How to hire the best talent How to hire the best talent In the last blog, we looked at several ways you can find the best talent for your team. This blog will highlight best practice recruitment strategies. Whilst reading it’s important to remind yourself we are talking about the “best talent” for your business. It’s also important to remember the difference between active candidates and passive candidates. The chances of active candidates being the best for your business are small. Taking this into consideration the task ahead of you isn’t going to be an easy one. The best talent can be circumstantial. They can also be unaware of your interest or even worse they might not be aware of your company. This is why it’s essential that you treat hiring the best talent with the same importance as your company treats getting new business. Let’s take a look at how you can use this mindset The best practice recruitment strategies Network your backside off That’s right, hiring isn’t just a full-time gig, you’re going to have to put a bit of the 6-10pm work in as well. Next time you attend a conference, trade show or meetup. Do yourself a favour and don’t just think of the potential for new business, think of the potential the people you meet could add to your business. We are naturally social animals. Because of this recommendations from friends, colleagues and peers carry weight. Whether it’s a plumber for your house or a hire for your company. Expanding your network and helping those that you network with by introductions to the rest of your network will turn out to be one of the best recruitment strategies in the long run. Don’t settle for sticking to what you know. Look to attend both industry related networking events and geographical events. Never judge the value of an event by its description on Eventbrite, just go. If there are only 7 people there you have never met before it will still be worthwhile. Turn your networking into a habit. Commit to one a week. Get out there and provide some value to others where you can, consistently. “Never judge the value of an event by its description on Eventbrite, just go.” Be the best company you can be As mentioned at the start. The best talent might not have heard of your company. If they have, do you think they will recognise or have had a chance to learn how good your company is? You may not be the boss but you can still have a massive impact on your company’s culture. Grab a pad and a pen. Or open notepad. Now. Make a list of the top 20 things that you think a great company should have in their makeup that makes them great. Once you have jotted down your list and double checked it. Take the top three and write them down on a separate piece of paper. Put together a plan with your current team of how you can put these three things into action. Use your resourcefulness and make our company into one that is all that it can be. One that you are proud of and one that the best talent would love to be a part of. Make your employees part of it Being personable and showing your real side can be one of the most effective tactics for spreading awareness of your company, campaign or hiring requirements. Especially in todays saturated ad market. So how do you go about spreading the good word or work of your company using your employees? Get them involved in as much as you can. Film an interview with your most recent hire and ask them about their experiences in the first few months or whatever the time frame would be. Bring your employees in and find out if they want to start out podcasts or a YouTube channel. Whatever you choose. Make sure and get them involved in the most natural way for them and allow room to grow and develop. Consistently putting out this kind of honest content will give you 104 extra ways each year (@ 1 post per week on both) to reach out to the best talent in your space. So there you have it, three of the best recruitment strategies that are easily available to you. Networking, being the best company possible and utilising your employees experiences. Want to read last weeks blog looking at more specifics in hiring the best talent…here you go. Spread the word Facebook Twitter Google-plus Linkedin Snapchat
How to find the best talent for your team
How to find the best talent for your team By GORDON RENNIE According to some of the behemoths of our day like Google, Amazon, Uber and Airbnb growing with the best talent is something that can hold back so many companies from achieving their goals of growth. Kevin Systrom in an interview with Reid Hoffman on The Masters of Scale podcast said that instagram would have grown faster and with less problems if they had hired better sooner. With only a team 13 strong Instagram achieved huge download figures in the region of 20 million almost instantly from launching. So what can we learn from the mistakes made by these companies and put to work better policies that will help to grow your business or put in place the best teams that will help you get to the next level in your career. #1 Referrals When was the last time that you made a hire from a referral? Better yet, when was the last time that you put it out to your colleagues, employees or wider network? One area that companies can learn from recruiters is their referral policy, for example, I offer £400 of Amazon vouchers for a successful referral. It might not sound fancy or new age but it works, put it this way, if I had a team of 20 or 30 people that were already bought into the company and the culture I would be putting them to work every time I was hiring. Don’t do the lazy thing and send an email cc’ing everyone in. Get them together or go round and talk to them one by one. #2 Job Board Searches Solely posting jobs on job boards might make you feel like you have done your job as you sit back with a cuppa and wait for the applications to come in. If someone lands on your job post at the particular time your job is appearing at a certain part of the feed on a certain day IS JUST PURE LAZYNESS, sorry, I meant LUCK, yeh Luck. Granted, you are often better lucky than good but if you can be good and lucky you’ll double your chances of finding the best talent. Mining Job Boards for top talent can be a mind numbing, long and arduous task but it remains a great way to find relevant talent. Partnered with your job post you will drastically increase your chances of finding the best talent available in the market. ” If someone lands on your job post at the particular time your job is appearing at a certain part of the feed on a certain day IS JUST PURE LAZYNESS, sorry, I meant LUCK, yeh luck” #3 Social Networks This one is obvious but depending on what it is that you do and where the talent you are looking for hangs out will determine your best practices here. LinkedIn is the obvious one, personally, LinkedIn has been one of the best resources for me since starting in recruitment. It’s right up there with referrals. Facebook and Instagram are other great places to go, its easy to find people that are either following companies or people like you or certain hashtags. You might even think about running referral campaigns with your followers offering something for their help in finding the best talent for your company. Bottom line, if you aren’t spending a couple of hours a day on LinkedIn and other social networks looking for talent then you will find it hard. That doesn’t mean cruising through the feed liking posts but searching through the database and finding talent. ***Inside tip*** connecting with people works better rather than in mails, this way you can play the long game and like their content, talk to them and build a rapport of value. #4 Don’t Wait, Act! Do you know that you have to hire in 5 months time? Have you done anything about it yet? Hiring is a full time, 52 weeks a year gig, if you want to do it properly you can’t rest on your laurels or wait until you get the go ahead to get the job advertised. If you know that you’ll be hiring in 5 months, 7 months or 11 months time, get searching now, get connected to the market and attend networking events related to the area you’ll be hiring in. Waiting until the time is limiting your options and increasing the chances of making a bad hire. Don’t worry. If all of the above sounds like too much work get in touch at gordon@eyonzy,com and we can make sure your next hire is your best hire. Do you know someone that could benefit from reading this? Send them the link or share in on social. Thanks for reading and good luck on your search, Gordon. Spread the word Facebook Twitter Google-plus Linkedin Snapchat
Tech Salary Reviews – Feb ’19
Tech Salary Overview February 2018 This is the first of our Tech Salary Reviews that we will post online each month across a whole host of positions across the country. These will be the averages for the area, there will be positions available either above or below the guide salaries: Technical Lead – UK – £55,300 Edinburgh – £55,000 Glasgow – £55,000 Dundee – £44,900 Aberdeen – £61,700 Inverness – £42,000 Senior Developer – UK – £48,000 Edinburgh – £41,000 Glasgow – £40,400 Dundee – £40,100 Aberdeen – £50,500 Inverness – £38,000 Senior Software Engineer – UK – £50,400 Edinburgh – £45,000 Glasgow – £46,000 Dundee – £44,400 Aberdeen – £44,800 Inverness – £40,500 Software Engineer – UK – £34,765 Edinburgh – £33,500 Glasgow – £32,000 Dundee – £32,000 Aberdeen – £35,700 Inverness – £28,800 Software Developer – UK – £39,155 Edinburgh – £42,100 Glasgow – £34,600 Dundee – £34,600 Aberdeen – £40,800 Inverness – £32,300 Junior Software Developer – UK – £25,400 Edinburgh – £25,000 Glasgow – £25,000 Dundee – £26,100 Aberdeen – £27,000 Inverness – £23,900
How you can make LinkedIn work better for you with these 4 tips
How you can make your LinkedIn profile work better for you with these 4 tips We take a look at some of the recent updates to LinkedIn that can help you get even more out of the platform, some of them may not be “recent” but could have easily gone unnoticed. Voice Messaging If you want to get in touch with some of your contacts but you don’t actually want to type a message you can quite easily go into the messages now and send a voice message all you need to do is hold your finger down on the microphone icon and let it record One set back of this is that it actually only lasts for one minute and truth be told it’s a bit buggy at the moment and you may find yourself having to record four or five times before you can actually send them. If you’re going to use it I probably recommend that you try and keep you on your message to with probably around 40 seconds at this point messages seem to send easier. Job searching You may not be aware but you can now search for remote jobs on LinkedIn. Recent studies have shown that the number of people working remotely is been up year-on-year for the past five years and obviously it’s a trend that will going to continue with that being said searching for location can completely change your job search to know the functionality of booking more all you need to do is click on the search bar type in the job you looking for and in the location in click report this will insure you all there are more jobs are available within your search parameters on LinkedIn We aren’t quite at the level of Facebook or Instagram with live video but surely it won’t be too far away. In the meantime, you can send your contacts a quick voice message instead of typing away all the time. Linkedin Salary There are plenty of salary calculators all over the internet but if you trust LinkedIn more than most you can review salaries for any title in any location you like. You can look at a country as a whole or drill down into the specifics. Here are a couple of examples: .net developer in Glasgow – £37,400 .net developer in Edinburgh – £38,000 Senior Developer in Aberdeen – £50,500 Senior Developer in London – £60,000 Always helpful if you have been off the market for a while and find yourself looking over the fence to see what else is going on. You can find it by simply searching for LinkedIn Salary on any search engine. Former Name One for the ladies, recently married or married a few years ago and worried that people won’t be able to find you. Fret not, LinkedIn has you covered. Navigate to your profile page and click on the pencil symbol to edit. Underneath your Last name field, you see “Add Former Name” in blue. If you click this and enter your previous name people will be able to find your profile if they type in your old name. Probably not a great idea if you are on witness protection.
What is the most important thing you probably don’t have in your CV?
What is the most important thing you probably don’t have in your CV? For so many job hunters their CV reads like a job description for each of job on their CV, accountability can single handedly change the impact of your CV. There is no doubt about it, searching for a new job, no matter if you are employed or unemployed is stressful and tough. There are many unknowns along the way in your job hunt, simple things like these can play on our mind for weeks before we know. How many other candidates have applied for the job? Am I the best candidate out of the bunch? Can I actually fit in with that company? None of these unknowns should change your approach to going for a new job and writing that perfect CV for it. Have you actually created the perfect CV or have you left it to the end of your day and put it together in 20 minutes while you watched the new series of Luther (if you haven’t seen it, its F****** Awesome but save it for actual down time). If that is the case then there is one certainty we have determined so far…your half assed approach has probably resulted in a half assed CV. If thats the case then the answers to the above questions are It doesn’t matter. Possibly, but it won’t matter. You might not get the chance to find out. Harsh…maybe but more than likely to be nothing short of the truth. On the other hand, if you just aren’t confident in putting your best self forward in a CV or maybe you don’t know what really makes a good CV stand out from the crowd. If that is the case then lets put that argument to bed. “The number one thing you can add to your CV is accountability.” Another name I like to use for this kind of CV is a KPI CV. For those that don’t know, KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator and refers to the targets you were set at the start that you will have to be accountable for. So when you start your new CV write down each job with nothing else apart from what you were to be accountable for when you started that position. Then write down how you performed in relation to these KPI’s and build that out. For example, I just Googled (“Sales” AND “CV” and “PDF”) and picked the first CV I found, this candidates latest job was a Senior Sales Director. Nice start, next I looked at his description of his achievements in that role, heres what I found: Successfully promoted the company’s services to the local and regional market; Attended networking events and participated in exhibitions; Grew business through cold calling and social media marketing; Fulfilled the role of account management and local support to local and regional clients. Now, whilst this is all nice and positive, if you are the hiring manager and you have 17 CV’s to go through from equally qualified candidates would this really stand out? Probably not, and it wouldn’t really grab your attention. However, if it read like this: Grew company sales by 22% by successfully promoting the company’s services to the local market; Achieved regional growth of circa 14% through a variety of cold calling, social media marketing and creating a more structured sales processes; Strengthened existing customer relationships by improving account management processes resulting in securing contract extensions for the majority of clients. Straight away you can tell that the second candidate has improved communication skills, greater accountability and looks like a serious performer and if the rest of the 17 CV’s were similar to the first example then this second example candidate is more than likely going to make the shortlist. So the next time you are creating a new CV don’t be the half assed version of yourself or think that a hiring manager can read your mind and know how amazing you are. Instead, be accountable and absolutely kill our competition with a KPI CV.If you are looking for some guidance on your CV why not get in touch and take advantage of a free CV Review. Send me an email to gordon@eyonzy.com with Free CV Review in the subject line.Thanks for reading.
Hiring Lessons From Google
Hiring Lessons From Google Hiring Lessons from Google According to Google, hiring is the most important part of a starting or running a business successfully. Below are some key values that Google stand behind from the interview process to the actual hiring of a new member of staff. Be very clear what want Fairly obvious but you would be surprised the amount of companies that might not be completely clear on what they want for the role and to be part of the team. Get it all down and discuss it with your partners or other members of your company. What are the two or three things that you really want the right person to have? General Cognitive Ability One of the key metrics that Google look for in a candidate is their General Cognitive Ability or problem solving. How does your candidate break down a problem? Ask open-ended questions to see how the candidate approach and solve problems. There are no right or wrong answers here you are looking at their thought process and how they use data to inform decisions. Leadership Are their occasions when your candidate helped a team succeed when they weren’t officially the leader or even in the team. How much does your candidate take ownership, do they have an entrepreneurial nature? Role Fit An obvious one and related to be clear on what you want. If it is a technical candidate make sure that they meet the language knowledge requirements that you have identified for the role, if in doubt it is probably time to move on. NO PANIC HIRING! Hiring by consensus The team involved in hiring and the interview process should have consensus on the right candidate, and be able to verbalise why or why not. No more than 4 interviewers Too many interviewers can damage the quality of the interview and put candidates under too much pressure where they don’t perform. According to the data Google have collected and analysed 4 people on the interview panel is the ideal number. If you have a small team and don’t have 4 people able to interview, bring in trusted advisors. It falls into the next point. Add an outsider into the interview process Being a start-up that grew at an astonishing pace a big potential issue that Google wanted to avoid would be that there were no (or at least a minimum) panic hires. When a manager or a team are under pressure to deliver a project on a tight time schedule they could all to easily take on someone that meets part of their requirements. This is why Google would ensure that an outsider, someone not involved in the team and aware of the pressure or problems that the team has are involved in the interview process. Brain Teaser Interview Questions How many golf balls can you fit in a Range Rover? What do you think this kind of question would achieve? Jack Shit, Brain Teasers don’t really show much about the candidates. That is why Google binned such questions and moved on with what actually works. Lastly, Take your time You might feel like you are in a rush to deliver but it takes a lot more effort to work with someone that doesn’t meet your requirements and potentially get rid of them and start the whole process again. NO PANIC HIRES, take your time and find the right person.
Top 6 movies for HR Managers this Christmas
Top 6 films for HR Managers to watch this Christmas The Christmas trees are well and truly up by now and the advent calendars are starting to get that little bit lighter. Truth be told by now its only dad’s, recruiters and those working on the rigs or at sea that aren’t organised / ready for the big man in red coming through the velux window. There is still plenty of time to snuggle up at night and listen to the wind batter against the windows as you enjoy a cup of hot chocolate, otherwise known as a large glass of Shiraz, and watch some good old feel-good movies to get you in the mood. Given that we are a new business we thought we would start brown nosing before the new year with our list of the 6 must watch films for HR Managers this Christmas. We have included a guide of number of large Shiraz’s that you can have before you shed a tear, minus 1 for me and plus 1 for the more hardened HR Manager… 6. Up In The Air – Safe for a bottle. Starring George Clooney and Anna Kendrick. Clooney works for a Human Resources Consultancy and travels the country as a corporate downsizer, the companies new hire Anna Kendrick comes up with a more efficient way of firing people and Clooney tries to show that its important to meet these people face to face before changing their lives. 5. Inside Out – Probably better for a Saturday morning with the kids, teas and coffees all round. Inside Out is all about collaboration and how different personality types can get along with the right mentality. 11 year old Riley moves to a new city and this is the story of how her feelings sadness, fear, anger, disgust and joy work together to get her through the experience. It has that lovely warm christmassy feeling throughout so you won’t be disappointed. 4. Moneyball – Completely safe just a good film Brad Pitt is tremendous in Moneyball, based on a true story about the uses of data analytics to enhance team performance. Moneyball has a lot in common with the modern workplace within the constantly changing world of Data Analytics. 3. The Intern – danger for parts of it after 3 glasses Robert De Niro’s takes on a pivotal role within Anne Hathaway’s start up at the grand old age of 70. De Niro’s wisdom and experience gets him through the testing online culture of the modern workplace as he comes to the rescue on several occasions. 2. Horrible Bosses – just enjoy your wine and plot away Working for sadistic bosses and experiencing sexual harassment drive Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis to taking care of their horrible bosses once and for all. Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey and Colin Farrell effortlessly take on the roles of the three bosses threatening to end marriages or worse. 1. Office Christmas Party – You just can’t ignore how significant the win is at the end after 3 glasses The title gives the game away but this is a classic easy watch christmas film in which HR has a representation throughout, perhaps not the best representation though. Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman and TJ Miller star in this as childhood sibling rivalry leads Jennifer Aniston CEO of Zenotech to try to close down her brothers branch and cancel the traditional Christmas Office Party due to recent poor performance of the company as well as laying off 40% of the company. Miller and Bateman try their best to ensure that they win the business required to keep their branch open. Whatever you watch this Christmas we hope you have a Merry Christmas and an amazing New Year.
10 questions to ask at the end of an interview
10 questions to ask at the end of an interview Have you ever walked out of an interview only to suddenly realise you have about 5 questions that you never got the answer to? Or thought, *insert swear word*, I should have asked this…? Most of us probably have. You might have spent between 45 mins – 1.5 hours trying to impress your interviewers with your skills, knowledge and experience and missed out on a vital opportunity to completely swing the odds in your favour with some well thought out questions. Taking the time to prepare some good open-ended questions is worth its weight in gold, we have put together a list of 10 questions to help you on your way… Can you describe the culture of the company? This is a great chance for you to interview the company, there are certain types of environments that we will not be as effective in compared to others. This shows that culture is important to you as well as showing your maturity in that you are looking for the right job in the right company. Respect. What are the challenges facing the company or department just now? Now you are giving the interviewer and potentially the hiring manager the chance to open up about the company and their challenges. You may be surprised by the answers you get and if you think, waoh, that was really honest and open of them you might have just started to build a proper rapport with your interviewers. What do you like the best about working for the company? This is a nice clean and positive question to ask. Again, it gives you the chance to gain more of a personal insight into the hiring manager / interviewer. How do you compare to…*insert competitor* and how are your products superior? This gives you the chance to demonstrate that you have done your research and have market awareness whilst establishing if you might be fighting and uphill battle or better yet working with innovative and market leading products. What are the next steps in the process? This is purely for your benefit, but it can be a good gauge of how the interview went. On occasion you can be invited to the next stage there and then from asking this simple question and if nothing else you will have a clear idea in your mind of what will happen next and by when. What habits and processes did past employees have that helped them succeed in this position? Asking about the habits and processes will give you great insight into how the company or hiring manager measures success. It also shows that you are open to other ideas and willing to learn / assess rather than someone that will come in like a bull. How does the company promote professional development of the employees? Are you walking into a company that looks after its employees by constantly improving their skill sets and knowledge or is it the opposite and there is no development culture in place? What would the future career path look like from this position within the company? This can be a tricky one as your interviewer may be your immediate boss if you are successful and might feel threatened especially if you have strong experience. Having said that, wouldn’t you rather know that the ceiling is upon you before you start or 2 years in? Avoid asking a version of this question like “would there be an opportunity to move up into the next level within the first year?”, remember that you are applying for a specific job, trying to make a move for the next rung on the ladder before you are on the ladder can be looked at as disrespectful to your future team members. Why did the person that used to have this position leave? Whilst nobody should be negative during the interview, asking this question will give you a better idea of whether or not some of the other answers you have received match up. It might also help you understand the timeline that you will be held to in order to achieve your KPI’s. What is the current flexible working policy? This is important to some more than others but if you would be looking for an environment that promotes flexible working practices and has more of a focus on employees being engaged and happy then this might be an important one to ask. Spread the word Facebook Twitter Google-plus Linkedin Snapchat