I recall having an Executive vying for a $200k role a few years ago. We were down to the last three, he was a stand-out and the CEO was honed in on him well above the other candidates. He won the role, was offered and declined – he just wanted to meet the CEO (in an attempt to build his network) and win the job (for his ego). His intention was never to take it, and of course we will remember his name forever for all the wrong reasons!

Falling in love

You know that moment when you interview everyone and there is a clear winner? The other two candidates aren’t even in the same ballpark, and you just want to close it out and get the person over the line. It happens quite often, even to us. I remember one of my clients saying to me once ‘I never fall in love anymore’ – we were having a difficult time recruiting for her and she had been burned by a few ‘ex-lovers’ (top candidates) before. Her broken heart made her see everyone on the same playing field now which really made it difficult to sell the strong ones!

Putting all your eggs in the one basket

Maybe she’s right though. How often do we put people up on a pedestal only to be let down? We’ve often spoken to new clients that had given up during the recruitment process due to losing candidates. At the end of the day they have other functions of the business to manage and having to restart the process or go back to the hundred or more applications and start again doesn’t seem like a viable option. A lot of it does come down to falling in love. You see a heap of applications, one stands out and then the others fall in and around that applicant. Historically, you stop the screening process, move to interview, and the person does a killer interview but then never proceeds due to another offer or just declines with no reason. You don’t want to fall into this position!

How to win

There are a number of tactics to ensure that you can bring the best people into your team and business:

• Have a good value proposition around your role and the company – the more attractive your role and the company are, the greater the chance of attracting good people
• If you are a smaller business that doesn’t have a big network to draw candidates from and are solely relying on advertising, keep the job post open for the entire period you have paid for. SEEK is 30 days, keep it open for the 30. You may find the ideal candidate on day 3 but you should build a pool of candidates in the background in case that person does not take the offer – you need a fallback plan – keep screening them all
• Don’t fall in love! There may be a stand-out candidate but take the blinkers off and look at others that may have skills you could use in the business. The stand-out serves the current function but the hidden ones may actually be the better pick that takes you to the next level
• Outsource it to a specialist that understands how to attract candidates, has a wider net to cast and also has retention strategies to keep a candidate interested in the role during the process
• Act swiftly – the good ones do get snapped up quickly. A drawn out process can mean calling to offer the successful candidate, only to find they have already taken another role

If you need any further information or would like to find out more about how we can help your business, please call us on 1300 558 979. We are always happy to discuss how we can help you achieve your recruitment goals.

Well isn’t that an interesting concept. Think about this for a moment – imagine your entire staff being incentivised to add value to the business? Your receptionist earning bonuses, your admin and accounts teams as well as the HR and IT teams? The sales team are still in place and out there creating new business however, internally, there is an equally important functional team that is also focused on bringing in business and adding value well beyond their “normal” role.

The big change:

This was quite a unique company I was working with however the same principle can be applied to all businesses – it’s a matter of being creative, training your team and opening their eyes to the opportunity. It does not have to be flat out sales, there are many ways of bringing in business that can suit even the most introverted person. For this company there were teething issues at first – some came on board straight away, some hated the idea and eventually, a large proportion came around and became advocates of the idea and even more so, advocates of the company. They also improved their earning potential, learned about what the company actually did and gained an interest in where they worked.

Incentivising your staff:

Of course incentivised staff are not a new concept. We see it all the time with sales, BDM’s  Account Managers and the management team. What we don’t see often is those working in functional roles being incentivised. Some have KPI’s and eligibility for annual bonuses however, they are generally paid an annual wage with no opportunity to better that throughout the year. Basically they are seen as a necessity to get through the administrative tasks of the business to enable it to function – they are very important but at the end of the day, they have a ceiling to what each functional role is worth in the market. Imagine the retention and ‘buy in’ you would get by giving staff the opportunity to earn more, be rewarded for their efforts and feel part of the greater team. It’s not always an easy thing to implement and some employees may freak out when they hear of it so be careful and calculated in how you approach it!

It’s not just about the money, but it does have its place:

It is a fair bet to say that if you asked any of your team members across functional roles (admin, accounts, HR, IT for example) if they would like to improve their financial situation, there would be a very high percentage that would say Yes. Again, there is a ceiling in the market to what people can earn in a large range of roles and therefore people sometimes feel stuck. Think of the reasons you are given when staff leave – I’m bored, the other company was offering more money, etc etc. A motivated, incentivised and rewarded person just doesn’t have the opportunity to feel that way – they are too busy being part of something, improving their situation and learning. Not only does it add value to the company but it adds value to your people and could also improve retention. Your people are picking up new skills, being engaged with the business and their customers and getting the pat on the back that we all crave. It’s worked very well for one business that we know, maybe it could work for yours.

If you would like to discuss in detail what this company did to improve their business, feel free to call us on 1300 558 979 to see how it could be implemented in your business.

As a rookie recruiter back in my early years, I recall interviewing a guy for an interesting role in a high profile company that was undergoing expansion. Through all of our eyes (client, myself and the candidate) it offered growth, recognition and most importantly the culture he was looking for. He was excited, was offered $150k for the role which was fair for what it was, and accepted it. 2 weeks prior to starting he pulled out – the company he was working for and really hated, offered him an extra $50,000 and promised a new office locally, which he took.

What’s More Important – The Opportunity or The Starting Salary?

An extra $50,000 per year is nothing to sneeze at for most people – I don’t blame the guy for taking it – family came first for him and he had to do what’s right at the time. The problem was, when I followed him up not too long after, he was working away in a new company – he had left anyway. When I met up with him he had worked up a smile saying that he was happy in the new role and that the other guys hadn’t really come through for him – he got the extra money (7 months’ worth), the office had been delayed, but in the end, he was still working with the same people. On the other hand, the person we placed in our role was kicking goals and she really enjoyed the team and the interesting projects she was working on. One took the opportunity and the other took the money and left anyway.

What happens?

It’s the burning question that an employer would love to know about the candidate in front of them. Are they in front of me because it’s a great opportunity or are they just after the money? A large number of candidates just apply for a job which is fine  – as a recruiter we often hear things like “It was just an admin job. I’ve applied for heaps – which one’s this again?”

Some people desperately need the work, others apply for the role as it may improve their financial situation and some are just focused on escaping the madhouse that is their current job. Then there are others who look at the role on offer, see that it aligns with what they are looking for and actually research the company to see if it has the possibility of offering a career and learning new skills – they have a longer term, bigger picture strategy. I had a candidate that I placed as a CEO recently that took close to a $100k pay cut as the opportunity and huge expansion of their network was too good to refuse. When they finish their tenure, they will be well known in their region and have a heap of opportunity before them, just as their predecessor has right now.

What do you do?

As a candidate, it is a good idea to work out what’s important – work culture, career growth and the monetary rewards that go with it or just the chance to get more money? It’s a personal thing as we are all at different stages of our wants and needs. You also have to sell that story or vision when you are attending interviews and the best way to sell it is to be convinced yourself.

For yourself as an employer, you have to work out that what you are offering is attractive – is your company attractive, do you have a good work culture, do you pay fairly, do you offer further training or room to grow and also the ability for a person to earn more? How do you package that up to appeal to potential employees in the market? We all have to sell something compelling but it also has to be true so that people take the offer and stay with you. These are things that we focus on to help you attract the right person. When you need the help or would like to have a chat about how we do this, feel free to call us on 1300 558 979.

If you’re an employer that pays the Award rate or on the other hand, pays well below market rates, you could be at risk of your staff regularly keeping an eye out for a better paying role. Sometimes people just accept a job because they need one and just because you’ve filled the role, they may still be looking for the ‘better’ opportunity.

What is the right rate of pay for a role? It really is an open ended question. Some employers wish to pay the Award and that’s actually ok – it’s correct. Some wish to pay a lower salary than the market and make up for it with overtime and bonuses as a lure – this also works on occasion. Some pay well above the market rate which is attractive but can eat into the ROI and then there is the group that pay all within a certain market rate. Neither of these options are incorrect, however, what actually attracts a person to accept your role? There are quite a few answers to that question besides money, however, from our experience in the market, it sits very, very high on the list of things that applicants consider.

How do you know what salary to offer / accept?

Now you have to be reasonable here and not go off false information (there’s plenty of that out there). You need collective data. From an employer’s side, you would be silly to take a stab at what you feel is fair to pay someone for a role and hope that someone will take it. Likewise from an employee’s side you can’t just go off the information from a friend who is in a similar role to you but gets paid a whole lot more – one person is not the market. Likewise, if you have just finished Uni and the lecturer suggested that you should be worth $60k because you have a Degree now, it’s also probably (definitely) not correct.

You can look up the Award rate and pay that and you can also look at salary surveys that have been released however, realistically for our market on the Gold Coast, use them as a loose guide and not fact. You can pull a figure out of the air that you feel represents what you would pay for the role (we actually see this often) and could be correct or completely miss the mark. I had a client quite a while ago where every the answer to ‘what do you want to pay’ (for any role) was $45k – that was out by as much as $35k on the worst occasion. Some employers also look at the ABN option as it’s easier/cheaper, except when the person suddenly feels ‘wronged’ a year down the track and you end up with a FWO claim from your now identified ’employee’ not contractor.

The best options:

Yes, you have options and neither of the 3 below methods takes very long at all. They could also save you time and effort and work for you in a positive way to attract the best candidates in the market.

• Make a call – Call a Recruiter or HR Consultant and ask what they have found when recruiting similar roles. Without spelling it out too much, Recruiters work with the market on a daily basis and can give you the salary range and benefits of recent roles they have filled – this is good information to decide on what you will pay for what particular skill level you are after.
• Visit an online Job Board – Jump onto a job board such as SEEK type in the role you are reviewing or wishing to recruit as well as the region and look at the results. The majority of salaries are missing from the results however, every role that is posted has to have a salary range behind the scenes. From the results, use the ‘salary slider’ to work out where the majority of roles fall  – this could be a good guide to work from.
•  Get job applicant feedback – Applicants are the market. Use the question ‘What salary range are you seeking for this role’ during your phone screening before selecting an applicant for interview and there’s your feedback. When reviewing your phone screening/shortlisting form have a look at the responses from those that you are keen on and that could be an indication of the market. Don’t discount the higher end ones either – they may ‘want’ a particular salary however we have often found that ‘want’ and ‘currently on’ are sometimes quite different.

Just doing one or all of the three points above should clear up a few questions you may have. If you do have questions regarding what to pay someone on an upcoming recruit or are conducting salary reviews soon, feel free to call our office on 1300 558 979. We are happy to help you.

Recruiting a new staff member can be a lot of work, way more than you anticipated. Yes, it’s quite straight-forward to put an ad together, post it and wait to see what happens, however, what happens next can either pump you up or deflate you and your candidates. We often get approached by employers citing that their processing time has blown out, they’ve lost candidates and the just want to hand it over to us to start from scratch. We looked at 3 things some of our clients do that have helped improve their recruitment experience from being dull and forgettable to an enjoyable one. Even if you take just one thing from this, it is worth reading on..

1: Planning

When we say planning, we mean the entire recruitment process. Set yourself some goals and time frames to achieve during the process. By this we mean, how long do you want to advertise, what day do you want to screen applications, by what date or time frame do you want to schedule interviews, when do you want to have a job offer in place, when do you want the person to start? Instead of having the scattergun approach associated with ‘we needed them yesterday’ take a breath, map it out and stick to the schedule – you will be surprised at the difference it can make.

2: Social Media Checks

Please just do it. Let’s just say you have 300 applicants come through for an administration role which is highly likely. On average you would get down to about 20 that closely match the profile you are seeking. You can either schedule them all in for calls or bring some in for interview and hope for the best. The problem is it’s a blind date at this stage. It takes very little time to jump into Facebook or LinkedIn and look at a profile – it’s either going to be all systems go or a complete no no. You will be surprised at how many you eliminate from the list you have and save a lot of time and effort.

3: Use Technology

This is more likely targeted at a larger organisation that recruits more often. We use a cloud-based recruitment platform to load jobs across multiple platforms and track applications. The beauty of a good system is that it saves a huge amount of time, has a searchable database for upcoming roles, has functionality to be automated when communicating with job seekers, and can be accessed from multiple devices on the go or in the office. They are also not as expensive as you would think – the ROI against lost time from old school methods is huge.

With recruitment being our core function at New Point, we get results from incorporating these practices into our day to day way of doing business. You too can benefit from adding one or all of these into your recruitment process. Feel free to call us on 1300 558 979 to find out exactly how we implement these practices in our business.