As an employer or a hiring manager, recruiting right now is as challenging as it can get.

And that’s down to the fact that we are in a saturated market. The Covid crisis has caused job losses in some sectors. Still, more so, it has caused movement in the market from accounting professionals speculatively applying for roles as they think and consider their future like never before.

This poses a problem, as the most valuable candidates become swamped by a sea of possibilities.

So how can you hire the ‘right’ accounting candidate when the odds are stacked against you?

Today, we look at the dangers of hiring in a saturated market, and some expert recruitment strategies which can help.

1. Getting Your Person Spec Right

One of the most significant challenges of hiring in a saturated market is not knowing exactly what you’re looking for. When you narrow down what you’re looking for to the exact skills, attributes and personality traits you want, this makes the search easier.

We are currently helping organisations define their finance and accounting job specifications, which has become invaluable in their recruiting process as they redefine their roles for a post-Covid market.

• Have the skills you need in your next accounting professional changed?
• Do you need to hire finance experts with the skills of tomorrow, but aren’t sure what to look for?

We can help you define your finance and accounting roles and person specs to narrow down your search – get in touch with us here to find out more.

2. Hiring for Culture

Another huge change in accountancy recruitment since the pandemic is the need for team players who can be flexible and adaptable while having the organisation’s best interests at heart.

During the Covid crisis, many organisations realised for the first time which of their finance team were true team players, and which were disengaged in their roles.

A successful finance team includes individuals whose values and culture align with their employer, whether that’s in a financial practice or a larger organisation’s finance team.

Any management guide will tell you that cultivating a positive and unified culture in your team is necessary for success. Yet, so many hiring managers still put this low down on their list of priorities.

Creating a set of non-negotiable values that you want your team to have will narrow down your candidate search even further, which is essential when hiring in a saturated market.

3. Organising Your Recruiting Timeline

Making some key changes to your recruitment process will allow you to make difficult hiring decisions much easier.

Improve the speed of your hiring process so that recruitment isn’t taking up weeks or even months of your valuable time. Start with the end date in mind – the date that your new recruit needs to be in their role by, and work backwards from here. A Benchmark survey on career timelines found that the average recruitment process takes 24.5 days, how long does yours take?

Ensure you have a stringent timeline and stick to it. When you start pushing dates backwards or worse – hiring without consulting with all stakeholders – this can create a messy and stressful recruiting experience for everyone involved.

4. ‘Selling’ Your Organisation to the Right Candidates

At a time like this when you want to attract the best candidates, it might just be time to re-evaluate all of your recruitment collateral and employer branding, so you attract the candidates you want and repel the ones you don’t.

A few questions for you.

• Do you have an excellent employer branding strategy
• Do you regularly update and share about your company on social media?
• Does your hiring manager respond in a timely way to candidates both online and during the recruitment process?

Right now, developing your brand awareness as an employer of choice needs to be a part of your recruitment strategy.

5. Working with a Recruiter

Finally, the most valuable step you can take right now is to work with a recruiter.

At Clayton Recruitment, we can take care of all the stages we have outlined here, which, at the moment, is a big undertaking for HR departments which are already pushed for time and resources.

Making the right hiring decision is so critical right now, the last thing any organisation wants is to find out that they have made the ‘wrong’ accounting hire shortly after appointing them.

Your finance team needs to be full of the most talented, best-suited experts for your organisation.

Next Steps

If you have struggled to attract the finance candidates you want and have found that recruitment is becoming a challenging task as you are faced with an increasing amount of CVs and applicants, we can help.

Please get in contact with our expert recruitment team today to find out more about our recruitment service. We don’t just guarantee that we will find you the best possible candidate, we also protect your investment so that if the candidate doesn’t work out, you get your full investment back.

Don’t run the risk of making the ‘wrong’ hire from the many candidates available; use our guaranteed recruitment service to find your ideal candidate in a saturated market.

Call us on 01772 259 121 or contact us here to find out how we can help.

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, 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.

The pandemic has caused some of the most significant business and personal shifts that many of us will see in our lifetimes.

Social distancing, the wearing of masks, the rise of remote working; there are so many ways our lives are different now. And despite the pandemic being catastrophic in many ways, in others, it has been the catalyst for positive change, and this is something that we have experienced here at the Clayton Group too.

Instead of letting Covid impose a gloomy outlook, we have used this challenging time to increase our products and services – to deliver more for our clients and candidates during their time of need, and this is something we are incredibly proud of.

The Clayton Group is about more than just recruitment – today, I want to share with you how the pandemic has been the catalyst for our new VIP services and how they can help your business right now.

Consultancy

During the pandemic, we have focused our attention on helping CEOs and MDs of businesses, and partners of law firms, to uncover what business skills are needed and planning for the future needs, wheather it be new opportunities uncovered or new skills needed as the business pivots.

For many business owners, the last few months have been about getting through each week. There has been little time to focus on the businesses position; it’s been about survival and shifting.

Restructuring and Sourcing New Skills

Restructuring is something that all businesses want to avoid, but in times of crisis like we have experienced, it is sometimes a necessity.

We can help businesses to understand the impact of restructuring, and help guide them through the process.

Restructuring involves much more than making roles redundant; it requires a consultative approach to ensure your business is not left in a precarious position after a period of change.

Yes, it is possible to come through a restructuring period even stronger than before, and we can help you achieve this. Working closely with your business, our team will help you identify the new skills that you may need. We will support you in writing person specifications to help you find the right talent to deliver your post-Covid business plan.

Interim Solutions

Another vital and popular service that we have been offering since the pandemic is interim solutions for businesses.

These have proven to be invaluable to many organisations who are in a position where they need talent right now, but the future is uncertain, and they cannot guarantee contracts for more than a few months.

Employing talent on an interim, contract or temporary basis might be exactly what your business needs right now. If you would like to know more about how we can quickly find you the interim talent you need, get in contact with us here.

How We Protect Your Investment

As part of our world-class service that we have curated over 20 years, we have a built-in guarantee for your investment.

Our guarantee to you is that your investment is protected 100%, and we do this by offering both trial and extended guarantee periods.

We not only protect your business with our guarantee, but we also make sure that the investment you make with us is spent wisely, and we do this by giving excellent value for money.

Our Recruitment Service

Despite diversifying our services, recruitment is still very much at the heart of what we do.

We have a world-class resourcing team to find the best fit for your vacancy. Our talent attraction team continually works in the market to attract the best candidates that companies are unable to reach on their own.

We offer three different recruitment packages to suit your needs.

Again, your recruitment investment is always protected 100% – we mitigate any complications to provide you risk-free recruitment.

Finally

Don’t underestimate the value of working with a recruiter at this stage, even if you’re not recruiting currently, because they can help with so much more than that.

All business owners need help at some stage, and particularly in the current climate. Whether it’s identifying skills gaps, uncovering business needs and consulting on skills gaps. reating business plans, hiring for current vacancies, or filling your talent pipeline – we can help.

Get in touch with us on 01772 259 121 or contact us here to find out how we can help you get to the next stage of your business plan – whatever that may be.

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.

Recruitment should be in every strategic business plan. Recruitment is a necessity in business, yet in times of crisis, some short-sighted organisations start to disband their HR department to cut costs – leaving the company in a precarious position.

Aside from the fact that cutting your HR department will make growth and expansion more challenging – there are also unexpected vacancies to think about. What often happens is that the recruitment process is left to someone who is either unqualified or who lacks time – not an ideal scenario. Today we look at how businesses can approach recruiting when their HR departments have been severely affected by Covid.

Get Your Job Adverts Working Harder

Think of your job advert as an extension of your company brand – it should act as a beacon not just to attract the best candidates to you, but to ensure that the candidates you are attracting are ‘right’ for your business.

Businesses recruiting with an HR department can be tempted to hire the first person who applies who is qualified. And this is understandable.

But you must consider the implications of hiring someone who is not right for your company culture – and this can happen when hiring is done in a rush.

So spend some time crafting your job advert to signal to applicants if they will really be a good ‘fit’ for your organisation.

Some tips include –

• Skip the buzzwords – say what you really
• Be as detailed as possible, but keep it succinct
• Focus on where the company is going – this will attract driven individuals
• Be honest and realistic – often when companies can’t find the ‘right’ hire, it is because they’re looking for a unicorn.

Of course, you can always work with an expert recruitment company to write your job adverts. At Clayton Recruitment, we can not only compile talent attracting job descriptions for you; we can help you to understand what it is your team is lacking.

Promoting Your Brand To Attract Talent

I have been surprised at the number of businesses who have gone quiet on social media throughout the pandemic.

It has never been more essential to promote your brand and keep your name at the forefront of your customer’s and client’s minds.

But this is also a great way to attract top talent to your business.

Use social media, LinkedIn especially to promote your company brand, to position yourself as an employer with your finger on the pulse.

Many great individuals are looking for new roles right now, and they will be attracted to the companies who have the most engaging profile, whether that’s social media, your website, a YouTube channel or podcasts. Get your name out there, and the best talent will be attracted to you.

If you don’t have a dedicated person to run your social media account, appoint a member of staff to do checking regularly and interacting with people. And this doesn’t have to be a long task, even just 15 minutes a day will help to strengthen your brand.

When you are more active and engaged on social media, you can then build a talent network which will be the next stage of your recruitment drive when you haven’t got a dedicated HR department.

Build a Talent Pipeline

Having an active audience and interacting with people from your sector on social media and LinkedIn is a great way to start building your talent pipeline.

A talent pipeline is the best way to ensure that you have people lined up for your upcoming vacancies – remember that you never know who might be handing their resignation notice in next.

I’ve mentioned LinkedIn and social media, and the following are great ways to build a talent network –

• Hold or attend sector webinars. Due to the pandemic, networking has gone fully online. Connecting with members of your sector virtually is a great way to increase interest in your brand and your business.
• Use your existing contacts – do you have an employee referral programme? Do you keep in contact with previous candidates and applicants?

Building a talent pipeline is going to be essential for your business strategy if your HR department is not operating at full capacity. Get in contact with us here if you would like to discuss how we can help you build a talent pipeline.

Consider Temporary and Contract Employees

This is one of the best ways to recruit when you need to fill a vacancy or to help your organisation with what it needs right now – that is not a long-term commitment.

The rise in temporary and contract employees happening right now shows that many employers are using this as a strategy.

Hiring an employee on a temporary basis, whether that’s an interim director or a marketing specialist, is the ideal solution to getting the HR resources you need into your business right now as you figure out what you need in our new normal.

We specialise in temporary and contract work, and we can help you find the talent you need on a non-permanent basis.

If you would like to know more about how we can help you hire for the roles you need during this business-critical time, on a flexible, temporary basis, get in touch with us today.

Call us on 01772 259 121 or contact us here to find out more about our temporary recruitment service.

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.

In the corporate world, as everywhere, teams come in all shapes and sizes. Getting the right people into your  team can be challenging. When you onboard, you are looking for a good team ‘fit’ – attitude as well as aptitude to do the job.

For the most part, if you have followed due process when onboarding, your team should ‘gel’ well and work collaboratively.

But what happens when one of your employees isn’t a team player?

For example, you have a new, big client. You want your top team to work together on a case this client has given you. It will involve much collaboration, sharing out the tasks, visiting the client, days in court, etc. Everyone is excited to be part of this.

Your Managers and Senior Managers will handle the main workload and ensure duties are carried out; including documentation and attending meetings; even the graduate trainee is looking forward to experiencing being part of an exciting case.

But your new Manager who is in a pivotal role, is not engaging with the project at all. In fact, they are looking distinctly as though they wish they were somewhere else.

Are they just not team players, or is it something else?

The Pitfalls of Not Engaging Your Team

It’s a fact that people grow your business. If one or more of your team are disengaged, it will affect productivity and performance across the whole team.

Collaborative working may not be top of the priority list for everyone, but the job of a team is to move the business forward to success. The bottom line is that it is part of everyone’s job description – and that means working together.

TEAM – the rather cheesy acronym of Together Everyone Achieves More, does ring true. Handling a member of your team who doesn’t believe that collaboration and communication are the way forward can be a major challenge and one that you need to address – quickly.

So, what are the best ways to deal with your employee who just won’t join in?

Look for Hidden Reasons

As Stephen Covey advised, “Seek first to understand”.

It’s easy to leap to conclusions about other people who aren’t playing the way you want. You could dismiss your new solicitor as just lazy or being deliberately awkward in their unwillingness to work with the team.

But maybe there’s something else?

It could be that they don’t believe they have the necessary skills for the project in hand, or that they have a personal problem at home that no one at work is aware of.

They are only human – and problems can manifest in many ways.

So, check-in with them and give them the opportunity to explain if there’s a problem that’s stopping them from getting involved.

Check Your Communication is Clear

Make sure you are clear with your instructions and communications.

Is it possible that the individual has misinterpreted your intentions? Have you been clear?

Especially if you have more than one disengaged member of the team, it could be that you need to communicate your intentions more clearly.

So, make sure your expectations are transparent so that each individual knows exactly what their role is and what is expected of them.

Listen

It can often be the case that an employee feels disengaged because they don’t believe they are being listened to. So, consider talking less, and allowing them to voice their opinions, concerns and ideas.

By practising active listening, you will gain valuable insight into what makes them tick, and where the root cause of their disengagement lies.

You will also empower them, and they will be much more likely to see themselves as part of the bigger picture with a role to play. By engaging them in this way, you can also encourage feedback and offer support.

Acknowledge Their Work

Do you remember the last time a senior member of staff said ‘thank you’ to you for a job well done?

Receiving praise and acknowledgement is a sure-fire way to instil a sense of passion and willingness to do more in an individual employee.

The ‘win’ doesn’t have to be major; it could simply be a thank you for staying late to help finish a case or write up a report. But it indicates your appreciation of the employee and the part they play in your company.

Offer Development Opportunities

Whatever job role you have, sometimes the daily grind can seem just that. Let’s be honest, we all have moments where we feel bored at work; stuck in the same routine every day.

Mixing it up, where possible, will reignite enthusiasm in your team. So, send your Paralegal out to visit clients with a Solicitor, or allow your Legal Secretary to work on an extra project where they have autonomy.

Coaching or mentoring is a great way to get individuals involved and build up their confidence and skills.

By offering opportunities, either official training and development or just something a bit different in the daily workload will help re-engage disinterested employees.

Embrace Inclusivity

Inclusivity into a team and the business as a whole will ensure that each individual can see how they fit into the overall aspirations of the business and make them feel that they are contributing to its success.

As part of that inclusivity, it’s crucial to ensure that all staff are kept in the loop with the business’s news – whether that’s good or bad.

Good news will, of course, help engage and inspire, but not so good news is also important. Delivering bad news is never easy. But sweeping it under the carpet is a source of frustration for many employees – it can lead to a feeling of being kept in the dark by employers (and consequently a feeling of not being important) as well as leading to the rumour mills springing into action.

So, deal with news, whatever kind it is, by engaging your team, so you can all move forward together.

Be Aware of Social Styles

Finally, remember not everyone absorbs information in the same way.

The way individuals interact is known as their preferred ‘social style’, a phrase coined by David Merrill and Roger Reid in the early 1960s. It explores how people behave in social (or work) situations to ascertain how to predict managerial, leadership and sales performance and therefore how managers can get the best out of their team.

Spending time with your team will enable you to understand how each member prefers to interact and contribute. You can then use that information to moderate your behaviour towards them, making them feel more comfortable to make their contribution.

So, bear in mind that a disengaged employee isn’t a lost cause.

By utilising one of two of the suggestions in this article, you can help foster a culture of inclusivity where individuals are inspired, encouraged and motivated because they feel part of a bigger team and can see the role they play in contributing to growing your business’s 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.

Before we look at ways to build a diverse workplace for your team, it’s worth thinking about what exactly we mean by a ‘diverse workplace’. There are so many buzz words around at the moment that it’s hard to know what they all mean – and if they communicate the same thing to everyone.

The ‘company culture’ that diversity and inclusion bring have gained momentum as de rigour in the world of work for candidates looking for employment. A recent workplace study found that 56% of employees valued a good company culture fit over salary.

Workplace diversity means employing people with a wide range of diverse characteristics. These could include age, gender, race, religion, cultural background, language, sexual orientation, education, ability, etc…the list goes on.

But it’s not just a fad – there are tangible benefits from offering a diverse workplace in the form of achieving higher productivity and profits for those who embrace workplace diversity in their business. And workplace diversity was one of the key trends last year – with no signs of stopping as we head towards 2020.

So, how will building a diverse workplace for your team encourage them to flourish? Here are 9 ways diversity can help your business achieve success:

1. Increases Creativity

Diversity is one of the critical ingredients for creativity. Diverse solutions come from having multiple options that are provided when you have a group of individuals with different thought patterns, world views and ideas.

In your team, having employees who are all very similar in terms of mindset and life experience inevitably leads to a smaller viewpoint overall.

Conversely, harnessing the personal creativity-diversity techniques of a group of people who recognise that everything can be viewed in multiple ways can lead to the generation of more creative ideas. If your Fee Earners and Solicitors come from diverse backgrounds and experiences, they will inevitably have a wider pot of knowledge from which to draw fresh ideas and solutions.

2. Allows Different Perspectives

Different perspectives are beneficial when it comes to strategic planning.

The ability to see things from alternative points of view will allow your business to better judge which direction it should take in goal planning. Having varied options, and a clear idea of results from those options will enable your business to decide which is the best route to take to achieve the required overall result.

3. Makes Problem-Solving Easier

Again, the scope provided by a diverse team makes it quicker to problem-solve. Because different individuals think in different ways, it’s possible to quickly come up with various potential solutions to a problem, from which a final decision can be made.

This Harvard Business Review report confirms that diverse teams solve problems faster than cognitively similar groups.

4. Encourages Innovation

A melting pot of novel world views can open doors to innovation. It can be inspiring to be part of a group that sees things in a different way and can come up with creative innovation that otherwise may not have been considered. The ability to think outside the box and from a different angle can enable diversity of ideas to come to light.

Additionally, in an environment where diversity and inclusion are nurtured, it’s likely that individuals are more inclined to voice their ideas without fear of reprisal or ridicule. For example, junior members are more enabled to come forward with ideas if they believe they will be listened to and encouraged to contribute.

In a forward-thinking workplace, you are more likely to achieve innovation through group participation – you never know what ideas your team may hit upon!

5. Engages Employees

The link between diversity and engagement is an obvious one. Where employees experience inclusivity they automatically feel engaged and loyal to their business.

Businesses that has engaged employees will benefit from a strong team with shared values. Along with diverse and inclusive traits comes a nimble and agile team who can turn things around quickly, achieving more in less time and with access to multiple possible solutions – driving your business forwards.

6. Improves Company Reputation

Your Employer Brand is how you are perceived by the outside world. To ensure your business is seen in a positive light as knowledgeable, reliable and at the top of your game, it’s essential to ensure that your employer brand is truly reflecting your worth and achievements.

Having happy and motivated employees helps your business retain its status and reputation. In addition to the better service they will inevitably provide your clients, their online chat and information – formal and informal – alongside word of mouth and personal recommendation to friends and family, will help position you as the go-to business.

7. Achieves Better Retention

A business who offer a diverse and inclusive workplace is going to make their employees feel valued and appreciated as individuals. Happiness in work leads to better retention levels, with staff showing loyalty to a fair employer and staying with them to build their career. Employee turnover can be costly, so investing in your diverse team is pivotal in achieving better retention rates.

8. Attracts New Talent

Ultimately, a business with a great reputation for diversity and inclusion, who has engaged employees, good profit margins, innovative ideas, a superb reputation and high retention levels is bound to attract new talent to want to work there.

And if that isn’t enough to convince you…

9. Increases Profits

McKinsey & Co found that where companies had more diverse teams, they also performed better financially.

Diverse teams are better able to win new talent to the business. This, in turn, helps to improve client service, employee satisfaction and make decision-making faster.

All this gives a forward-thinking, diverse business an advantage over competitors and enables them to achieve more profit as a result: a cycle of increasing returns.

Conclusion

Bringing a mix of skills and experiences to the workplace is good for business, providing an admirable company culture for your business. It’s worth noting that this starts at the top, too. Diversity at senior level is more likely to introduce new product innovations than are those with homogeneous “top teams.”

In the millennial age, offering diversity and a great company culture means harbouring an environment where all employees are respected and valued, where there is a vision shared and worked towards by everyone, and where communication, transparency and teamwork are paramount.

While I’m not suggesting that achieving excellent diversity across your business will be easy, it’s something to consider working towards. The benefits are multiple, and your employees will thank you for it – as will your Senior Partners when they see the benefits reflected in the business’s reputation and profit margins.

About Clayton Recruitment

Clayton Recruitment has been partnering with organisations across thecountry since 1989, and during that time has built up an excellent reputation for trust and reliability. With specialist divisions covering Commercial, Financial, 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.

If you would like to access our free guides, view them all 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.

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.