Archive for the ‘Retaining Staff’ Category

5 Tips for using LinkedIn

I’m sure you’ve heard of it, probably got an account, but how many are using LinkedIn (effectively) as a tool to find their next opportunity

What is LinkedIn?

In brief, it’s the No 1 Professional Networking site, its social networking for business!

Similar to other social media sites (FaceBook / Twitter etc.) you create a profile, invite your connections and build your network (just like in the real world but with more coverage!)

Whilst it wasn’t originally designed with recruitment in mind, this is one of its main uses and LinkedIn is also now the UK’s most visited recruitment site (source Hitwise , 02/01/2010)

Recruiters are using it to source candidates, employers are using it to hire, there’s 55 million people using it – surely they can’t all be wrong!

If you haven’t got a profile on Linked in, it’s time to get one!

5 Tips for using LinkedIn

Your profile is your online “CV”.  It’s far more effective than a traditional CV as in effect it’s “real time”. Got a new qualification or Job, just add it, actively looking for a new role, change your status etc. This takes away the need to upload multiple documents, sending updated CV’s to recruiters and deleting outdated files  - will it replace the CV, maybe one day but the CV will be with us for some time yet I fear however more and more recruiters are using LinkedIn!

Build your network before you need it! In a tough job market (I would also argue in most markets) networking is the most effective way to find your next role. Encourage people you know to join the network, look up people you used to work with, people you currently work with and add people once you’ve spoken to them. There are arguments for and against; my own view is to accept all invitations, bigger is better!

Long term relationships. It takes time to develop a network of contacts. If you are only doing this when you are looking for a job then it can be very time consuming and slow. LinkedIn allows you to easily keep in contact with the network at all times, if a contact has moved on, their profile will show this and saves time trying to locate useful contacts

Recommendations. Encourage your contacts to write positive recommendations about you. Recommendations are proof, and far more powerful than claims you make. Which do you think is more effective, a couple of lines on your experience that you have written or your previous IT Director saying how valuable your contribution to delivering the XYZ projects was!

Contribute. As with all social media “you get out what you put in”. Join groups that relate to your industry or the type of roles you are interested in. Join in the discussions, answer questions, demonstrate your knowledge and become an expert in your sector. Add people that communicate with you and your circle of relevant connections will grow quickly.  Remember, it’s not about who you know but who knows you!

The economy will improve and this will present challenges in both attracting talent but also retaining your existing staff.

Will your competitors be looking to attract your best staff?

Do you know the real cost of staff turnover?

The costs are often invisible and not reported but recent surveys claim that it costs 30% – 50% of the annual salary of entry level employees, 150% for mid level employees and up to a staggering 400% for specialised executive level employees!

On that basis for every mid level member of staff with an annual salary £40,000 the cost to the business in terms of lost productivity and profit is £60,000!

Sounds unbelievable until you start looking at the factors involved:

• Loss of productivity
• Management time
• Learning curve for new employee
• Lost knowledge
• Training
• Recruitment and onboarding

Some will say that staff turnover is necessary and unavoidable! To a certain extent that is right (and there are some staff who you might be happy to see go!!)

But which members of staff leave? Is it the talented, conscientious, IT developer who implemented a new workflow system that had a direct impact on productivity and bottom line profit? Or is it the negative, downbeat member of staff that is dragging down morale.

Put another way, when you are looking to attract staff from another organisation do you want to hire their best people?

So, how do you retain the right staff?

Surprisingly this isn’t always about salary it’s about making people feel part of something, valued and even proud to be part of your company.

What is the most important thing in your business?

Most people answer their customers. I disagree, it’s your staff, without a motivated and committed workforce you can’t serve your customers effectively. If your staff is the most important thing in the business treat them like it!

Five Key areas for success:

• Wherever possible give them responsibility, let them take ownership and trust them. I know its work, it’s got to be professional but don’t forget it can also be fun!
• For new staff its critical to make the right hiring decisions first time (make sure you use a great recruitment company!) and have an effective onboarding programme (that’s another post)
• Spend your Training Budget, that’s what it is there for!
• Speak to your staff. Most companies today have exit interviews. It’s probably too late at that stage to stop that person leaving but find out why they are leaving and do something about it!
• Also why not speak to your best people and find out why they stay? This combined will tell you what you need to do to retain your staff.

Written by Richard Morgan, Remit Resources

Large FTSE 100 companies will often have well established onboarding programmes (with differing degrees of success) designed to help new employees integrate into their new environment and become productive quicker

There is no reason why every company should not have an onboarding programme in place (it hasn’t got to be complicated, the best ones are well thought out and simple!)

4 Reasons why every company should have an onboarding programme:

• Recent study by Booz Allen Hamilton suggested that 90% of employees will decide within the first 6 months if they are going to stay with a new employer. Most make that decision within the first couple of weeks
• Another study shows that an effective onboarding programme can increase staff retention by 31%. The real cost of replacing staff can be 150% for mid level staff rising to as high as 400% for executive level or highly specialised technical staff
• Time to productivity can be increased by as much as 2 months for those employees who have received onboarding to those that haven’t. This is specifically true when dealing with technical IT staff where it is difficult to find specific and specialist technical expertise
• New staff who go through onboarding programmes feel part of “the family” quicker. They feel happier in their role, are more productive and able to provide a better quality of service quicker

In summary every company should have an onboarding programme! Why? Simple, it improves profit and it improves productivity.

Written by Richard Morgan, Remit Resources