On Wednesday 28th October, our Executive Director Susie will be teaming up with Jonathan Mamaril, Director for NB Lawyers – Lawyers for Employers. In this free webinar*, they’ll share simple solutions to navigate employment law, alongside real case studies and examples.
Managing people in this current climate has brought unexpected challenges and new legal risks. Particularly, recent General Protections and Unfair Dismissal cases have tested companies and employers on:

• their processes for stand-downs and employment terminations
• the genuineness of their redundancies
• performance management (especially with work-from-home set ups).

This webinar will give you the knowledge you need to ensure your organisation is compliant and following best practices to mitigate legal risks. 

The Value of Behavioural Interview Questions for Teachers

These types of questions are especially useful for recruiting teachers. That’s because with teachers, perhaps more than almost any other profession, how you handle possible situations you may experience in a room with 30 some-odd kids of different personalities and backgrounds becomes incredibly important.
One of the best ways to come up with behavioural interview questions is to talk to teachers about real, unique challenges they have experienced and then turn them into some type of interview question. But for those that would like some guidance about possible interview questions to ask, consider the following:

• Describe an effective process you have used in handling a disruptive student in class.
• What strategies have you used to help students who are below grade level?
• What steps did you take to improve a lesson plan that did not work?
• What is important to you when you prepare to meet with parents of students?
• Describe an effective way to teach the concept of teamwork in the classroom.
• Explain your step-by-step process when writing your lesson plans.
• Tell me about a time when you did not have enough time in class to cover the planned material. What steps did you take?

As always, this represents only a small sample of the number of behavioural interview questions you can ask for teachers at the job interview. But it’s also important that you integrate the actual challenges that people face in your specific work environment. For example, if your school is particularly diverse, asking the applicant how they will respond to some type of cultural challenge may be worthwhile.
Finding the right teaching candidates is a great first step, but it’s answers to behavioural interview questions, like those above, that will help you find the perfect candidate. For more teaching recruitment in Australia, please call Recruit Shop today.

Questions to Ask at the Interview

The job interview is your chance to find out the answers to these questions. But you have to make sure you ask the right questions. “How are you with deadlines?” doesn’t really encourage a detailed, useful answer. Instead, you’ll want to ask specific behavioural interview questions that give you a chance to see how they’ve reacted, or how they would react, in a variety of real life situations. For example:

• Explain, step-by-step, your workflow when working on a tight deadline.
• Describe how you’ve worked with clients who do not know exactly what they want in a design. How did you get started on the project and what steps did you take to assure that the outcome was successful?
• Tell me about a time when you had to change a design that was close to being finished.
• Describe how you would train someone new on creating a business logo for an engineering company.
• Give an example of a time you had to collaborate a design with a team member who had a different vision.
• Describe your most favourite design, to date, that you are most proud of creating.
• Tell me about a time when you’ve had to focus on a specific project, but had many distractions around you. What steps did you take to ensure your project was completed with maximum attention?

These are only examples of some of the questions that you can ask at the interview. But the idea is to make sure you’re specifically asking behavioural interview questions that address real life scenarios that people may experience, or at least scenarios that tell you something about how the person acts and reacts in various situations.
If behavioural interview questions are not already part of your job interview process, consider adding them. The value they provide can be substantial.

The Problem of Candidate Dropout

For many companies, candidate dropout is a real problem. Indeed, candidate dropout is, itself, a warning sign that something may be wrong with your hiring process. Usually, when someone receives an interview for a job they are happy, and stay in contention until the moment they are either hired, or told that the company is going to go a different direction.
If someone is turning down interviews, or has decided they are no longer interested in the position in some way, it may mean:

• You’re losing out on great applicants.
• You’re doing something wrong that is affecting their interest.
• Your company may have some type of negative PR, etc.

Perhaps the greatest issue is the first one. The most likely candidates to drop out of contention are those that feel they can get a job elsewhere, and often that implies that they know they are good candidates for other positions.

How to Reduce Candidate Dropout

Luckily, there are many different techniques, strategies, and tips that you can use to reduce candidate dropout. If dropout has become a problem in your hiring process, consider the following tips:

• Make Yourself Available at Better Times – Not all dropout is due to something your company did or didn’t do. Sometimes it is caused by simply not being able to take time off for the interview. One strategy to consider is to make yourself available at times more convenient to the applicant, like after work. This helps ensure that you can hire those that are employed at demanding jobs.
• Communicate With Them Often – Dropout sometimes occurs as a result of a lack of communication. Many companies spend weeks at a time failing to communicate whether or not the person got the job (or even the next interview). Frequent updates go a long way towards ensuring that the candidate retains their interest.
• Respect Their Time – Similar to making yourself available, you should also make sure you’re respecting their time. That means trying to bunch interviews together, rather than forcing the individual to travel for 3, 4, or 5 interviews. It means knowing that they are taking time off work, and not dilly-dallying around and wasting their valuable sick days. Respect the time of each candidate you call.
• Shorten Your Hiring Time – The longer it takes for you to make a decision, the more likely the candidate is going to move on. Try to hire quickly and efficiently to keep interest level in the position high, and reduce the risk of the applicants finding other positions they get more excited about.
• Know What the Employee Sees About You Online – If you have negative reviews of your workplace, or any PR that may turn people off from working for you, the applicant is going to see it. Be aware of this feedback and address it in some way, because everyone that is applying for your job will do their research.
• Give Them Reasons to Work With You – We discuss this a lot here at Recruit Shop, but as a company, it’s important to make sure you’re offering something that other companies are not offering. They should have a desire to work for you, because you represent something more than just a salary. Try integrating strategies into your business that will turn on possible talent.
• Show Them How You Match Them – Sometimes all you need to do is make sure they recognise how well you fit their needs. Consider what you have learned about them through the interview process and show them that you’re the employer best suited both for their abilities and their personality.
• Make the Interviews Engaging – When an interview is too rigid and formal, it can be an intimidating and discomforting experience for the applicant. Make the interviews more engaging. You can do this by having them take place at a coffee shop, telling them more about the great parts of your workplace, etc.
• Offer Jobs Fast – If you think you may hire them, don’t waste any time letting them know. One of the greatest mistakes companies make is taking too much time. The applicant is looking for an answer, because they need to move on with their needs as well. Companies that take too long to offer the job tend to cause applicants to look for better work.

Each of these strategies has the potential to reduce candidate dropout, which should be a priority for all companies. The more likely someone is to withdraw their name, the more you’re losing out on potentially great contributors.

What is a Human Resource Manager?

Human resources is the department that handles all tasks as they relate to those that either currently work for your company, or may work for your company in the future. Just like an office supply manager would be in charge of office supplies, so too is a human resource manager in charge of humans as resources.
Their job encompasses a wide range of goals, and yes, hiring is often one of those goals:
• They recruit and hire staff for open positions
• They make sure that new employees have what they need.
• They make sure that existing employees have what they need.
• They make sure that each part of the company has the resource (person) they need.
• They make sure that employees are satisfied, handle employee complaints, and more.
Human resource managers are, as the name implies, the people in charge of the human resource department. Although they have many other roles, they do generally handle many hiring tasks, but they are not necessarily hiring managers.

What is a Hiring Manager?

Human resource managers have a specific title within the organisation. Hiring managers, on the other hand, can be anyone in the company at any time.
The hiring manager is the person at the workplace, generally a supervisor of some kind (although not necessarily), that is in charge of making the final decision on who to hire to replace ONE position. For example, if the IT department is looking for a new coder, then the head of IT may be the hiring manager for that job, as they are the final decision on who they want to add to their department.
The manager of the sales department may be the hiring manager for the new Sales Lead hire. The manager of marketing may be the hiring manager for the Social Media Specialist position. In theory, the hiring manager may not be a manager at all. Any employee within an organisation may considered the hiring manager if they are tasked with finding someone for an open position.

Hiring Managers and Human Resources

Human Resource managers may also be hiring managers, especially with large companies that depend almost exclusively on their HR departments. But since most applicant approval is left to someone in the department they will eventually work, that is often not the case.
Finally, the person in charge of finding and interviewing candidates may be called the hiring manager even if they are not the manager that makes the final decision. For example, if you are a department manager that has someone on your staff advertise the job, review resumes, interview, and then you are simply there for one final interview and approval, the person that did all the work was “managing the hiring” so they may be referred to as either “hiring manager” or “hiring staff” and the term is often interchangeable.
Hopefully, this clears up a bit of confusion between the terms. When we talk about recruitment, frequently we talk about the word “hiring manager” as a catch all for anyone on staff that is involved, because the tips and strategies are the same regardless of their actual title.

• Good with Kids – Everyone can like kids, but not everyone is good with kids. The ability to play with children, keep them safe, and help them learn requires a specific type of personality.
• Staying Around – Turnover can be high in child care. Companies need those that are going to stay with each passing year.
• Knowledgeable and Intelligent – Child care often involves quick thinking, the ability to see and spot problems, excellent focus, and more.

With all of these needs in mind, the following are several strategies that you can use to improve your recruitment process and hire better child care workers.

How to Hire for Child Care

• Take Advantage of Self-Selection

You want people with both passion and energy. Self-selection strategies are excellent for this type of career. Self-selection is when you require extra tasks to go along with the resume/CV before it can be accepted. For example, require that applicants submit answers to 5 questions, as well as share 3 ideas for children’s games before they can apply.
Those that do not have a passion for child care, and those that are unwilling to give their work their full effort will be unwilling to do these extra requirements. Those that are willing to do the extra work are showing many positive qualities that are important in the child care workplace.

• Prioritise Personalities

Experience in child care is excellent to have. But personalities, especially when children are at a younger age, is often as important. See who has the right attitude to work with children. Find ways to analyse candidates during their interview that teach you about their personality, and use that to determine who to hire.

• Offer Amazing Training

For many, working with children is natural. That means that hiring may not be the main issue. Their ability to thrive depends on you. Offer in-depth training that helps them understand how to act with children, how to keep them safe, how to collaborate with other staff, and more. This training both improves the quality of your hires, and reduces turnover by making the job easier on the staff.

Contact Recruit Shop Today

If you are looking to hire child care workers in Australia, and want help finding the best possible staff members, contact Recruit Shop today – the most affordable, most effective Aussie recruitment agency.

Employees Take a Long Time to Acclimate

Very few new hires work their hardest and best right away. In fact, according to an article in Training Industry Quarterly, it takes at least 1 to 2 years before an employee is “fully productive”. That means that even after an employee has been hired, they may not be as productive as the previous employee for 2 years. You’ll be losing out on potential value for months to years after your previous employee has left.

Why Does it Take So Long to Adjust?

Employers often think that a new hire will adjust quickly once they’ve been brought on staff. The general assumption is that all the employee needs is some training, and suddenly they’ll be experts at their job. Yet no matter how much experience someone has coming in to the new position, adjustment is going to take a great deal of time:

• Time spent getting acclimated and understanding their first tasks.
• Time spent asking questions and trying to figure out where things are.
• Time spent feeling uncomfortable about whether they’re doing their job right.

There is time being shy before openly talking to co-workers, time being unsure about the products and services of the company, time spent figuring out what to do. It’s not all the employee either, as after any new hire it’s not uncommon for the employer to struggle to figure out the best role for them and how to maximise their talents. Sometimes weeks are passed with an employee doing very little because no one can figure out what they should do next.
There are countless reasons that employees take a long time to adjust. But no matter the specific cause, the time it takes a new employee to be at their peak productivity is much longer than most employers believe.

What This Means For Your Business

Your business’s goal is to maximise your ROI. When it comes to employees, there are traditionally two very important parts to making sure you get the most from the money you invest in your employees:

• Hire the Right People
• Keep Those People

Recruit Shop can help you with the first. But once you have those new employees, it’s up to you to make sure that you’re keeping them around, because the costs of losing that employee can affect your business for years to come.

• Have Them Write the Job Description – No one knows the job as well as they do. They should be the one writing about what the job entails, including breaking out the work that they complete, how often they spend performing each task, and anything the incoming staff member may need to know.
• Have Them Consult on the Job Advertisement – You may know what you want in the next staff member, but the exiting staff member is going to have an excellent idea of what their replacement is going to need. Make sure they are consulting on the job advertisement to replace them.
• Survey Their Reasons for Leaving – Employees that are leaving the company can provide you with highly valuable information that can help you avoid retention issues in the future. You can ask them about management, about engagement, and about any of the issues that may have affected their satisfaction levels during their time at your organisation. This information can be very valuable in avoiding similar problems in the future.
• Let Them Create Training Manuals/Advice – If possible, have the employee complete training manuals to help future employees with the role. If it’s not possible to have them complete them manual, then have a staff member that is in charge of training new employees talk to them and see what trainings may need to be completed in order to ensure the next employee is up to speed.
• Have Them Prepare a Schedule and Contacts – The incoming person is going to have a lot of work right away, especially if the previous employee was a great contributor. To help both management and the new employee know what to do next, the exiting employee should create a calendar of events for months in the future, provide contact information for anyone involved, and make sure that the person is ready to step in on day one.
• Make Sure They Reorganise – Everyone has their own organisational system, but before the employee’s last day, everything should be standardised in some way. This is especially important for those that work with computers. Items should be very easy to find and manage, in order to reduce training time for the new employee.
• Let Them Train the Manager – Often during an employee’s tenure, the manager tells them what to do. But before an employee leaves, it may be a good idea to put the manager through a training. By allowing the exiting employee to train the manager, the manager gets a better idea of what their workday was like, knows the job inside and out, and can better prepare the incoming employee.

In addition to the tasks you have them complete, you should also give them a great send-off. Treating employees well affects the entirety of your company’s morale, and is a good practice no matter your industry.
Learn From Every Employee
The key to great recruitment and better employee retention is to always be learning, and often there is a great deal you can learn from an employee that is in the act of leaving your company. Take advantage of every opportunity to get information, and make sure you take advantage of their knowledge of the role.

• You do not receive an offer letter with information on pay or benefits.
• You do not hear from the company.

You are essentially sitting there, wondering if the job will suddenly be taken away from you, or if you’re going to be paid enough to make it worth your while. You accepted the job in your excitement, but now you are afraid to call back because you’re afraid that you’re going to have the offer taken away.
In addition, perhaps when you do start the job, you find out the pay isn’t as good as you were expecting, or more money than you thought is taken out of your paycheck for benefits. Suddenly this amazing new career seems like it may have been a mistake.
This story has been told millions of times because most employers do not think about what the applicant/new employee is feeling when they offer them the position. They assume that the offer is enough, and they fail to make the applicant feel special, wanted, and excited to work for you.

Creating New Employee Excitement

Anytime you hire someone for your company, it’s crucial that you treat them like you need them there. That’s because how an employee starts with your company affects their future productivity and longevity. In a way, it’s your company’s first impression, and you want that first impression to be that you’re a great place to work.
It’s not necessarily offering them more pay or better benefits, although certainly, that can help. It’s about showing them that they’re important. You can do that by:

• Sending an offer letter immediately, so they know that they have the job.
• Re-explaining all of the great reasons to work for your company, even if the pay is lower.
• Sending them some type of branded gift or small bonus check to show them you care.
• Personalising a letter to them or calling them during the weeks leading up to their first day.

The more positive you are and the more you show the new employee that you value them, the more likely you’ll have an applicant that will start at your company with excitement and energy, and a productivity level that is certain to impress.
Remember, recruitment is only one step. Retaining employees is part two. While we at Recruit Shop are happy to offer affordable recruitment services in Sydney and across Australia, we also know that your company has to try to hold onto them, otherwise, you’ll simply be coming to us again with the same problem in the future. Consider ways you can make your new employees feel welcome and special so that they are motivated to stay with your company for decades to come. Download our full guide, Making the Job Offer by clicking here.