Nice guys finish last…or do they?

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Being kind is important
Being kind is important

It’s nice to be nice, right? I always try to help people out – in both my personal and professional life. I recently read a blog by Gary Vaynerchuk about kindness and why it’s so important in business.

He says, “I want to build big businesses and buy the Jets, but I want to do it by being a good guy. I have zero interest in building the biggest building by tearing other people down.”

And it really resonated with me – being kind and helpful is at the core of re:find and how all of us here think and work. It’s important for us to do a good job and help people. There is a stereotype in business that ‘nice guys finish last’, but I just don’t believe that’s true. We can’t physically place all of the candidates we meet, but we can help, give our expertise, or even just point someone in the right direction and this costs nothing!

Being kind is important

I think being kind is important for lots of reasons:

  • It’s nice to be nice! It makes you feel good to be kind and help people out.
  • People don’t forget your kindness. If you look after someone, they remember it – which could end up helping you out in the future.
  • Most of my clients are candidates I have worked with previously and built long-standing relationships with through being helpful and kind.
  • Employees/colleagues like and respect you. If people like and respect you, they’ll work harder, do a better job and the team will be happier and more productive.
  • It’s rewarded – someone is always watching. Even when you think something hasn’t been noticed, it probably has.

When you strip back the titles and status

When you strip back titles and status, we’re all just people – and who wants to deal with someone who’s a bit of a t***!? Being kind gets people on side, which is important in business. Whether it’s dealing with clients, candidates or team members. If you get on well with a client, they’re more likely to continue using you. If you look after a candidate, they’ll remember your kindness. If you look after your team, they’ll work hard and be loyal – people don’t leave their companies, they leave their managers.

Ultimately, we’re all human and we all appreciate someone being decent and looking after us. So, I’d encourage everyone to be kind – you get a lot more out of it than you might think!

If you would like to discuss further, email me at sam@refind.co.uk.

You can view more about Sam Perry our Shared Services Executive Search expert here.

How to lose friends and alienate people…

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How to lose candidates and alienate people
How to lose candidates and alienate people

We are in the 21st Century and candidates SHOULD be at the centre of what we do. Let’s be real for a moment. Candidates are key to our success – they are the one thing that stands between success and failure as a recruiter.

But I would be bold and say 40% of recruiters treat their candidates like shit. Treating a candidate badly can destroy the reputation of you/your business. Any press isn’t always good press and trust me candidates talk. And they talk even more when they have had a bad experience.

 

So, here’s what not to do:

1.   Sell them the dream…

I get it…recruitment marketing is a hot topic right now, everyone is getting training on how to write engaging job adverts, how to be witty and get candidates attention etc. That doesn’t mean you have a to be a billy bullshitter. Don’t sell the candidate the dream – unless of course, the job is Chief wine taster at an exclusive hotel in the Bahamas – because who would turn that down?

Anyway, my point is, be honest with a candidate when talking about a role. Yes, tell them all the good things about the role, but tell them all the bad things too! Talk them through the client’s challenges and shortcomings.

Jobs aren’t all about flexible working and table tennis tournaments, sometimes companies are in a bad situation, don’t have the best brand etc. and that’s ok, in fact, some people like that about a job!

 

2.   Force a candidate into a role they aren’t sure on

Picture this. After hours of searching on LinkedIn and your job boards, you come across the holy grail of candidates. Your purple squirrel, glittery unicorn, whatever you want to call them. They are the perfect candidate for your role.

You pick up the phone, excited to tell your candidate about their dream job. But to your shock, they aren’t keen.

Newsflash. Just because they are perfect for the role, doesn’t mean the role is perfect for them. Respect their decision.

Don’t try and push them into going for an interview. Don’t even push them to apply if they aren’t keen. You look desperate and pushy.

You risk them being offered the job and turning it down, or worse, you risk them leaving in that elusive rebate period. You also risk them thinking you are a bit of an idiot and that you only care about your fee.

 

3.   Drag your candidate into an ownership war with another agency

It is the most frustrating thing in the world when you spend time qualifying, meeting and briefing a candidate on a role, send them over to your client…only to get the dreaded email response.

‘ We have already received this CV from Cowboy Recruitment, sorry’.

The candidate has not been spoken to by Cowboy Recruitment about the role (they claim!) so doesn’t know how her CV is already in the process.

There are two ways of dealing with this:

–       Politely step away from the situation and allow the candidate decide how they wish to proceed in the process.

–       Demand that the candidate calls the other recruiter immediately and tell them how terrible they are, whilst simultaneously emailing you to confirm that you have the right to represent them on the role.

I advise the first. Step away and allow the candidate to decide how they process. Naturally, there is some subtle influence you can have on this, but doing the second option makes you look like a petulant teenager.

Candidates also don’t need the reminder that they are simply just a fee to you – it makes you look greedy. Show them you are supportive and have their best interest at heart.

 

4.   Call your candidate in the morning on the day they are due to start their new job and then every day for the next 3 months

Your candidate isn’t an 18-year-old teenager who may or may not turn up to work, depending on how pissed they were the night before (apologies to any sober, reliable 18-year-olds).

You don’t need to ring them the day they start their job. A simple call the afternoon before, to check they have everything they need or the following day will suffice.

Candidates are intuitive, they will sense that the fact you are calling them every day means they are a flight risk. Also, their first few weeks are really full on. Give them some space and allow them to settle in, then check in with them.

 

5.   If your candidate doesn’t get offered the job….ignore them

In my opinion, this is the worst possible thing you could do to a candidate and it is the most damaging thing for your reputation.

Nobody really likes to tell a candidate they didn’t get the job…but it is not acceptable to ghost them. Other unacceptable ways of delivering feedback include emailing, leaving a voicemail, or getting your resourcer to give the feedback instead.

Don’t be a terrible human being. Your candidate has worked hard for you, they have understood the brief, done their research, spent 2-3 hours of their time with your client to represent you to the best of their ability. The least they deserve is some honest feedback.

 

6.   Give vague feedback

Almost as crappy as giving no feedback, is giving vague feedback. If you are giving feedback on your opinion to a candidate, don’t be afraid to tell them the truth.

Think their CV needs some work? Tell them.

Don’t think they interview well? Tell them.

They don’t have the right skills for the role? Tell them.

You get the gist.

A separate challenge is when a client gives vague feedback about a candidate. It is ok to push back on your client and ask for further detail or examples of what the candidate did.

Feedback should be constructive. Tell them what they did well, where they fell down and how they could improve.

Candidates may not always agree with the feedback, but they will be appreciative of the feedback nonetheless.

 

7.   Only communicate by email

If you are afraid to pick up the phone to speak to a candidate, you are in the wrong job. Pick up the phone and speak to them, what is the worst that could happen? It takes as much time and effort to speak to someone on the phone as it does to type out that email.

Contacting people exclusively by email is impersonal, impractical and to be totally honest, just bloody lazy! I don’t care if your candidate isn’t based in the UK and there is a time difference, or if they are travelling, or you are ‘super busy’…pick up the phone!!

Now I’m sure some of you are reading this, thinking it all seems pretty obvious. I’m also sure a lot of you reading this are guilty of doing one of the above things.

We are all guilty of letting standards slip from time to time, but let’s do our best not to become one of the clichés in those recruitment bashing posts we see on Linkedin!

 

 

For all things interim management, change & transformation, get in touch with us via the info form below, and if you would like to feature in our ‘Insiders Story’ blog, email me on kate@refind.co.uk.

 

You can view more about Kate Wass our executive interim specialist here.

Insider Story – Resourcing Transformation at Gowling WLG

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For August’s instalment of Insider’s Story, I met up with not only one of my favourite HR professionals, but one of my favourite people in general, to talk about ‘resourcing transformation’.

The wonderful Jo Franklin, Head of Resourcing for Gowling WLG, agreed to sit down with me and have a chat about the huge ‘resourcing transformation’ journey they have been on.

She explains how they have transformed their resourcing strategy and well and truly stepped out of the ‘Wragge & Co shadow’.

Gowling WLG has been on quite a ride over the past few years…

What was once Wragge & Co, then Wragge, Lawrence Graham & Co, (before joining forces with top Canadian law firm Gowlings) and finally Gowling WLG was born.

Jo joined the business post-merger in the early part of 2016. They had gone from being in the Top 25 to overnight becoming a part of a major international law firm. As a result of this, their resourcing and talent strategies needed some serious development and she was in responsible for resourcing transformation.

“ It was a testing period”, Jo admits “as I joined, three of my most experienced team members were going on maternity leave. All of that knowledge and experience leaving at a time of considerable change!”

The Transformation

The vision was clear; to make Gowling WLG a recognised brand in the marketplace, to compete against the top law firms and to secure the best talent across lateral, business services and early talent.

The perception that the resourcing team was very much an administrative support function was something that Jo wanted to change. As around 60% of the team’s time had been spent on recruitment admin, they wanted to adopt a business partnering approach and get more stakeholder facetime.

Jo says, “We wanted to have a position in the market where we could source directly, because of our reputation.”

To put this into perspective in the legal sector, agency hire rates sits at around 60-70%. Jo had set herself a target of direct sourcing at 60%.

In order to achieve this, the team needed to look at a number of things including Employer Brand, EVP and Internal Engagement.

How did you do it?

One of the key pieces to landing any big transformation is to engage with your people and to take them along on the journey. They wanted to focus on their people, rather than the work they do.

Gowling decided to undertake 360-degree feedback to determine their true employer values.

This consisted of 12 workshops with people across the brand, from trainee to partner level. It also involved leadership interviews and market research to understand what made working at Gowling WLG different and unique.

From this developed an employer value proposition (EVP)framework upon which the new careers site would be based.

Headed up by the team members returning from maternity leave, they employed the service of two specialist agencies to convert their EVP into attraction messaging and built their careers site around this.

In order to meet their own challenging direct sourcing targets (60% of all offers), their social media and direct hiring activity needed to be supported by a creative, informative and content-rich careers website.

This is Gowling WLG’s first full careers site. For several years, the firm has had an early talent website, but the offering for fee earners and business service professionals was limited, and the team was keen to promote their new enhanced apprenticeship programme. Now they have detailed information on the firm, its culture and all the different job families in one place, which is presented in a creative and engaging way.

‘You can’t just tell people what your values are’

A common mistake that many organisations make is just announcing what their Values and EVP are, rather than engaging with people, which can alienate people and leave them feeling unsure of their identity.

Rather than just announcing firm values, it is far more effective to live and breathe them, and they slowly infiltrate into the business as usual.”

There must be a mindset change for any transformation to be implemented successfully.

Jo and her team did this through empowering the people around them.. Rather than focussing on what was wrong with the current approach, they demonstrated how great things really could be by sharing knowledge and helping people to understand that there are other ways of attracting great candidates…

Jo says, “Don’t tell people, let them experience it”

Developing a ‘Dream Team’

Jo recognised that in order to truly provide a value-add service to the business, developing her team’s offering was key.

At the time of joining, their agency spend was substantial…

Due to previously having a limited view of forthcoming requirements, the firm had become used to a reactive approach to recruitment and this was going to be a huge change for them.

Proving the model worked and providing tangible results in the first few months was vital, both in the quality of candidates introduced and time to hire.

One of the key hires to the team was Chris Lake, who had an exceptional track record in direct resourcing, having worked for a legal agency for 6 years prior to joining Gowling WLG.

Jo empowered the team to start taking a more forward-thinking approach. They began to identify and map the key markets within the firm’s key sector areas, understanding the active candidate market but more importantly building a picture of passive candidates that could be developed into a talent audience for the future.

The resourcing advisors started to build trust with key stakeholders and taking time to understand their business objectives and working with managers to plan for skills gaps and provide competitor insight and analysis to build credibility.

‘This wasn’t an original solution’

Now Jo, whilst undeniably fantastic, isn’t a part of some kind of secret recruitment magic circle!

The direct sourcing model isn’t an original solution, however, it’s usage within the legal sector is limited within the Top 100 law firms. In addition to this, varied results and methods are evident across the sector – i.e. direct sourcing limited to business services/non-fee earner roles or paralegal level recruitment in some firms.

What is clear, however, is that Jo has opened her stakeholders’ eyes to ‘what could be’ if they trusted in her and her team.

By really engaging with your people, being armed with knowledge and taking a genuine interest in your stakeholders, you can build fantastic relationships.

This doesn’t necessarily happen over-night. Jo herself will admit it has been in huge part down to her teams’ sheer persistence, determination and energy to truly add value that this transformation has been such a huge success

Where are they now?

12 months after Jo and Chris joined the business, Gowling WLG had succeeded in reducing its cost per hire by 41%. The time to hire for the new direct talent strategy 30% lower than for previous hires through recruitment agencies.

The success has continued with the team meeting their direct hire targets year on year, producing real and credible savings on agency spend, whilst still focusing time on building relationships with their key agencies to help with niche roles. By April 2018, they had exceeded their initial 60% goal.

The team were also delighted to receive a prestigious HR in Law award in May for their careers site, which they are now extending out to their international offices, the first being Dubai.

I’d like to say a huge thank you to Jo Franklin for taking part in my Insiders Story series! To find out more about life at Gowling WLG, visit their careers page at: https://gowlingwlg.com/en/careers

For all things interim management, change & transformation, get in touch with us via the info form below, and if you would like to feature in our ‘Insiders Story’ blog, email me on kate@refind.co.uk

You can view more about Kate Wass our executive interim specialist here

Shared Services, want to attract the best talent to join your business?

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Shared services
Credit: The Office, NBC

I recently published an eBook called “Why Top Performing Shared Services Talent Won’t Join Your Business & What To Do About It”. In this eBook, I explain why it is that big reputable brands (which have world-class shared services centres) still find it difficult to recruit and retain the best talent. Even though these brands may believe that “everyone loves our brand and it’s a nice place to work…” this isn’t necessarily the truth.

Is that the message you are giving off to a passive candidate market?

With over 75% of shared services professionals passively looking (and not actively seeking) a new role, then it’s no wonder that it’s difficult to attract and retain the best talent!

Delivering the right message to shared services professionals

Candidates are being increasingly selective over their future employer, and considering that Monarch Airlines, Carillion, Toys R us, House of Fraser, and Maplin (just to name a few!) have gone into administration during the past year, why would you want to leave your cushy job where you’ve worked for years, and where Betty knows how to make the perfect cup of tea, for somewhere that isn’t as secure and may be at risk of joining all of the companies mentioned in the previous sentence?

It’s important that shared services give off the right message, follow the right process and keep up with their competitors when it comes to recruiting.

The most desired Shared Services assignments in the past 12 months that I’ve managed have been within newly created roles. But why is this?

Is it because there isn’t an expectation there, or because they feel the company are performing well by creating these new roles?

Newly created positions offer a chance for candidates to put their stamp on a role and make it their own. As these positions are created due to demand for a certain skillset within a business, they also provide candidates with a sense of feeling wanted and allows them to see these roles as a challenge and the chance to pursue something new.

It’s all about how you deliver the message, and how this message is perceived by your potential future employees!

So the big question is, how do you excite people to work for your shared service centre if the role is replacing someone who lacked motivation, was bored and didn’t enjoy coming into work….

It’s all in your message.

How you get this right in your Shared Services team!

And I have just the thing that can help you with this… In my free eBook, I examine the steps you can take to stay ahead in the field.

If you would like your free copy, email me at sam@refind.co.uk

You can view more about Sam Perry our Shared Services Executive Search expert here

What makes a good HR business partner?

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HR has seen quite a change over the past few years, thanks to the introduction of new technologies and changing cultural attitudes. So it makes sense that the qualities of a successful HR business partner may have gone through a similar metamorphosis since Ulrich first introduced the concept.

 

These days more focus is needed on how they add value to a company. But you can’t just go from being traditional HR to HR business partner overnight, as a completely different set of attitudes, beliefs and skills are required to pull off this role.

So, what exactly makes a successful HR business partner (HRBP)?
  • A well-rounded knowledge base. As the job description for a HR business manager has become all-encompassing, the knowledge base of a HRBP must be as well. Similar to a typical HR manager, a HRBP should have a sound understanding of the law so that the company they work for understands their legal obligations to their employees. Additionally, a basic understanding of psychology is also beneficial as the role now entails more interaction directly with employees.
  • Business-minded. Originally the key characteristic of a HRBP is that they were someone who understood a company’s financial goals and worked to create solutions for HR-focused issues. This characteristic still remains highly important in a modern day HRBP, as without a clear business focus and understanding, a HRBP is not adding value.
  • People skills. Now that this role involves more interaction with employees, it means that a HRBP needs engaging social skills. There’s no point in having great ideas if you can’t sell them and communicate them effectively. If the right person is in the role, then they will be able to enable employees to feel safe and motivated in their workplace and more open to change.
  • Self-belief. If you don’t believe in the impact that HR can have on a business or your own influencing skills, then why should other people? If a business is going to reach its targets, everyone in that business needs to believe that they can make a difference. And those differences start with HR!
What about the top qualities of a good HR business partner?
  • The ability to build good relationships
  • Business acumen – they know the business well
  • Good work ethic and attitude
  • Experts in their field
  • Challenge authority
A change in the role of HRBP

There has been a huge change in the role of HRBP’s today compared to the same role a few years ago. HR was previously considered an extra department that was nice to have a security blanket for everyone else. Now, HR is essential, and businesses are missing out if they do not adopt this new approach.

Convincing people that ‘HR business partner’ is more than just the latest buzzword means being able to demonstrate value in your work, and with the correct skills and attitudes, the benefits that you can bring to a business are truly limitless.

There is still plenty of debate around what makes a successful HR business partner

There is plenty of resource to help you form your own opinion:

Carl Hinett is our Director & Executive Search Specialist. If you’ve got a hard-to-fill role and need some help, get in touch carl@refind.co.uk.

Want to hear more about our senior HR professionals golf society? Sign up here.

Business services: do millennial’s want a job or an experience?

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Business services: do millennial's want a job or an experience?
(Adventureland, Miramax)

Working in recruitment you hear the word ‘experience’ a lot…Usually, in business services positions, it is within the context of what a candidate can bring to a position, or specific experience a client requires: what previous experience do they have, how much experience is required for a role, that kind of thing.

 

But, as more and more millennials enter the workforce, I’ve noticed that this word is now being used more commonly to describe what a company can offer you…There are a still lot of lazy stereotypes regarding a millennial workforce, but if you want them to want to work for your business services company (or any other company!), you may want to take some notes – starting with the end of these tired stereotypes.

 

Millennials are the first digital natives to enter the working world and this hasn’t been lost on us recruiters. The differences between this generation and their predecessors, however subtle, can have a huge impact on what someone expects from a job.

 

Whilst millennials want essentially the same as everybody else; enough money to live comfortably, career progression, a friendly team and a good work/life balance. How these areas are prioritised is slightly different…

 

Increasingly, a higher value is being given to a positive work culture over what a starting salary may be. Millennial workers are frequently less engaged by the prestige of a company, as they are more inclined to work somewhere where they believe their work is meaningful and the company that they work for has a strong social purpose. Just because a company is a reputable brand, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a desired workplace.

 

In a current candidate-driven market, millennials are being more and more selective over their future potential employer.

 

You may have noticed recently that a lot of business services companies are now online so that they can showcase who they are and what they are about directly to a young, digitally engaged audience. Technology has changed, and it now allows millennials more access to research companies, check reviews and identify other employees via platforms such as LinkedIn.

 

Whilst each millennial worker is different, generally, they all want purpose over a paycheck (with a dash of success thrown in there!). They are likely to search for opportunities that will enable them to learn, grow and develop, and if companies want to get the best of the next generation to work with them, they will need to adapt in order to survive…

 

In such a competitive market, recruitment is a two-way process and companies need to sell their opportunity as much as the candidate sells themselves.

 

But what do you think? Do you work in business services or are you a millennial? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below or email me at sam@refind.co.uk.

You can view more about Sam Perry our Shared Services Executive Search expert here.

Thinking of taking a leap into the interim HR market? Go ahead and jump…

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Thinking of taking a leap into the interim HR market? Go ahead and jump…Senior HR professionals are increasingly coming to me to discuss the possibility of taking a leap into the interim market – with more and more expressing a desire go down the ‘consultancy’ route.

Rewind back to 2015 and this is exactly the position that Rachel Wade was in. A few years ago Rachel came to meet us to discuss her options. At the time she was the HR Director for EMEA, part of a Global Senior Leadership team. She seemed to have it all, but not all that she wanted.

My interim journey

Rachel is now 2.5 years into her interim HR journey. We talked to her, to get a real insight into what it takes to make it in the consultancy world. Her journey is one with many highs and lows and this is the brutally honest view of it.

Rachel was very lucky that immediately after leaving her permanent role, she had 6 months’ work offered to her. As amazing as this was, it also meant that she gave all her time to this role and didn’t focus on building her consultancy activities. So, when the 6 months were up and another piece of work didn’t materialise, it got real!

“It really hits when you are sat in an office, the phone isn’t ringing and the work isn’t coming in.”

Starting your interim journey isn’t always peachy – it took Rachel a while to find her groove. She realised that professionally she didn’t know who she was or what she wanted to be. Even as recently as a year ago she felt that her offerings were quite ‘vanilla’.

“It’s easy to get lost as so many people want to give you advice and tell you what you should and shouldn’t do. I had been positioning myself all wrong and was focusing on the wrong things. For the last 6-12 months I have been re-learning all the basics because at the start I was so client-led, I haven’t been in control of developing my business. It led me to remember why I wanted to do this in the first place and what my passion was.”

How do you plan your day?

“I have put structure into my day and that makes me feel empowered.”

Key priorities include: Getting invoices out to clients, chasing invoices, business development and having quality conversations with prospective clients.

Even when Rachel is delivering for a client, she still puts time aside to continue these important ‘behind the scenes’ activities. They keep the business going and her pipeline buidling.

Sales

However you feel about sales, as an interim you will have to do it in some way.

Contracts and clients won’t just appear from thin air. But don’t get too consumed with what to say and do, remember that you are speaking with your peers on these calls.

Don’t cold call – Rachel always takes the time to establish a relationship with prospective clients at events, seminars and workshops, or via LinkedIn.

Networking

There is no point going to a networking event unless you have a purpose as it takes up a lot of your time and resource.

Be selective about the networking events that you go to and do some research into the reasons behind the event and the type of people who are going to be there. Try to avoid the hard sell and don’t expect that by handing out your business cards to 20 strangers and giving them your sales pitch that you’ll win their business.

Remember that networking is exactly that – building a network. Making connections that you can learn from, give advice to, share knowledge and build a real relationship with.

‘Saying no’

It is so easy to take any work a client offers you, especially when things are quiet. But whatever this work may be, it will still require your time and effort. Try to figure out whether you want to do it or could your time be spent better elsewhere.

If you don’t align yourself with the business, or their expectations are not in line with what you can deliver, there is no shame in stepping away. Rachel admits that this is something that she has done in the past, and she has even stopped working with clients when it wasn’t the right fit.

 

What have been the highs and lows of the last few years in interim HR?

Highs

  • Getting the first piece of work. There’s nothing like the feeling you get when you realise that people will pay you for the work you do and that you are worth it.
  • Nominated for a ‘Woman Who’ award and was a finalist in the startup category. “Even though I didn’t win I got amazing feedback from the panel”.
  • Branding and taking up a virtual office space.

Lows

  • Getting lost on the journey and forgetting who I was and what my brand stands for.
  • Almost having my house and car repossessed.

After putting some structure back into her day and seeing some great results, Rachel is now focusing on building for the future. This includes putting in place proper systems and foundations and further embedding those crucial day to day activities. She also spends time analysing what works and what doesn’t, to continuously improve results. Rachel has also set herself financial goals and headcount goals and is now taking a more strategic approach to her business.

So there you have it… it hasn’t been easy, but through it all Rachel has stayed true to herself and the reasons why she chose to take the direction she did in the first place.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank Rachel for sharing so openly with me. If you would like to learn more about Rachel and her business, then you can find out more here.

Carl Hinett is our Director & Executive Search Specialist. If you’ve got a hard-to-fill role and need some help, get in touch carl@refind.co.uk.

Want to hear more about our senior HR professionals golf society? Sign up here.

Can you get fun accountants?

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Can you get fun accountants?
Can you get fun accountants?

Whenever someone is introduced as an accountant, whether this is at a party or a networking event, quite often you see the rest of the group’s eyes glaze over and images of grey, boring suits flash in their mind.

 

If I asked you to picture an accountant right now, in fact, that’s probably the exact image that you would think up.

 

Whilst there may well be accountants that do fit this description, there are also plenty that don’t!

 

Accountancy, believe it or not, can actually be kind of exciting…

Working as an accountant, each work day has the potential to be dramatically different from the next. Accountancy provides the flexibility to avoid boredom, as it is essentially a function of any business so there’s the opportunity to work in a variety of different business settings.

 

Accounting has changed over the years. Gone are the days where you are perceived to be sitting behind your desk, crunching numbers all day on Excel and being antisocial and systematic. Companies are utilising their finance teams and allowing them to work more operationally with other departments.

 

As a result, there is a real demand for management accountants who, in addition to the core finance and accounting skills, can offer strategic thinking and commercial insight, combined with influencing and, ideally, leadership skills.

 

Emerging technologies are changing the way in which finance works too. Many companies now use cloud-based systems, analytic solutions and newer digital tools such as robotic process automation that can take out some of the more mundane tasks of accounting, and free up more time for forward thinking and driving business performance.

 

Being an accountant opens up the door to be able to understand all operations of a business, as when it comes down to a business making important decisions, the money involved becomes a major part of the process. Working in accounting puts you in a great spot to be able to contribute to the success of the business by helping leaders make smart financial decisions.

 

For more information on exciting opportunities in finance and being a fun accountant, email me at sam@refind.co.uk

You can view more about Sam Perry our Shared Services Executive Search expert here

The birth of the roving recruiter

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Flexible working in recruitment

When re:find started out, I worked on my own in a mixture of hotel lobbies, coffee shops, David Lloyd gym members areas, private members clubs, a friends office space and in my own home office.

It makes you realise the importance of 2 things. Plugs and free WiFi.

Just kidding! Well, not really. Anyone who has worked remotely will know that on a day-to-day basis, it’s mightily hard to get anything done without those. Saying that I think my next business venture should be a TripAdvisor-style app, which reviews UK plug availability.

What I’m really talking about here is freedom and work-life balance.

I previously worked in a large firm with an 8-to-8 culture. Apparently, this has changed a bit over the years to 8-to-7, but that could just be hearsay.

Most recruitment firms are still very much in the dark ages when it comes to all of this. They say they do flexible working. But what they really mean is, you can leave at 5:30pm, if you have hit your KPIs that week. It’s hardly revolutionary.

As we enter the ‘Gig economy’, it seems that there is no reason why recruitment firms couldn’t be more open to different ways of working. With the introduction of cloud-based systems, mobile phones and a variety of social environments to work in. In many ways, it’s never been easier to build flexibility into a recruitment model.

As mentioned in a previous blog, it all comes down to trusting people to do the job they are paid to do and I think a lot of the larger recruitment agencies still lack a lot of that. Which is a pity for a people business.

Clearly, there is a need to communicate regularly, to build a culture and to meet up as a team. But we are in the digital age and this can be done in many ways. With the use of social channels such as Skype, Google Hangout and Yammer.

Will the large agencies ever change or is this is the way recruitment is going? Are we all soon going to be roving recruiters?

To discuss further, you can email me on James@refind.co.uk.

You can view more about James Cumming our change and business transformation specialist here.

Workplace flexibility: Is it worth implementing?

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Workplace flexibility

Many companies have integrated flexibility into their employees working life, but there are also companies that have not. This begs the question as to whether it is worth implementing flexible schedules or are more hassle then they are worth?

Flexible working is a working arrangement that gives an employee a way of working that suits their needs. This could be working from home or even having flexible start and finish times.

It has been brought to the forefront recently, that men have been given more ‘workplace flexibility’ than women. In an article recently published by HR Magazine, research showed that men are able to work six hours per week flexibly, whilst women are just getting three hours.

Given the rise of Generation Y and their desire to work to live (rather than living to work) it makes us question why more employers have not implemented flexible working?

Here are some of the arguments for and against:

Benefits of Flexible Working
More productive
Increase of morale
Enjoyment of work
Control over schedule
Reduction of tardiness
Increases employee loyalty
Reduces employee turnover
Reduction of employee burnout
Allows for a good work/life balance
Reduction of fuel costs and commuting time & stress
Reduces fixed office costs

Setbacks of Flexible Working
May not suit everyone
Managers may find it hard to adjust
No separation between work and home
Difficult to tell if someone is actually working or not
Some people may take advantage of the working arrangement
Are business systems capable of managing a remote workforce

As you can see from the two lists above, at face value, the benefits may seem to outweigh the drawbacks, which is why many businesses have already implemented this type of working practice.

However, in reality, it is still a big change for many employers who have not yet seen the benefits of this or for those who are change resistant and adopt more traditional working practices.

In our view, this will undoubtedly change with time, as one generation leaves the workforce and another takes prominence. The businesses that succeed in the new ‘gig economy’ will likely be the employers who get this quickly as they will become employers of choice and will win the war for talent – in what will be an interesting market for businesses and its employees alike!

To discuss further, you can email me on James@refind.co.uk.

You can view more about James Cumming our change and business transformation specialist here.