Are you applying for endless jobs and getting little or no response?

Are you feeling frustrated?

Then you are not alone.

Looking for a job has changed dramatically since Covid and I wanted to share some of my tips to help you to adapt your job search strategy in response to the change in the current job market.

Have a positive mindset.

It’s tough out there and it is ok to feel unsure, frustrated and even a little concerned. Just make sure that you talk to someone. I am proud to be a Mental Health in Recruitment ambassador and there is so much great support out there especially at the moment, so don’t be afraid to reach out.

Create your personal brand

The likelihood is that you have proudly marketed well know brands throughout your career, but how does your own brand look? Your CV, LinkedIn profile and social media platforms are your opportunity to communicate your personal brand to prospective employers.

Creating stand out in a busy candidate market.

The number of candidates currently looking for a new role are relatively high at the moment. The number of redundancies has increased, and the number of opportunities has declined. So, it means you need to be far more proactive than before and work harder to make sure you stand out.

• Create your own personal video CV and embed into your written CV and LinkedIn profile.
• Develop on online reputation, by writing thoughtful and insightful content and sharing with your network, follow and engage with industry leaders and prospective employers.
• Be open, be curious – look at any new connection or encounter as an opportunity to not only broaden your network but broaden your knowledge.

Job searching definitely requires a different approach at the moment and if you would like some advice and guidance on any of the above then please do get in touch with me becky@direct-recruitment.co.uk

Above all keep going, things will pick up and will return to normal.

We have taken down all our jobs advertisements as currently the situation in the market is very fluid. The reality is there isn’t much around at the moment but we are in close discussions with all our clients so that as soon as there is any sign of the rebound we will be in a position to assist you with your job needs.

In the meantime the Direct Recruitment team are here to provide support and advice to anyone who is looking to refresh their CV or just wants to chat. We are accepting CVs at all levels and are helping people to put themselves in the best position for when the market returns to the ‘new norm’

So no matter what level, experience or position we look forward to hearing from you. We work across planning, strategy, client service, project management, digital, social, data, CRM and across agency and clientside roles.

Contact us on 0207 287 1171 or email us at CV@direct-recruitment.co.uk

Stay safe and stay well.

Hiring employees that enhance and complement your business is part and parcel of being a manager. The process of recruiting the right candidate can take time so it is crucial to make the right decision and hire wisely.

Once chosen, it is your duty as the hiring manager to ensure that your new employee brings value to your organisation and helps to ease some of the workload burden – in short fulfilling the tasks they have been hired to do.

However the onus is on you to set up your new employee to succeed. Here we offer you some simple steps to make sure things go well!

The interview

During the interview stage it is vital that you have a very well defined job specification, which maps out exactly what is expected of the person taking up the role – from day-to-day duties to the skills and expertise you expect them to possess in order to carry them out. Too often an unfocused job description that lacks direction and unclear expectations on the part of the recruiting manager won’t allow even the most brilliant candidate to succeed. Furthermore if expectations aren’t clear upfront, there is a much greater chance that candidates will move within a relatively short space of time due to the fact that their role hasn’t lived up to its interview promise.

Before you commence interviewing, make sure that:

• You have a clear job description
• You have an excellent understanding of the expertise the candidate must possess in order to do the job well
• You ask candidates to give examples of situations and their solutions so that these skills are demonstrated
• Don’t compromise and hire an average candidate that lacks knowledge just to fill the role
• Make sure your expectations are reasonable – have you hired candidates in the past who have succeeded and achieved all their set goals? If so, then your expectations are reasonable – if not, then you might have to adjust them.
• Ensure the candidate clearly understands your expectations, and ask your candidate to describe how they will fulfil your requirements.

Induction or onboarding process

A successful and thorough induction is a comprehensive approach to bringing on new hires that goes way beyond simple orientation. Here are some steps for successful onboarding:

• Remember induction plans are intended to make new employees familiar with the overall goals of a company.
• Make sure you have a detailed plan in place for the first 90 days, so everyone knows what is expected.
• Operate a buddy system – someone who has been at your organisation for a long time and knows the ropes and can be a sounding board.
• Ensure you support your new hire as they embark on early projects so they can start delivering success and productivity quickly.
• An informal session of drinks or cake with other team members in the first couple of weeks can allow the new hire to assess their learnings, ask any questions and get to know new colleagues in a less formal setting.

Remember, the ultimate payoff is to reduce turnover and encourage recruits to stay with an organisation for a longer tenure – which is more achievable if the induction process is carried out carefully and thoroughly.

Training

While your employee professed and demonstrated experience during the interview, do remember all organisations are unique. Different computer systems, policies, procedures and corporate culture can prevent good employees from being immediately successful. Make sure the employee is appropriately trained and has had sufficient time to practice their new skills. But do include both short- and long-term projects for the new hire from an early stage. New employees feel an inherent desire to contribute to the business right away. You don’t want them working on the big projects though, until they’re really up to speed on the way your company works.

Making a success of your new hire is not rocket science – it is down to communication and proper preparation. Take the time to get things in place before you commence the interviews, and that way you will get an employee who is clear of what’s required of them and possesses the skills you need to really add value to your business. After employment commences, good communication, regular meetings with goals and deadlines, and a smattering of teamwork will ensure your new employee is a resounding success who feels valued. In return, you’ll get loyalty and a happy and productive employee!

Interviews are the way in which an organisation finds its future employees – simple? Not necessarily. Research by Ayal Chen-Zion, a Research Fellow at Glassdoor entitled: ‘Do Difficult Job Interviews Lead to More Satisfied Workers? Evidence from Glassdoor Reviews’ shows that more thorough job interviews have been statistically linked to higher employee satisfaction.

The findings discovered that the optimal interview difficulty, when measured on a five-point scale, was four out of five. On this scale one is very easy, three is average, and five is very difficult.

Out of the six countries examined (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, USA, and the UK), an increase in interview difficulty of 10% was associated with a 2.6% rise in employee satisfaction later on.

However, once the interview surpasses the difficulty of four out of five, subsequent employee satisfaction drops. “The easiest two-point interviews, and the most difficult five-point interviews, are both associated with lower employee satisfaction,” says the study. In other words, the more rigorous the interview questions, the better the candidate fit, but don’t make the experience like an appearance on Mastermind.

However, let’s not make the mistake in thinking that we should just ask harder questions during the process – it’s about asking good questions. Interviewers need to tax candidates to find out what they really know about the role and how skilled they are. In my experience, candidates either find an interview like a walk in the park or a living nightmare – there seems to be no middle ground. An informal chat followed by an offer never works in the long-term. Essentially, the organisation is taking on someone they’ve not challenged, and the candidate is accepting a job they really know very little about in a company whose culture is, on a deeper level, largely unknown.

Equally, an interview that is a five on the difficulty scale may be an indication to the candidate of a dysfunctional culture within the company – where such an aggressive, demanding environment will end up being damaging to employees, leading them to quit and seek a role elsewhere.

The research threw up similar results in all six countries examined – more difficult interview questions lead to higher employee satisfaction weeks, months and even years down the line – but the ‘feel-good’ factor is switched off as soon as those questions hit five on the difficulty scale.

Fundamentally, organisations really need to overhaul their interview process and the questions they ask. In our experience as recruitment consultants, we see so many candidates who have felt let-down because the interviewer seemed unprepared – having not read their CV, texting and not really challenging them on their skills and experience. The flipside of this comes from our clients who will point out that a particular candidate was under prepared and hadn’t researched the company or the role properly. Neither will lead to a match made in heaven.

So what can you do?

Here are some top tips to ensure a decent outcome from an interview:

• Make sure you ask the candidate some searching questions – i.e. ‘How have you dealt with tricky clients in the past?’
• Make sure you know the role and the skills needed for the role you are hiring for – you can’t ask searching questions if you don’t understand what’s needed.
• Get the candidate to explain what they think the role will entail – this will reveal any knowledge gaps and will be a basis for discussion.
• Don’t just ask about work – find out what motivates your candidate to get up in the mornings and what their passions are.
• If needs be, hire a professional to come in and help you overhaul your organisation’s interview process and techniques.
• Lastly, remind those in charge of the interview process that it is the first line of defense for company culture.