’re taking an unbiased approach to hiring. If this is an area you can develop further, working with a specialist recruitment company like us at Everpool can help.

5.    Embrace Transparency and Open Communication

Today’s world is plagued by confusion and uncertainty, making it more critical than ever for Fashion employers to demonstrate transparency with their staff members. Employees want clarity, not just when it comes to identifying their roles and responsibilities, but also regarding understanding their purpose and impact on the company.

Open communication is crucial, which means sharing updates (both positive and negative) with your employees about the direction your business is moving in and what it means for them.

Remember, open communication is also about listening.

Gathering feedback from team members about what you can do to give them a better work-life balance or experience will improve your prospects of retaining staff and enhancing your employer brand.

Becoming an Employer of Choice

The shift to a candidate-driven, skills-short market means Fashion companies need to work harder than ever to attract and retain top talent. Developing a strategy to improve your employer brand and value proposition through flexibility, diversity, inclusion, and empathy is crucial.

Perhaps the easiest way to start this transformative journey is to work with a Fashion recruitment company that can guide your business.

The right recruitment company will help diversify your talent pool, guide you through creating an exceptional company culture, and offer insights into the priorities of your candidates.

At Everpool Recruitment, we have been helping firms acquire talent, and Fashion job seekers find their ideal roles. If you want to find out how we can help, call us at 0151 556 2090 or email us here info@everpoolrecruitment.com