Challenge Blog

So this week sees Emma starting her maternity leave and we’re very excited to think that we’ll soon have our first Challenge Manager baby!  Aunty Challenge!

So this is a year for change and growwth for us both personally and as a business.

It feels exciting and yet a little bit scary too as we are still shaping what the future will be.  How we manage ourselves and our business through a period of change is so crucial to the experience our clients have of working with us so we’ll be doing our best to Manage our Challenges (so to speak!) in the same way as we support our clients to.

What is going on in your business that presents a challenge?  What exciting developments are you planning or managing right now?  How will you ensure success?

We wish you all the best with what you are doing and we are wishing Emma all the VERY best with her new arrival xxx

We’re still busy writing articles for the Chamber of Commerce and other publications.  They seem well received and we hope you find them useful when you read them here on our blog too. 

Our latest set of hints & tips comes at a time when we hope many businesses are beginning to believe that the worst might be over and be looking forward to business growth and development in 2010 and beyond.  So we’re focussing on recruitment, as are some of our clients.  We hope this is a great time for you in your business.

Recruiting for Success

Reports suggest that we are beginning to recover from recent economic hardships, and businesses that weathered the storm might begin to look towards a more positive year ahead which could mean a need for more staff.

It’s fair to assume that many businesses have changed the way they do things over the last year, seeing benefit in being cost aware, looking for efficiencies, and better ways to manage budgets to ensure long term stability.  With that in mind and whatever the reason you might need to recruit new staff, Sam Swinstead at Challenge Manager offers some pointers to recruiting for success.

1. Decide if you need to recruit at all.  Outsourcing functions such as telephone answering and printing can be cost effective and reduce risks as you only pay for these services as and when you need them.

1. Recruit for the right job.  When an employee leaves, avoid replacing “like for like” and look internally first.  Does the job need doing in the same way as before?  Are there people who are under-tasked or unchallenged who could take on some new responsibilities?  This keeps existing staff engaged and ensures you only recruit to fill genuine skills gaps in your workforce.

1. Attract the best applicants.  Produce a clear job description and person specification.  Advertise in appropriate places, including your own website and the job centre.  Use your network of contacts for recommendations and utilise sites like LinkedIn.  If you use a recruitment agency ensure they will get you the right calibre of applicants, and agree a clear fee structure and service level in advance. 

1. Recruit the best person.  Recruit for attitude – look for organisational and team fit – seek out the employee who has the attitudes and values that are important in your business.  If you find the right person find a job for them and hold on to them!

1. Run fair objective interviews.  Ensure you are up to date with equality legislation and plan interviews that assess the qualities you require from a new employee.  Competency based questions give indications of ability and work based tests give an objective measure of suitability for the job role.

1. Check check and check again!  Always take up references.  Ask for a medical report and Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks if the job requires one.  Most importantly but often overlooked, ensure that you check all potential employees for eligibility to work in the UK as the fine for not doing so can be £10,000 per illegal employee.

1. Plan an effective induction.  Staff that receive a good induction are significantly more likely to stay with a new employer so it is beneficial to put time and effort into getting this right after making efforts to recruit the best applicant.

Challenge Manager offer a FREE HR AUDIT to all Chamber members; call Sam on 07816 316598 or email sam@challengemanager.co.uk for a review to ensure you are legally compliant and following best practice, and to explore the most effective ways to recruit new people in your business. 

Wow - I can’t believe we’re in March already & I haven’t added to this blog since December! We have been so busy, both working with clients and on our own business. Our clients want plenty of support and advice with HR matters - we’ve been working with businesses that are taking pro-active measures to reduce costs and avoid redundancies, as well as working with clients whose businesses are continuing to grow successfully despite what we hear on the news. We’ve been implementing absence management systems, and encouraging flexible working as just two ways to maximise productivity, enhance staff loyalty and reduce costs. Clients with savvy have recognised now to be an essential time to keep on training their staff - they want to be “fit for now and the future” - they are focussing on essential management skills to survive the tough times and be ahead of the competition as things pick up. We’re delighted to help them achieve that! In our business we’ve taken to heart the message that now is the time when we need to do more marketing not less - but like many of our clients we are really looking to get the best value for money out of anything we do. So we’re busy networking and really reaping the rewards - if we’ve met you recently then we were delighted to have done so and if we haven’t yet met I hope we do so soon! I am writing an article for the local Chamber News on Flexible Working - I’ll post it here soon but in the meantime if you’d like a copy please get in touch. Wishing you all a great weekend!