Feedback is something of a controversial subject.

Some argue that it doesn’t fulfil a valuable function in the workplace; that it merely wastes the time of those giving and receiving it and that it can undermine an individual’s confidence in their ability to do their job.

But feedback can be a powerful tool in your team.

Useful feedback has benefits for the giver, the receiver, and your business as a whole; it can be used to make critical decisions.

Continuous improvement is not just the latest buzz word; it focuses your business on building performance by helping individuals make better decisions going forward, doing more of what is already going well, and establishes a culture of ongoing two-way communication.

Feedback is a Skill

Firstly, it’s essential to recognise that giving and receiving feedback is a skill.

Good feedback relies on your ability to embrace emotional intelligence – using your self-knowledge to enable you to accept positive criticism and use it to learn and grow, and using your empathy to put yourself in another’s shoes to see things from their point of view when providing feedback.

Feedback also requires active listening – making sure that both parties know they have been understood and that what they said holds value (more on this later).

So, the trick to implementing valuable and worthwhile feedback to your legal team is to understand what it provides and to use it correctly.

Feedback is a Constant Process

Most businesses, when asked, would say feedback is given during employee surveys, at performance appraisals or in training evaluations, and that’s true. But, feedback is also there all the time in our day to day working lives.

So, be aware of feedback being a constant – and aim to use it wisely when communicating with your team. In effect, good feedback between senior partners or managers and their teams can enable you to grow the company by instilling a sense of support across all employee levels, from trainees to Senior Managers.

Feedback is a Two-way Conversation

Feedback provides an effective way of giving value to and acknowledgement of another’s thoughts – it’s also critical to ensure that for everyone concerned, feedback provides an opportunity to speak and be heard.

That means providing feedback and allowing for comment back on your observations.

It involves practising active listening to ensure that both parties are on the same page with exactly what the feedback means.

It’s so easy for comments to be misinterpreted: I find it useful to repeat what someone has said to me to be sure I’m clear on their meaning.

So, for example, if you are giving feedback to your Marketeer, you might say, “So, from what you are saying I understand that you are unhappy with the level of workload and would like to know if it’s possible to introduce a software package to help speed up the admin process. Is that correct?”

This sort of clarification opportunity ensures that you don’t misinterpret the message – which of course can lead to problems further down the line.

Feedback Provides Opportunity

Feedback should be an opportunity to help individuals know where they are doing a great job and where they need to focus on developing skills and abilities.

Without feedback, there is a lack of understanding for an individual as to how they are measuring up in their work and therefore, limited opportunity for them to improve.

If individuals do not receive feedback or don’t know how to receive it in a constructive fashion, they are likely to lose out on potential promotion and the chance to grow in their skill set, knowledge and capabilities – and gain a fulfilling career.

Feedback Addresses Specifics

Feedback should be delivered with respect – always.

Even if the feedback is negative, it’s critical for the giver to be aware of the manner in which they are delivering their comments to ensure that the feedback is constructive and specific.

That means referring to specific incidents rather than vague statements, for example, “In the meeting last Thursday you interrupted Jim before he had a chance to put his case” rather than “You’re always talking over other people.”

The feedback should be non-judgemental – so, “I believe you may have misunderstood the reasons for the client costs going up?”, rather than “You were wrong to say the cost shouldn’t have been increased.”

It should also let the individual know the effect their action or comment had. For example, “After you talked over Kim’s suggestions in the meeting last week, she felt upset and undermined, which affected her confidence in her professional opinion.”

Feedback Enables Growth

Remember, feedback isn’t just about the negatives.

It’s also an excellent opportunity to acknowledge where good work has been done and to formally recognise it as part of your employee development plan.

Positive feedback provides a significant morale boost and is part of the learning process – reinforcing what a team member is doing right. It shows you recognise excellent performance and enables the employee to be able to move forward, doing more of the same behaviour.

Of course, we’re all only human, so feedback can never be entirely objective.

It’s crucial, though, to focus on delivering all feedback in a way that minimises the chances of the recipient feeling threatened or defensive and allows them to take on board comments (good and bad) and see them as drivers to inspire learning and development.

This will enable individuals to grow and flourish in their career and will allow you to develop a team who perform at the top of their game.

Initiating Feedback

Asking for feedback unprompted shows that a team member is more likely to accept it as a positive and learn from it.

These are the employees who are more likely to advance in their career. Conversely, it’s often the case that those who never ask for feedback are less open and likely to be more defensive if they feel challenged in their behaviour.

If you have team members who actively seek your feedback, then be prepared to provide constructive comment to help them.

And don’t forget, asking for feedback yourself shows excellent leadership qualities – after all, no-one’s perfect!

Feedback, either informally requested or as part of a formal review process, can provide an excellent platform for improving performance.

Instilling a culture of feedback in your business and seeing it as positive will enable you to remain aligned to overall goals, help create strategies for the business, develop services, improve relationships and achieve success.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989, and during that time has built up an excellent reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, and Engineering appointments, on a permanent basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

I saw a quote recently which resonated with the way things have been changing at Clayton. It said:

“What Covid has done is accelerated the shifts that eventually would have happened anyway.”

In light of the pandemic, at Clayton Recruitment, we have diversified our services at a level we probably wouldn’t have thought possible at the start of 2020, and I know this is the same for many businesses across the country.

The pandemic has tested the limits of our resilience, forced us into unfamiliar territory and allowed us to grow in new ways.

With many businesses still finding their feet after the significant upheaval Covid caused, today I want to share how we at Clayton have used the pandemic to help us change positively, and how we are using this mindset to help our clients in this new business environment.

Breaking New Ground

Having over 30 years of experience in the recruitment industry and with two successful recruitment brands recruitment is in our blood.

But 2020 has been the year that we have switched this around, on a massive scale.

Recognising the crises that many businesses have been going through due to Covid, we have introduced new services to help our clients with what they need right now.

This has included –

• Management consultancy – working with C-suite clients to help them manage challenges within their teams in the wake of the pandemic.
• Supportive outplacement services to help businesses going through a restructuring process.
• Working on a more exclusive level with our clients to identify skills gaps, and form person specifications for the new normal.
• Providing interim solutions for businesses going through a management restructure.

As you can see, during these challenging times, our services are not just focused on recruitment; it’s about so much more than that.

We have found that many of the challenges business have faced recently are new and unique difficulties, owing to the exceptional situation Covid has caused.

Helping Overcome Unique Challenges

Our service offering has become much broader, and this has involved working closely with companies to help them cultivate the team they need in place for the next chapter of their business.

If redundancies have been made, this can create unique skills gap scenarios which the business will not have faced before.

We have a dedicated world-class resourcing team who are focused on delivering results for each client.

We recognise that the past few months have been some of the most challenging that businesses will go through, perhaps in a lifetime. We have faced difficulties in our own business, which has helped us to empathise with the situation our clients are going through.

And it’s not just our clients that we have been helping with their unique challenges; it’s candidates too.

Recently we have been working much more closely with candidates who are changing jobs. Whether that’s because their role has been made redundant or to look for a new position – yes, there are opportunities out there.

For these candidates, we can provide CV writing services, consulting and negotiating role changes, putting together action plans and scouring the marketing for roles surrounding their skillset.

A New Mindset

Lastly, I think it’s essential to refocus our mindset for the new normal, accepting what has happened over the last few months, but not letting it overcome us. Instead, we can draw from our experiences and turn them into positives.

As an MD, I have also had an extra focus on personal development recently, which has proven helpful when overcoming new challenges, and this is something I share with the entire Clayton team.

As a business that I have personally grown from the ground up to where it is now, I understand the value of employing individuals with positive growth mindsets.

This ethos is present in everything we do and has been integral to our success. It has never been more essential for us to help our clients overcome their challenges using this growth mindset.

For example, we have a three-year business growth plan in place as we look to the future because we believe that success comes from planning for it.

It is understandable that as some businesses feel that they are in an uncertain position, they feel uncomfortable planning. We specialise in giving you that all-important helicopter view that is often difficult to achieve when you are focused deep within the business as a Senior Partner, MD or CEO.

Finally

It has been an essential part of our business strategy to pivot to what is happening in the market, which has allowed us to focus on what it is our clients need right now.

We are a team of experts, but we also have the human touch.

Covid has been a difficult period for many businesses; helping clients with what they need to get through this time has been our number one priority.

To find out more about how we can help your business with management consultancy, outplacement recruiting and identifying new skill gaps or any other aspect of restructuring, you can speak to one of our expert team by calling 01772 259 121.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989, and during that time has built up an excellent reputation for trust and reliability.

Our legal brand, Clayton legal has been partnering with law firms across the country since 1999 and during that time has made over 5,000 placements from partners to legal executives, solicitors to paralegals and legal IT personnel to practice managers.

If you need staffing support in the wake of Covid, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

Covid-19 has re-shaped the way organisations are approaching the recruitment process.

In recent years, the talent ‘war’ in finding the right candidate from those available was the main barrier to making a great hire.

Now, there is a very different problem.

Furlough, redundancy, restructuring, and businesses pivoting in response to the pandemic – all of these are happening right now, and it is affecting business output and ultimately, the success of your company.

Add into the mix the need to recruit for a critical position, and you have the perfect scenario which is likely to result in masking the ‘wrong’ hiring decision.

We’re increasingly seeing the need for our recruiting services become realised by companies who recognise that trying to ‘go it alone’ is potentially harmful to their business.

Today’s blog is about highlighting the hidden costs of trying to recruit, without a dedicated recruiter, in a post-pandemic world.

Let’s start with the logistical challenges of hiring in a market now full of candidates.

Dealing with the Influx Of Candidates and Applications

Recent data shows that the number of roles that have been made redundant from UK companies due to the pandemic is in the hundreds of thousands – of course, it’s still early days, and the full picture won’t be known for some time.

But for now, this means one thing – a significant rise in the number of candidates applying for each role; and it’s not just those who have sadly already been made redundant.

The unsettling nature of the pandemic has meant that more people are thinking about their future and making big career decisions, either out of fear or the realisation that their company hasn’t been flexible this year.

But an influx of applicants has caused companies with vacancies to become overwhelmed by candidates – not an ideal situation when you need to make the ‘right’ hire.

Sifting through hundreds of applicants costs time and time is money. I was reading in the Independent recently about a trainee accountancy role which received 3,272 applicants.

Sorting through this amount of applications would have been incredibly time-consuming, yet each application must be considered if you are to make the ‘right’ hire – it’s a logistical dilemma.

Even when you spend the time individually reviewing applications, go through the interview process and recruit someone you believe is perfect for the role – in the current market there’s no guarantee that they will stay – let’s look at why.

Predicting Candidate Intentions

As I mentioned earlier, lots of candidates are going through a mindset change – the pandemic has caused people to evaluate their careers and their lives.

There is still a lot of uncertainty, and middle and senior managers with key skills and experience will be wondering what their next career move should be. This can lead to them applying for a range of roles, without really acknowledging what their long-term plan is.

Additionally, with the level of redundancies that we have seen occurring in the UK, someone with management skills looking for work will be essentially looking for something ‘right now’ rather than something ‘right’ for them.

There is so much change happening in the market right now; how can you be sure that the person you hire isn’t just waiting for the next best thing? Middle and senior management employees are still trying to find their feet in an emerging marketplace; many will feel pressured into taking the first job that comes along – unbeknown to you this might be your vacancy.

When you work with an experienced recruiter, you can guarantee that the candidate is right for the role.

A specialist recruiter works with candidates to place them only in roles that they know are suited to the long-term aspirations of the individual; that’s why good recruiters focus on talent and personality matching rather than someone, anyone, to fill a vacant role.

Which leads onto the hidden cost of DIY recruitment most companies don’t appreciate.

The Cost of a Bad Hire

In pre-pandemic times, the cost of a ‘bad’ hire was always a risk, but now it is even more likely to occur and here is why.

Organisations are now dealing with multiple changes within the structure or the nature of their business.

From changed teams because of furlough and redundancy and the broader shifts in remote work, disruptions caused by the wrong hire are more likely to happen and could be one problem too many.

Hiring the wrong individual has the potential to cause problems in two ways –

• You hire someone who isn’t right for the role, or your organisation, and they cause a shift in the company culture, they are hard to manage, or they struggle with their position.
• You hire someone who you believe is right and they leave shortly afterwards, leaving you under-resourced and at the start of the recruitment process again.

Now, more than ever, you must find the ideal candidate to meet your criteria – an individual who is not only right for the role and your company culture but can also help your business grow in what is potentially a challenging time ahead.

Using a specialist recruiter is a logical and time tested way to avoid the common recruiting challenges I have mentioned here.

Working with a Recruiter for Your Post-Pandemic Hiring Decisions

Working with a recruiter is not the same as going it alone but with a fee – if this were the case, recruitment wouldn’t exist.

A specialist recruiter can proactively find the ‘right’ hire for your position, rather than the passive type of recruitment that is causing businesses to be overwhelmed with applicants and the barriers to finding the right hire that this presents.

In the current climate, which would you prefer –

Being swamped with potentially hundreds of applicants and not having the time to separate the suitable ones from the highly unsuitable, or not getting any suitable applicants at all?

Be presented with a shortlist of a few highly relevant candidates with the exact skills, experience and culture fit that you’re looking for?

We are a specialist recruitment company, and we can help you achieve this second scenario.

To find out how we can locate for you the candidates you’re looking for – get in touch with us here.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989, and during that time has built up an excellent reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, Nursing, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

Hiring during a pandemic – it’s not something that many employers thought they would ever be doing.

After the imposed slowdown of the U.K. economy, businesses are more aware than ever of how critical it is to have the right team in place.

But the pandemic has also created the challenge of business planning – many organisations aren’t sure of what lies in store for the next few months, perhaps even years.

Protecting jobs has been a central focus of the fallout of the pandemic from Rishi Sunak, our Chancellor to Managing Directors across multiple Corporate and SME organisations.

As we now emerge into the ‘recovery’ stage, employers who have opportunities for candidates must decide on their hiring process to avoid being swamped by candidates and making the ‘right’ decisions from the many candidates available.

If you’re currently in the process of hiring temporary workers for your organisation over the next few months, this guide is for you.

Temp Workers for Your Post-Pandemic Organisation

Hiring temporary employees might not have been on your business plan at the start of the year, but the pandemic has forced many businesses into doing so, to protect themselves as we find a new normal.

The Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures show that the number of temporary employees in the U.K. increased by 1.6% on a seasonally adjusted basis for the three months March-May 2020 compared to last year.

If you’re hiring temporary employees right now – you’re not alone. Delivery giant Hermes just announced they are to hire an additional 10,500 workers in the U.K. after the surge in new demand.

Temporary and contract workers are a smart choice for employers, as they offer more flexibility and less commitment during this business-critical time.

Let’s look first at applicant tracking systems and how these could be helping or hindering your temp hiring process.

Applicant Tracking Systems for Temp Workers

When hiring temp workers, speed is critical to the process – is it time you reviewed your applicant tracking system?

Many companies continue to use outdated tracking systems which could be harming your recruitment process. Now more than ever, you need to know that you can rely on your ATS and that it is helping, not damaging your recruiting efforts for temporary roles.

If your ATS is turning away more candidates than it is attracting, or if it is filtering out suitable candidates without your knowledge, you need to remedy this now.

Right now, there is likely to be an influx of applicants for roles, and you need to make sure your system isn’t missing the best applicants.

My top tips for evaluating your ATS are:

• Decide if the amount you are paying for the software is giving you a decent ROI.
• Consider if the features of your ATS are pulling in the temporary candidates you need right now.
• Are you able to accurately measure and track whether the ATS is providing you with quality candidates? If not, it might be time to consider a different recruiting method.

Next, let’s look at how current hiring practices are affecting the hiring of temporary employees.

Video Interviewing

Since the pandemic, hiring has gone digital, with many organisations and recruiters alike taking to video to interview candidates, at least for the first stages of the recruitment process.

The pandemic caused a spike of 67% more companies using video interviews to hire for critical roles, and this worked the other way too, with a 150% increase in candidates wanting to upgrade their digital CV with a video.

Video interviewing is a great – and safe – way to interview several candidates when you have multiple applicants for a temporary vacancy.

Set aside a day to conduct video interviews with your candidates, but with social distancing measures in place, safe face-to-face interviews can also now take place. Remember that an in-person interview is the best way to ascertain if a candidate is a good fit for your organisation, even if the role is only a temporary one.

Hiring Candidates with the Right Skills for Flexible Roles

Flexibility is going to be a key theme in businesses going forwards, and companies who fail to flex could find themselves in trouble.

When hiring temporary workers, you must think past the immediate role the candidate is applying for. Think about how much value your applicants can bring to the role – what other soft and hard skills do they have, and what experience do they have in different positions?

With an influx of candidates currently on the market, now is an excellent time to hire employees with great in-demand skills, think problem-solving, customer service, excellent communication skills, critical thinking, and creativity.

In a period of economic downturn, it can be easy for employers to forget about forward-planning, as they look to fill roles with the employees they need right now. When you hire with the future of your organisation in mind, you are protecting and strengthening your business for years to come.

This means hiring the very best from the available talent.

Finding the Best Talent for Your Temporary Roles

Before the pandemic, Clayton Recruitment specialised in finding the best available talent for temporary commercial roles, and that’s what we’re still doing today.

Our extensive network and connections can put you in touch with candidates, who can add value to your business now, in their temporary roles, and for when the time comes to make more permanent hiring decisions.

Remember, even though you are hiring for a temporary role, you should employ the same high standards in your hiring as you would for a permanent employee. As the current business environment is changing so quickly, you might need permanent employees faster than you think.

The cost of a wrong hire can be in the thousands; it can be costly in terms of time and effort too.

For peace of mind that you are hiring the very best temporary employees from the current pool, work with a recruiter with extensive experience in this field.

Clayton Recruitment offer a tailored recruitment service for each of your roles; we have the insight, network and market credibility to supply you with the temporary candidates you need right now – get in touch with us here to find out how.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989, and during that time has built up an excellent reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

We are now living in a world that is very different from what we were used to only a few short months ago.

The monumental changes to all of our working lives, and now, trying to rebuild teams and businesses in a new environment will be a challenge for many leaders.

Managing change is a pertinent leadership topic, but it is particularly relevant right now.

No single management method will suit every company. You must be finely tuned to your organisation’s needs, your employee’s capabilities and find a process which works for both.

In today’s blog, we take a look at how leaders can manage their teams effectively through the changeable period we are currently in. Let’s start by looking at the most well known psychological model for dealing with change, the Kubler-Ross Change Curve.

The Kubler-Ross Change Curve

You might be familiar with this model in terms of loss; it is the renowned ‘five stages of grief’ framework.

Businesses have been applying this model to their organisations to deal with change for years – to great effect.

The model outlines five different stages a person goes through when dealing with a significant change; let’s look at how this applies to change in business.

1. Stage one is shock and denial. Being presented with change can be overwhelming, so managers mustn’t overwhelm employees at this stage.
2. Stage two deals with fear. After realising the situation is real, employees might become scared of the change that lies ahead.
3. Stage three is bargaining. At this stage, the employee is looking at how they can best adapt to the new situation in a way that they can deal with.
4. Stage four is the learning stage. Here the employee must deal with learning how to cope in their new role or environment.
5. The final stage is embracing the change, where employees finally start to accept the new situation and build new hopes and aspirations.

As you can see, there is a lot involved in implementing change in your organisation; it is far from simple.

I want to share with you some strategies to help manage change in your organisation to ensure changes happen as smoothly as possible, starting with a key management principle – transparency.

Transparent Leadership

All change contains some risk of the unknown, and this is especially true of the current climate. However, there is a difference between being cautious about planning for the future and withholding information from your employees.

Transparent leadership builds trust, and the more trust you have in your organisation, the better you will perform. Right now, your employees need you to be transparent about potential changes in your organisation from social distancing measures to long-term business plans.

Four ways you can operate as a transparent leader are –

• Be honest with your team at all times. Nothing destroys trust like finding out you have been misled or lied to.
• Be open and accessible. Ask for, and be prepared to listen to feedback.
• Ask questions and show interest in how the team are coping with their current situation – can you do anything to help?
• Do not avoid difficult situations; confront them head-on.

Building trust with your team is essential to lead them through periods of change; your employees need to trust 100% that they can depend on you in a new and uncertain territory. But what else can you do to help your team through a period of significant change?

Think About How You Can Serve Your Team

Many leaders get this basic principle of leadership wrong: leading is about serving others, not being served.

You rely on your team to perform just as much as they rely on you to guide them. As members of your team return to a changed workplace, they will be looking to you to guide them not just on new work practices and changes in their role, but a whole new way of working and of thinking about work.

There will likely be significant differences as and when your team return to work. A noticeable change will be a reduced workforce, which many organisations are dealing with as they keep employees furloughed and working from home to keep workplaces socially distanced.

Think about the sub-teams in your organisation. As people return to work, are there key players missing? You might have to step in for members of your team who are now working from home or still furloughed. This doesn’t just mean managing workloads within teams; it means being emotionally supportive for those who are missing their colleagues.

Help Employees Find a New Purpose

A big part of management is training and developing your employees to increase their skills and confidence; do you currently have training plans in place for employees that were decided at the start of the year?

These plans are no longer relevant.

The goals of the organisation and indeed, each employee, might have been altered significantly by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Employees will be considering questions such as:

• How has my role changed?
• Where do I now fit into the organisation?
• How has the virus affected my career plans?

Some of your employee’s roles will have changed drastically; their workload might have increased or decreased; they might be assigned new tasks in new departments; they might even have to retrain.

You must have an in-depth discussion with all employees about what the changes in your organisation mean for them. If their roles have changed, this will include drawing up a new training and development plan with different goals and different milestones.

Aside from personal development plans, the aims of your workplace might have also changed. Is it time to re-evaluate your organisation’s purpose and vision?

Refocus Your Vision

At the heart of your business should be a vision or mission statement which underpins everything you do.

For example, Microsoft’s is ‘A computer on every desk and in every home’.

But what has this got to do with managing change? The senior leaders within your organisation must re-evaluate your company’s vision and goals – having a clear goal will be critical to your businesses success in a changing world.

Your new vision will then filter down to each employee, injecting meaning into their changed roles. Researchers at the State University of New York found that asking employees about their daily tasks and then asking ‘Why does it matter?’ four times afterwards helped connect employees to a higher purpose.

Teams which have been mostly disjointed over the past two months will be craving routine. Re-evaluating your vision and relaying this to employees will help them feel secure in an unfamiliar working landscape.

Finally

Many organisations are finding that where some areas are being scaled back, others are thriving. For example, online services are thriving, and working from home has meant that some organisations are exploring cost-saving measures by relocating.

If your organisation is looking to take advantage of opportunities in the marketplace to scale and grow, and you require talented employees to do this – we can help.

Get in touch with us today to discuss your vacancies, or call our team on 01772 259 121.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989, and during that time has built up an excellent reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

Upon returning to work after lockdown, managers and leaders in commercial organisations will have a variety of concerns.

It is key to remember that every organisation right now is going through a period of change and that it will be a while before the dust settles and we find a ‘new normal’. In some sectors, employees were able to work throughout lockdown, but for many commercial organisations, their business was either drastically reduced or stopped altogether.

This is why it is essential to have in place a robust strategy to help your team move forwards now workplaces are opening up again.

In today’s article, I share advice for employers on how to manage and motivate their teams coming back to work after lockdown, starting with common team concerns.

Managing Your Team’s Concerns

A potential problem that managers will have to face is the integration of teams who have been disjointed by lockdown, and the individual issues they might have.

If members of your team have been working from home, some of them might have enjoyed it and wish to carry on; others will be eager to get back. There may be members of your team who are fearful of going back into work, especially if they live with someone who is currently shielding.

As an employer, it is essential to remain flexible to accommodate your employee’s needs. Options to consider for team members who have concerns include –

• Keeping someone on furlough for longer (the government furlough scheme is guaranteed until October) – discuss with all employees about their preferences, concerned team members may be happy to stay on furlough.
• Let employees continue to work from home if they are happy to do so, and if they have everything they need to continue to do their work to a high standard.
• You may consider letting employees work different hours to avoid peak travel times or arrange extra car parking, if possible, to allow employees to drive to work.

Another worry for employees is childcare. With schools still shut, non-essential workers who are now being encouraged to return to work will have concerns over their situation. The prime minister has said that lack of childcare is an ‘obvious barrier to get back to work’ and that employers can only expect employees to come back to work if they have provisions for childcare until the schools are reopened.

The key thing to remember is to listen to your employees and then take steps to protect everyone. Communication with all of your team is essential in understanding their concerns; a happy workforce is a productive workforce.

Social Distancing: Physical Changes to Your Office

Another change that managers will have to contend with is the physical changes that you will need to make to the workplace.

The first step you will need to take, as per government guidelines, is to conduct a risk assessment. You will need to consider the following –

• How can you ensure a two-metre gap is maintained between employees at all times?
• Do you need to implement screens in any customer-facing areas?
• Do you need to rearrange desks and seating areas?
• Do you need to implement hand washing or sanitising stations, and if so, where can these go?
• Have you purchased enough hand sanitiser and disposable hand towels/tissues to keep employees safe?
• Do you have a plan of action to deal with an employee who starts showing symptoms?

The government have announced that workplaces will be subject to inspection from environmental officers, so you must meet the criteria. But also, demonstrating to your employees that you are taking every possible step to protect their health will instil confidence in your team and allow them to work stress-free.

Skills Refreshers and Training

Even if your employees have been remote working for the last two months, they will have been doing so in a changed, or reduced capacity. Even with the highest-spec technology, working from home is not the same as working in an office environment, and your team will likely be out of practice in some areas.

Things that might have suffered while your team were remote working can include – a lack of collaboration, a breakdown in communication and possibly attention to detail. It can be easier for things to get missed when people are trying to collaborate over email and video.

With this in mind, your team will benefit from skills refreshers and additional training upon returning.

Ask your team which areas they feel as though they need a refresher on, or any skills they thought they lacked when working from home that they would like training based around? During the lockdown, many people started thinking about their skills and their careers, with a high level of uptake in online courses. If your team feel as though their employer is not supporting them, they might start to look elsewhere for alternative career options.

How to Motivate a Returning Team

Finally, how can you best motivate your team upon their return to the workplace?

The following are my top tips-

• Make your workplace a pleasant place to be. Confront problems and negativity straight away and do not let it fester. Be positive and upbeat – your team are looking to you to set the tone for their new way of working.
• Be supportive. The lockdown and now returning to work will be probably the most unsettling period in your team’s working lives. Continually check that your team have everything they need in the newly-changed workplace.
• Be flexible. Let your team know that you will work together with them to create a new normal that they are comfortable with.
• Share positive feedback. It is more vital than ever that you focus on the positives in your team and their successes.

Many managers have found it more challenging keeping their team motivated and engaged during the lockdown. Use this guide to help steer your team through the next, more positive, recovery period.

What Next?

Coming out of lockdown is something that all organisations will experience differently, with different levels of challenges for each.

If the needs of your organisation have changed recently and you would like a discussion about finding the right talent to help your business thrive, we can help.

Get in touch with our team on 01772 259 121 or contact us here to discuss your recruitment needs.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989, and during that time has built up an excellent reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If like many other legal practices, you and your team are embarking on an unspecified work-from-home period, you might be wondering how best to approach it.

It might be the first time many of your finance team have adopted remote working practices – but this doesn’t need to be a barrier to success.

Your team can work just as efficiently from home.

In fact, as a business, you are in a great position. Many job roles are not as easily adapted to working from home, but with a few alterations, you can have a fully functioning remote finance team – here are the best-practice strategies to support your team through the transition.

1. The Right Equipment

First and foremost, it is essential that you provide your finance team with the items and equipment that they usually have at work. As an employer, you shouldn’t instruct your team to work from home and expect them to make the necessary arrangements.

This means recreating their usual workspace to the best of your ability – PCs, laptops, calendars, broadband and even their desk if necessary. The more you can make your finance team feel as though they are still ‘at work’, the less their productivity will suffer.

2. Checking In

Once your finance team are remotely set up and working from home, it is crucial to step-up the amount of contact you have with them.

It is more critical than ever right now to help your finance team feel connected to one another – a lack of connection in your team can reduce productivity (more on this below).

At least once a day, get together with your team on a conference call or a video link so that they can discuss and share any issues or positive news that they would typically share with their colleagues.

With Skype, Zoom, FaceTime and WhatsApp, it’s easier than ever to catch up with your team on video – there’s no reason for your finance employees to feel disconnected from the business and the rest of the team.

3. Changes With Clients

The COVID-19 situation has caused upheaval in many finance practices across the UK. Depending on your clients, there will have likely been challenges in your business brought about by the virus.

Have things changed with your clients? Are you having to re-visit clients or make fast changes to work that you thought was complete?

The change to the interest rate, an increase in card payments and the unexpected beginning or ending of contracts are all problems that are facing practices trying to help their clients adapt to the current situation.

Given these changes, you must spend extra time making sure your team know exactly where they are with clients. Offer extra help throughout this time and be prepared for changing situations with clients until things settle down.

4. Mental Health

Adapting to working from home can be challenging at first and coupled with the stresses of the coronavirus, this can make it even more difficult for employees to change.

Aware of how the current coronavirus situation has the potential to affect the nation’s mental health negatively, the NHS has produced a guide to helping you stay positive throughout the lockdown period which you can find here.

Looking out for your finance team’s mental health throughout this challenging situation will ultimately lead to a stronger team. Remember to have regular one-to-ones with your employees, even just sending a message telling them to contact you if they want a chat can be of significant help.

5. Helping Them Stay Productive

While some employees will find the deviation from the norm unsettling, recent studies suggest that for the right people, working from home can increase productivity levels.

In light of the recent increase in remote working, we have put together a guide to help employees be their most productive selves, which you can share with them (you can find it here).

Using the strategies I have outlined here, it is entirely possible that your finance team can continue to produce their best work while working from home.

Before You Go

We have been working closely with financial practices across the North West to help them through the challenging situation that COVID-19 has created.

Have your business needs changed recently, and should this be reflected in your recruitment efforts?

If you would like to discuss your recruitment priorities and find out how Clayton Recruitment can help, call us today on 01772 259 121 or contact us here.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989 and during that time has built up an excellent reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to download our latest interview checklist, you can do so here.

If this week marks the first of many of home working for you and your team, you might be concerned as to whether the change in situation will affect your business or the quality of your team’s work – if so, you’re not alone.

But the good news is that there is no reason a transition to home working will affect your team’s ability to perform.

Yes, it might seem unusual at first, but by being prepared, practising resilience and some forward planning, your team will be up and running from home in no time.

Here are some things you can do to help your team make the transition from office to home working as smooth as possible.

1. Change as Little as Possible

Despite working from home being a significant shift from the norm, the first way to ensure a smooth transition is to keep to your regular schedule as much as possible.

This means having your team at their desks and ready for a conference call or a video call (more in this below) at the start of the working day.

Make sure your team are aware of how important it is to wear their regular working clothes, have lunch and breaks at the same time, and liaise with whoever they would typically liaise with.

2. Daily Briefings

Remote working should not mean that your team are figuratively ‘apart’ from each other – if anything, it should bring you closer together.

Daily briefings might not be a normal part of your working day, but now is the time to start. Without physically being in your place of work, it is essential not to lose that connection and camaraderie that being in the workplace naturally provides.

Try having a briefing in the morning and at the end of the day, so that your team can share any issues and check-in. If twice a day isn’t possible, aim for once a day at the minimum.

3. Stay Connected Via Video

With Skype, Zoom, FaceTime, WhatsApp Video – there’s no excuse not to have a (virtual) face-to-face catch up with your team, and it is recommended that you do this as often as possible – aim for at least once a day.

People who regularly work from home report that seeing the faces of their manager and their colleagues helps them to feel connected. And if this is the first time that your team will be working from home – this will be especially important for them.

4. Weekly Wins

It’s a challenging time for many businesses at the moment. If you or your team are feeling under pressure, a great idea is to celebrate your wins of the week on a Friday. This can be a part of your conference or video call, or they can be shared in a messaging group or email.

Knowing that their colleagues are going through the same difficulties but also being able to share in each other’s wins is a great way to make the team feel at ease with their current situation. The ‘wins’ can be big or small, it could be ‘I got through my first morning without having to check something with remote IT support!’ and you should kick off the wins yourself to get the ball rolling.

5. Practice Adaptability

Of course, things will feel different at first, and we currently don’t know how long remote working is going to be in effect for.

As a manager, it is your responsibility to help your team navigate the likely unsettling weeks ahead.

Remember that this is a significant change, and not everything will always go to plan the first time. Some team members will find it easier to adapt than others, and there may be some obstacles along the way, so be supportive of your team at every step of the way.

6. Don’t Forget

There are millions of people across the UK in the same boat as you right now. Teams who weather the storm will come out stronger on the other side.

Many businesses have seen an increase in demand for their products and services since the coronavirus outbreak, and there has been a shift in recruitment needs across the UK.

If your business needs have changed in the last few weeks and like many, you have different recruitment needs – we can help.

As experts in recruiting commercial talent in the North West, we can put you in touch with the employees you need, right now. Contact us on 01772 259121 or using our contact form here.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989 and during that time has built up an excellent reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, Nursing, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to download our latest interview checklist, you can do so here.

In an increasingly competitive employment market, employers must keep up-to-date with the compensation, perks and benefits that the best talent is looking for, or risk losing them to your competitors.

I speak to candidates daily, and I hear the same incentives that are driving candidates away from specific workplaces and into others.

In this blog, I will share what the most talented candidates are looking for in their new employers right now – are you offering these incentives?

Flexible Work Schedules

We have seen a decrease in the typical 9-5 working schedule for some years now, with flexi-time gaining popularity in the ‘90s through to the present day.

But increasingly, employees are looking for even more flexibility from their employers.

Employees today – and especially millennial employees who now make up the majority of workplaces – want schedules that are flexible to their personal needs.

This is different to flexitime, as instead of being able to come into work anytime between 7-10 am and leave between 3-7 pm, they might ask for flexibility at other times. For example, a half-day finish when they have an appointment and be able to make the time up somewhere else or to come in later on days when they have to take their child to playgroup when their partner is busy.

As well as a flexible working arrangement, another popular demand among employees is a compressed working week – let me explain how this works.

Compressed Work Week

A compressed working schedule allows employees to work full time, putting in more of their hours on the days they choose, and allowing them to take time off elsewhere. For example, an employee might want to work four 10 hour days and have Fridays off.

Employees love this perk, as it allows them to have a better work-life balance, and studies show that working non-regular office hours improves productivity. Employees are more focused on their tasks, they have fewer interruptions, and it reduces fatigue which causes productivity and quality of work to slip.

Pension Scheme

We’re all living longer, and with government pensions not as reliable as they once were, employees are looking to their employers to provide them with an excellent pension scheme.

Employees highly value an employer who invests in an excellent pension scheme for them – it shows that they are invested in their future.

Working with a workplace pension provider to ensure that your employees are given a good rate on their pensions and that they can have as much or as little input as they want in the matter is a highly desirable bonus to many employees.

On-Site Amenities

Depending on the type of your workplace, there will be a range of amenities that you can provide for employees.

If your organisation is based somewhere away from shops and other conveniences, can you provide food for employees?

Some larger organisations can provide gyms, which is seen as one of the most sought-after perks; of course, this is not always possible and will depend on your size and budget. A good alternative is a chill-out zone, where employees can take time out to de-stress or have a quiet 5 minutes.

Even something as small as making your workspace bright, with plenty of natural light and indoor plants can make workplaces much more appealing to candidates.

Your goal should be to provide a workspace that your employees look forward to coming to, where they feel that they can thrive and work towards the shared goal of being healthy and happy.

Creating a positive place to work for your employees contributes to their overall wellbeing, which in turn increases productivity – it’s a win-win!

Finally, a great way to boost morale and give employees a little something that everyone enjoys – free social events!

Social Events

The solitary annual Christmas party doesn’t cut it anymore – many workplaces provide events for their employees throughout the year, and this is has become the mark of a great employer.

It doesn’t have to be monthly away-days at outdoor pursuit facilities; something as low-key as a shared team breakfast every few weeks, or making sure you celebrate birthdays in the office, makes team members feel valued.

Not only this, but research shows that employees who spend time together form stronger bonds which enables them to work better as a team when they are at work.

Your Benefits

How many of these benefits do you currently provide, in one form or another, to attract and retain the best employees?

The smartest organisations are always on the lookout for the most talented employees, and so attraction and retention should be something you are actively monitoring.

Hopefully, this article will have given you some inspiration on how you can make changes to transform your organisation into a talent magnet.

If you need further help or advice on how to recruit top employees, we can help. We work with organisations in the North West to help them find the talent they need to drive their business forwards – get in contact with us today to find out more.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989, and during that time has built up an excellent reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

The hiring market is changing.

With employment at an all-time high, many companies are finding it hard to locate the right kind of staff they need to help them reach their business goals.

As recruiters in the North West, we have seen an increase in the number of candidates enquiring about temporary work and this is echoed in the UK as a whole, with temp work being one of the fastest areas of recruitment.

However, many organisations are still reluctant to take on temporary staff, and quite often view it as a ‘last resort’. In doing this, many companies are missing out on a vast array of talented employees who are looking for less-permanent positions.

If you are not fully utilising temporary workers in your business yet, and are unsure as to why you should start, here are the five reasons that employers should take on more temporary workers this year.

1. A Clever Staffing Solution

We work with organisations of many different sizes, serving a range of sectors. And what we find more and more often is that they cannot locate the talent they need to help them achieve their business goals.

Many companies will persist with and repeat their recruitment process with the view to finding a permanent member of staff to fill a position. Many organisations would not consider a temporary employee: because the role is permanent, they want a permanent member of staff.

But in doing this, they struggle on with a vacant position, or worse; they employ the ‘wrong’ permanent employee in haste. The cost of rehiring for permanent employees can become very costly indeed.

This is the perfect opportunity to utilise an employee on a temporary contract – to solve an ongoing recruitment issue.

2. For Flexibility

In an ever-changing economy, and especially during the Brexit transition period, many employers are finding that their staffing needs are fluctuating.

Sometimes it is not feasible for employers to take on staff with permanent contracts when they know that they cannot predict how long they will be needed.

Temp workers are perfect for the changing demands of your business. Many employees are looking for short-term and temporary work. You can work with a recruiter to outline your businesses needs, and they can find you staff who fit into exactly what you’re looking for, skills and contract-wise.

3. When Your Team Needs a Lift

On the flip-side, there are times when businesses are booming, and they need all the help they can get. It’s great when you see an increase in custom, but this can have negative repercussions on your team.

Continuing with the same size of team and expecting them to take on extra duties when you need them to can cause stress and anxiety among your employees, and will eventually lead to a drop in productivity.

If your team needs a morale boost in the form of some extra help to see them through unexpected busy times, bringing in some fresh faces for a limited period is a smart solution.

4. Access to Untapped Talent

Is your organisation going through a period of change? Are you changing your services or processes? Are you expanding?

You might already have an excellent team in place, but sometimes you need access to new talent to help you through a transition period.

In the past, there was a stereotype of temp work being associated with low-skilled talent looking for very casual contracts, but this is not the case anymore.

There is a wealth of talent considering temporary work for a variety of reasons, such as alongside part-time studying, new parents looking for employment to fit around raising their family, and those looking to change sectors. All of these employees can add real value to your business in the time you need them most.

5. With a View to a Permanent Hire

Finally, probably the most significant benefit that employers can get out of temporary hires is temp-to-perm positions.

Organisations can work with recruiters to find employees looking for temp-to-perm contracts to ‘try before they buy’. This is a great way to find out if the employee fits into your organisation – if they are the ‘right’ person for the job before you sign on the dotted line.

And it’s a two-way street, too. Many temp workers prefer these type of contracts (when they are looking for permanent work eventually) as they can see if they like the role and the company without being tied down.

Finally

Do you currently employ temporary workers in your organisation? Perhaps you have used them in the past, or only use them at specific points in the year, such as over the Christmas period. Consider taking on temporary workers in your organisation at different times to enjoy the benefits that I have outlined here.

There are plenty of candidates looking for temporary contracts who are waiting to hear from your organisation right now – get in touch with us to find out more.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across the country since 1989 and during that time has built up an excellent reputation for trust and reliability.

With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, Industrial, Nursing, and Engineering appointments, on both a permanent and temporary basis. If you are looking for your next career move, we can help. Call us on 01772 259 121 or email us here.

If you would like to download our latest interview checklist, you can do so here.