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The Network HR Team

Changes to the Government’s Disability Employment Programme

 

Changes to the Government’s disability employment programme are set to help disabled entrepreneurs and small businesses, ministers believe.

Announced this week, the changes will help meet the cost of specialist equipment and other additional expenses faced by disabled workers.

It is hoped the move will help further narrow the gap between the UK’s disabled and non-disabled employment rates.

The Access to Work programme will provide support as well as financial contributions towards the travel expenses faced by disabled workers and the costs of specially adapted equipment.

And it means firms employing up to 49 people will no longer have to contribute towards the extra costs incurred by disabled workers, a move which will save them up to £2,300 per person using the fund.

Disabled workers will also get more choice on the equipment they need to do their job, with Access to Work advisers taking a more flexible approach to deciding what can be funded.

Meanwhile, disabled job hunters seeking to establish their own businesses through the New Enterprise Allowance will be able to get Access to Work funding as soon as they are in receipt of Jobseekers Allowance.

A package of measures, recommended by the Access to Work expert panel, will also be implemented by the Government. These include paying for equipment to be physically transferred between sites.

Employers will be encouraged to find more imaginative ways to support disabled workers with a fast-track application process brought in to speed things up where appropriate and the panel will continue to look at future reforms.

Esther McVey, the UK’s minister for disabled people, said the changes were aimed at making support more widely available and giving disabled workers the chance to have the same job choices and career progression as everyone else.

She said: “Work is more than a job – it’s one of the best ways to increase independence, life fulfilment, social engagement and is central to someone’s identity.

“And although the disability employment rate has increased over recent years, there is still more we need to do to close the gap with non-disabled people.”

Copyright Press Association 2012

There’s More to November Than Just Fireworks!

Don’t spend November staring up at the sky, there’s more going on that just Fireworks!

If you place a vacancy with us at anytime throughout the month of November, you could be in with a chance to receive a £500 discount off your placement fee.

And remember a £500 saving in November, means all the more for the christmas party fund in December……

With the potential saving you will get our same excellent service, extensive industry knowledge and HR recruitment expertise.

We look forward to hearing from you….

Network HR – Taking the ‘Mystery’ out of Recruitment

JEEPERS, its been a long time since we have watched an episode of Scooby Doo. But as it is Halloween, officially the spookiest day of the year we thought the old gang should make an appearance.

We noticed some startling similarities between Scooby, Shaggy, Velma, Daphne and fred, and the Network HR team. Albeit, our fields of expertise are different (specialist HR recruitment and ghost hunting) but we both take a consultative approach to solve some pretty tough mysteries/recruitment projects.

So whether you are an experienced HR professional looking for your next career move, or an employer looking to find the HR candidate that is the right fit for your organisation – Network HR is here to help. Taking the ‘mystery’ out of the whole process. (unfortunately though, because of our company car regulations we don’t have a Mystery Machine.)

We hope you have a good Halloween! How about instead of watching some gory, blood soaked horror flick on tele tonight you watch some good old fashioned family halloween entertainment, like Scooby Doo. And think of what Network HR can do for you whilst your watching!

Recruiting and Employee Engagement in the Digital Age

Last week we attended a Big Cat event in Birmingham entitled Recruiting and Employee Engagement in the Digital Age, and here is a summary of the key talking points for those that could not attend.

It was an extremely interesting event touching on many ‘hot’ topics in an industry that is rapidly changing due to technology shifting the way that people communicate at the most basic level. The explosion of Social Media, the importance of the ‘Digital shop front’ and the employment game changer that is LinkedIn has obviously altered the the way that Recruitment companies and HR professionals recruit new employees.

The panelists leading the discussion encompassed a whole spectrum of views on the subject from John Mortimer, Chief Executive of Angela Mortimer plc who thinks Facebook has two years left until it crumbles, and dared any recruitment company to run a website that lets candidates register a C.V quicker than they could if they just picked up the ol’ blower. To Andrew Springhall CEO of Blusource who admitted that on three separate occasions twitter has been used to solely source and place a candidate successfully. Dee Dee Doke, editor of The Recruiter magazine was the special guest and led the discussions forward with enthusiastic gusto.

The Digital Shopfront – It’s all about the user

Michelle Hughes, Head of Digital Marketing for Pertemps led the first discussion and she pleaded to always remember the user when implementing digital projects. Many companies spend time and money investing in social media channels and search advertising trying to drive traffic to a site that is confusing for the user to navigate.

The Pertemps site took over a year to get live, Michelle told us, and that is because they tested it to death. Not because of fancy graphics and flash animations. Usability is the most important aspect with simple site layouts that enable visitors to quickly access the information they need. Michelle researched what the target audience wanted, which was to find jobs, and now when you go on to the Pertemps site you are hit straight in the face with job listings and a large search box to enter specifics such as location and job keywords. They researched extensively with focus groups analysing where people are drawn to click on the page to perform certain commands. This research has paid off as the amount of people registering CV’s through the site is up 536% and their bounce rate is down significantly.

“Don’t drive traffic to a site that doesn’t work for the user”

Digital Innovation – There’s lots of Noise out there

John Mortimer headed this discussion, he is notably sceptical of the place of ‘digital’ or what he referred to as ‘whirligigs’ in the recruitment process. He sees the recruitment process is one that can’t be computerised well, the presence of digital recruitment solutions are a substistution for real interaction and provide a watered down version of it.

John made many interesting comments on the current changing tech landscape. He noted how recessions are accelerators of change, but it is important to identify what are actual cultural changes that will stick around and stand the test of time, and what are just trends that will be gone before you know it. John sees Social Media, and highlighted Facebook in particular as trends, saying that it has between 2-5 years left to live, and will fail due to the failure to monetize the network successfully, and then fall out of our collective consciousness forever.

digital recruitment solutions are a substistution for real interaction and provide a watered down version of it.

He sees social media as creating a lot of noise, with not that many people listening. And says it is wrong to just assume you can have a captive audience waiting for your each and every tweet.

But he placed importance on email marketing, particularly on optimising it for mobile. Seeing the way we interact with content on the go is a definite cultural shift to pay attention to, not a disappearing trend.

LinkedIn – Friend or Foe?

LinkedIn is a double edged sword for recruiters. Used effectively and sparingly it can be an important tool to resource clients in the first instance. But it also threatens the recruitment industry by giving HR professionals hiring a much stronger card to play when looking for potential new candidates and makes recruitment more accessible. Stephen Edwards Managing Partner at Talisman Executive argued that LinkedIn is a good source for connecting to different candidates but reminded us that great candidates exist that aren’t on LinkedIn and when you work with a good recruiter, they don’t work a vacancy by scraping through linkedIn, you are buying into their talent pool that they have spent years researching, building and nurturing.

Many of the best candidates, Directors and CEO’s, have taken themselves off linkedIn for fear of being repeatedly harassed by lazy recruiters.

A HR professional in the audience was asked by the panel whether she would recruit in house using LinkedIn or through a recruitment company and she answered always through a recruitment company. That is because the quality of candidates is always superior and the vacancy is worked in a much shorter time scale.

when you work with a good recruiter, you are buying into their talent pool that they have spent years researching, building and nurturing.

Other Discussions from the day

Is the gamification of LinkedIn devaluing the site?Who owns the your

LinkedIn connections – you or your company?

Should Facebook be used to screen candidates, or by HR to monitor employees?

The Future of the Workplace – Part 1

Guest blog from the FM Network

In the first part of a three part series, we take an in depth look into the formation of a ‘modern’ workplace, how it has stood the test of time and whether we can scrap the old and confused ‘office’ altogether.

Sat in the open plan office where I work, at a faux pine desk, surrounded by 9 other identical workstations, I am sat in the office of 2012.

As well as the desks there are chairs, telephones, printers, computers, piles of paper, pots of pens and folders. Take a walk downstairs to the boardroom and you will see a wooden boardroom table, a paper flip board and a water cooler. I’m sure you can see similar sights in your office. 

If you zoom back 60 years or so, or for those of us that don’t have so many years of wisdom to fall back on, think of an episode of Mad Men.  You will notice not much has changed in the formation of a place of work. Sure, the phones now have screens and typewriters have lost out on desk real estate to an LCD screen or three, but the open plan environments,  large boardroom tables, private offices for executives and  many other concepts that make up a ‘place of work in the 50’s’ are still in place now. It’s just in the modern day office, a lot less ‘scotch’ is drunk.

The 1950′s office, look familiar?

I’m sure this is the case for most SME’s in the UK, workplaces have fallen in to a system that works, and although technological advances have dramatically changed the way  most  jobs  are  carried out, the role is being  carried out in the same old  environment that is proving to stand the test of time, until now. According to Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice at London Business School, the world is currently changing at a pace faster than the industrial revolution (yet in the office of 2012 the average SME still spends £200 a month on paper, so much for the ‘paperless office’ envisioned early in the twentieth century) and workplaces will have to start being  flexible to these changes.

The workplace of the future will be born out of how facilities management professionals, HR professionals, company Directors, designers, architects and many others respond to a variety of factors that place our current idea of  an office space in a position of flux. These factors are pointed out by Matthew Gwyther, Editor of Management Today magazine as: ‘cost, carbon, technology, sustainability and culture.

workers less fixed to a physical location set a higher precedent on performance

So the first question to wrestle with is:  why can’t we just get rid of a communal office space all together?  Scrap it, everybody work from home. 40% of the average office is left vacant on a normal working day, and 40% of an average working day is unproductive anyway. In the office where I work I would say that 100% of employees could do their work from home or any space that has Wifi and phone signal. Meetings can be held via Skype, or face to face, at what Ray Oldenburg defines as ‘third space’ environments, such as coffee shops that blur lines between work and home. Call stats  and KPI’s can still be monitored in the same way.  It saves on cost and on carbon and reports show that it would result in a happier and more productive workforce. A report by tech company ‘Dell’ has found that workers less fixed to a physical location set a higher precedent on performance and feel that their ‘output’ is open to be more harshly judged. They can’t hide behind simple attendance figures and just by being seen putting in the hours sat behind a desk. Even more so than normal, it’s just about the numbers.

New administrative roles can be created from this flexible location work format, and they can be funded from the money saved by reducing the physical business space. ‘The Office of the Future Report’ lists new fangled  roles such as a ‘workflow controller;’ who would serve as a mission control to the roaming workforce, a ‘virtual meetings organiser;’ to schedule and maintain the technology enabling video conferencing, and ‘knowledge managers;’ who help enforce and maintain a consistent code of practice between the disjointed team of staff. A difficult task.

Hotdesking is Microsoft’s solution – Their Amsterdam facility has 1000 hot desks

But going back to the original five factors threatening the current workplace status quo  –  ‘cost, carbon, sustainability, technology and culture, with this proposed  ‘roaming workforce’ format 4 of the 5 factors are challenged;  except culture. No shared workspace means no coherent and consistent company culture. Even in the digital age, nothing can replace real interpersonal communication. A survey by unwork.com found that 71% employees  wouldn’t choose to start working from home for fear of isolation and lack of productivity due no office’ buzz’. Office banter serves a purpose after all, surprisingly  as the saviour of the conventional workplace. The same office ecosystem can not be reproduced virtually to the requirements of us social creatures.

This is where the current workplace conundrum comes to a head – people want to collaborate more but travel less, use current technology to lead a more flexible working lifestyle yet still feel the unification of ‘going to work’. The workplace as we know it will still survive but it will have to adapt, how it will adapt is what we will cover in the next blog of this series. So come back next time for all the things you wanted to read about in an article entitled ‘the workplace of the future’ with gadgets such as a robot that can fix your tie, and an app that can monitor your productivity and share the results with your boss and hologram desks. 2 out of three of those things are actually real. Find out which, in part two.

This blog is part of a blog share with The FM Network.

Four Day weeks and a Veg Patch – Is that what Employers Should Offer?

Would a veg patch transform your workplace?

A four-day working week – with gardening put forward as a beneficial way of using spare time – should be introduced by all employers, it has been suggested.

Providing a shorter working week – along with space for growing food and plants – could provide the answer to many of today’s problems, according to a report.

Not only does growing one’s own food help the environment and boost wildlife, but it can also be beneficial for physical and mental health as well as making good economic sense during times of rising food prices.

Report authors Andrew Simms of the New Economics Foundation and Mollie Conisbee said more time and space is needed in towns and cities to foster rising interest in “growing your own”.

To this end, the paper’s authors say, new recruits should be offered a shorter working week with less pay or the same amount of working hours compressed into a four-day week.

Private and public sector employers are also urged to make “urban growing space” available for people to grow fruit and veg, while cultivating flowers and other plants could help provide wildlife hotspots as well as improving the look of many urban environments.

Examples cited included a “food from the sky” scheme in Thornton’s Budgens superstore in north London’s Crouch End and a scheme in Los Angeles in which car park spaces have been taken over as “parklet” green spaces.

It is theorised that a shorter working week could boost employment, cut pressure on public services with higher levels of public health, and also put more money in people’s pockets by allowing them to save on tasks which they would pay other people to carry out, such as being carers.

Similar schemes which have paid dividends include one in Utah in the US, where compressing working weeks was found to have saved millions of dollars from the public purse.

Carbon emissions, absenteeism, overtime and road use were all cut during the experiment, brought about following the initial economic crisis in 2008.

Copyright Press Association 2012

Wouldn’t a four day week just crush any productivity? Thursday would just become the new Friday, and everybody would wind down after only a few days work. Any money saved on not having to outsource certain tasks would just be lost having a reduced income anyway! Workplace gardens would be great for many reasons if employees can afford to implement them succesfully. Some intersting ideas. But the answer to todays workplace problems – we think not. What do you think?

If you are looking for a job in Human Resources then visit here: www.networkhr.co.uk

Browsing through some HR facts and figures the other day I wasn’t surprised to find out that figures released by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) regarding its membership reveal that almost three quarters (72%) of the total membership are women. I mean, let’s face it, HR is seen as a female profession isn’t it? Many of the HR professionals we recruit for are women, though we obviously recruit men too.

This had me thinking, why is this the case? What is it that makes Human Resources a profession that is more desirable to women? Does working in a HR role lend itself to certain characteristics that more women possess?

In our HR recruitment office women outnumber men by a large majority. Our consultant Matt is the only man in a team of women who specialise in HR recruitment. But recruiting HR professionals isn’t necessarily the same as working in a HR department and I thought it might be prudent to speak to a number of HR professionals to find out why they think there is an inability to attract more men to the HR profession and what kind of stigma, if any, is attached to men working in the HR industry.

One female HR professional, explained that even though there are more women working in the HR profession at Director and below but the more senior roles in HR still tend to be dominated by men. She went on to explain that she is “unsure as to why women are attracted to the role, it may be that in the first instance men see the first stage of HR as more of an admin role and this doesnt appeal, as they want to be involved in strategy”.

A HR Director I spoke to explains, “When I started in HR it was wholly male dominated and I can remember a serious debate about whether we should recruit a female graduate into our team. I think this reflects the predominance of industrial relations in the job in former times, which largely disappeared in Thatcher’s era – though we still have Bob Crowe! As a consultant, most of the businesses I provide services to have female HR staff but most of the issues I am asked to deal with surround employee relations. Is there a connection here? Most HR departments also now tend to rely on external legal advice rather than possess in-house expertise which I find depressing and again shows a lack of confidence in managing such issues in the ‘new world.’ I find it insulting to suggest there is a stigma for men taking HR jobs, I could equally say it has dumbed down in terms of the level of expertise now expected”.

Most HR professionals agree that the ability to empathise with people is an important characteristic essential for anyone who works in HR and what’s more HR is generally perceived to be based around people and people skills. On a broad level it has often been said that the skills and qualities required to be a successful Human Resources professional are generally those that more women possess. Organisational abilities, an eye for detail, empathy, non-confrontational negotiation skills, listening and an overall desire to help are traits of the HR profession that are generally seen as more feminine.

Could it be suggested then that men are therefore drawn to more strategical roles whereas women opt for roles that require more empathy and understanding?

Whatever the reason there may be more women than men in the HR industry, It’s obvious that both men and women can perform HR roles and perform them well. What’s more, even though the CIPD figures suggest that HR is a female dominated profession, the men still seem to feature highly within two of the most important aspects of any role: promotion and salary range. In other words, there seem to be a higher number of men at the top.

Whether you’re a man or woman, if you’re looking for your next role in the HR industry, or if you’re a client looking for a HR recruitment company, then get in touch with us!

Make Yourself a More Attractive HR Candidate to Potential Employers

Succeeding in any interview requires detailed preparation and practice. Arriving unprepared could be a recipe for disaster.

So where do you start when preparing yourself for an interview? Network HR Recruitment have put together some tips and suggestions on how best to prepare yourself for that all important job interview.

 Do your homework:

Before the interview, visit the organisations website. Read up on the skills they are looking for and whether you meet these requirements. Then think about any examples you can talk about that demonstrate these skills. The Interviewer may ask for examples of times your have demonstrated particular skills or behaviour. This is because they know previous behaviour can help predict your future performance. If the organisations website does not have a lot of information look at the job specification or advertisement, note the key skills they want. Think about how you demonstrate these.

Plan your Travel:

Nothing could be worse than getting lost or missing trains before an interview. Things can happen that are out of your control and it is important to inform your interviewer if you are going to be late. Leave early for your interview and you will feel more prepared and composed on arrival.

Try not to panic:

Before an interview it is natural to feel nervous. Do not panic if things do not go to plan. If a question throws you off track, ask for a moment to think about it and compose yourself. They do not want to catch you out – they just want to see if you have the right skills and motivations for the role.

 Interview questions:

Within the HR sector, competency based interviewing is standard so expect both competency based and behavioural questions in your interview. These types of questions will explore the core competencies regarded as essential in HR.

• Communication Skills
• Planning and Organising
• Problem solving
• Team Work
• Good working Knowledge of HR policy and legislation.

 Questions relating to Senior HR roles:

• Your skills managing a large team
• Your ability to design and define change
• Your ability to make HR policy
• Your ability to manage a large department
• Strong commercial sector awareness
• Your experience with developing effective strategies.

 For each of the above you should expect 3 or 4 questions along with standard questions exploring your training, qualifications, skills, experience, personality and motivation. Practice interview scenarios with a partner/ friend/ relative.

 Prepare the questions you want to ask:

Demonstrate that you have researched the organisation and you are interested in them, so prepare a few questions you might want to ask, they could include:

• Promotion Prospects
• Training and Development offered.

 Listen and answer the questions:

Do not answer a question with a response that does not relate to it. Listen carefully to the interview and make sure you answer appropriately.

 First impressions are important:

First impressions count, so make sure you are wearing something appropriate for the interview that is not uncomfortable. Your handshake is important, so look the interview in the eye and shake firmly, although not with too much force.

 Be Yourself:

Give an accurate picture of yourself in the interview. This will reveal your personality and make you appear much more relaxed.

Look Interested:

If you look bored or do not maintain eye contact, the interviewer may think you are not interested in the job. Smile, nod show you are interested in what the interviewer is saying.

 Remember the interview is not just you selling yourself to the interviewer, it is also the interviewer selling the organisation to you, it is a two way process.

 Our website offers a comprehensive overview of the services we offer as well as many testimonials from both our clients and candidates, please take a look http://www.networkhr.co.uk or call on 0121 450 5030.

Network HR would like to introduce our new Consultant Kate Parker

I have joined the Network HR Team after spending 10 years working for an independent commercial recruitment consultancy. My main responsibility was to manage the temporary division but I also supported the recruitment for interim and permanent positions.  After making the decision to move away from commercial recruitment, I wanted to make sure that the next career step was the right one. I have always been interested in Human Resources and having studied for my CPP, I felt that the next natural career step would be to join a specialist HR consultancy.

 Based on a recommendation, I was introduced to Network HR and was really impressed with all aspects of the business. Not only are they well established in the market, with a great reputation, but the people who work for Network HR are knowledgeable, professional and place strong emphasis on delivering quality led recruitment solutions for clients and candidates

 I am really looking forward to settling in to my role as Recruitment Consultant and building up long term business relationships within a wide range of industry sectors and will be responsible for managing the junior end of the HR Market.  I am very pleased to be joining such a successful team and hope to enhance the Network HR reputation by developing relationships through hard work, recommendation and referral.