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​Technological advancements as well as changing markets are impacting the workplace and shaping new and exciting careers. Now more than ever, there is a high demand to learn more about your field of work and increase your skill set to better match the world around you. The importance of up-skilling in the workplace cannot be stressed enough. In short, it helps to expand employees&rsquo; knowledge, thus creating a team of people that are extremely qualified and are able to provide a better service to clients or consumers which is essential in a highly competitive market. However, many companies stray away from training and developing their team because of one main reason; the cost. But recall the classic question; &ldquo;What happens if we train our staff and they leave&rdquo;? The response? &ldquo;What happens if we don&rsquo;t, and they stay&rdquo;? Yes, training can be expensive however; if the training is right and relevant the benefits far outweigh the cost. Referring to their predictions for 2015, Bersin by Deloitte, a leading research and advisory services firm specialising in enterprise learning, talent management, talent acquisition, and strategic HR solutions said, &ldquo;Organisations with high-impact learning delivered profit growth three times greater than their competitors, Why is this? Simply put &ndash; if you can keep your employees current and skilled, you can evolve and perform better than your competitors.&rdquo;Investing time and money on developing and expanding the knowledge of existing employees increases the future potential for an organisation and secures them a place as a strong competitor within an industry. Not only are there external benefits in training, but internal as well. Employees who receive training from their employer report feeling more appreciated and challenged than those who do not. Employees are more likely to feel valued if they are being invested in, as training is seen as a benefit. Developing a person focuses on growth and the future, more than an immediate job role does. Building on current knowledge also reduces weaknesses within a team. Not only are the skills of everyone brought up to a higher standard, but training also helps to eradicate any weak links, those who rely heavily on others. Providing training to employees creates a better balance in the work place, because more employees possess a wider knowledge and a healthy dispersion of work. There are many ethical reasons to train staff too. The health and safety of a company and its employees should be a top priority in any industry. Programs focussed on reducing workplace harassment, abiding by safety practices and risk management not only improve the workplace, but create a safer and more inclusive environment for all. Being recognised as not only an industry leader but a fair, safe and just industry leader develops a company&rsquo;s reputation. Enhancing a company&rsquo;s reputation is another benefit that training and development offers. Companies that provide extensive training coupled with fast career progression, are more attractive to potential new recruits, especially generation Y, who are seeking new opportunities that come with up-skilling. Companies who offer this ensure increased motivation, dedication and loyalty amongst employees. Employees remain more involved knowing that they are being taken care of and are being given opportunities that they would otherwise have to seek out themselves. Training gives people the ability to perform more effectively in the workplace, improve on their own skills and the confidence to tackle a changing industry. Plus, training does not need to constantly be external and expensive, devoting small but regular amounts of time and money into training and development has a maximum effect and helps to strengthen a business or company both internally and externally.

The Importance of Training and Development in the Workplace

​Whether your business is looking to recruit a sales leader, a UI/UX designer or a team of graduate trainees, the challenge is significant due to current market conditions. Whilst talks of a Brexit based meltdown are abundant, the fact is that competition for good talent has never been greater and the sheer number of opportunities available to candidates (and ease of access to them!) makes recruiting great talent tough. I read this week that the average graduate trainee looking to develop a career within sales is offered 7 different jobs before they make a decision. Put simply, 6 companies are not securing the services of the candidates they offer. Consider the time and effort invested in getting a candidate to an offer stage, only to be unsuccessful in securing them, and you'll quickly calculate that the cost of recruitment is increasing dramatically (not to mention the cost of NOT recruiting!). The GOOD NEWS is that you can do something about it! By making some simple adjustments to your recruitment process you can remain one step ahead, maximising your chance of securing the best talent for your business. Move quickly.&nbsp;Simple fact - in the current market most candidates are lost as organisations fail to keep up momentum in the recruitment process. Respond to applications and/or CV's as quickly as possible with an absolute time limit of 24 hours. Keep the gap between interviews as little as possible (ideally 2-4 days) and try to limit the number of times you bring candidates back. If your organisations' process dictates candidates must meet a number of people, ensure they are all available at the same time! Feedback immediately and avoid indecision.&nbsp;In a competitive recruiting landscape it's essential to give candidates a positive experience and make your interest in them clear. The simplest way to do this is to get feedback to them immediately following any interview - ideally on the same day. Delays in feedback inevitably lead to the candidate doubting your interest and this will result in a lowing of interest in your opportunity. Sell your company!&nbsp;It may seem amazing in the current climate, but a significant proportion of senior managers are still of the opinion that "if the candidate really wants to work for us they'll understand and wait"! I have some bad news for you......they won't! Regardless of whether this is a reasonable belief to have, the reality is that the companies who are currently successfully recruiting are putting huge efforts into selling the benefits of working for their company. And I don't mean 'benefits' in terms of money/breakfast/leave etc. I'm talking about getting the candidate excited about what it's like to actually work for the company. This includes the culture, training &amp; development, how realistic targets are, access to senior management, clear vision and mission etc. If you help the candidate to visualise themselves being successful in your business, the transition to accepting an offer is a simple one! Engage and get them started. Currently, somewhere between 25 &amp; 50% of candidates who accept a position are failing to actually start due to counter offers, either with their existing employer or others. There are two simple things you can do to avoid this and ensure your talent is secured. Firstly, get them started! Once they walk through your door they become emotionally connected to your business and are unlikely to consider further offers. Secondly, the second they verbally accept an offer, commence a program of regular contact until the candidate starts with you. Ideally, this will be direct contact with the recruiting manager rather than HR. Speak to them at least a couple of times a week, especially if there is a significant gap between acceptance and start. Talk to them about the exciting projects you have coming up, successes in the team, the training you've booked in etc. If you stop communications the candidate is given time to disengage - don't let this happen! Well that's it. Four simple pieces of advice you can easily implement within your recruitment process to maximise success. I hope you've found this helpful and if you'd like any further advice or information on how to put together a rock solid recruitment strategy don't hesitate to get in contact.

Recruiting in a Candidate Driven Market

​Sales professionals don&rsquo;t just need to have great negotiation and closing skills; they need to have bags of enthusiasm for the job and self motivation coming out of their ears in order to be successful at what they do. Finding leads, picking up the phone to speak to total strangers and constant pressure to hit targets takes self discipline and is why so many people fail. Yes, recruiting good sales people, training and developing them and providing progression plans is all very important, but an even more vital element is the trust between a Sales Director their team. It&rsquo;s no secret that sales environments are high pressure, intense, competitive and at times very stressful, especially if you&rsquo;re falling short of targets. But is this pressure leading to behaviours that are destroying crucial employee trust? In general, a big downfall of Sales Directors is a lack of patience; trust takes time to build. You want numbers, and you want them now! But hang on a minute here, your sales professional may not be performing, but don&rsquo;t automatically assume it&rsquo;s because they are lazy or that they don&rsquo;t care enough and they are not working hard. Has your sales professional had the right training, do they need guidance on how to approach a difficult task, are they a bit lost? Nurturing and supporting is the first point of call for any manager before making any accusations. Are you being consistent? Consistency is arguably the biggest factor in building trust. Employees notice constant day-to-day flip-flopping between treatment of staff, processes and actions and they will remember it. Inconsistency creates impressions of in-authenticity and this will only led to employees claiming cases of favouritism and lack of integrity. If you&rsquo;re one for making sweeping statements and promises without much thought, then stop. Often promises made without genuine consideration of what the promise may mean in the long run or without the bigger picture in mind, have to be re-addressed and amended. Doing this, especially around bonuses or progression plans will only serve to cause serve mistrust when telling the employee about anything else similar in the future. It is also likely that it will leave a bad taste lingering and the employee will remember it for the foreseeable future and feel let down by you. Don&rsquo;t preach accountability if you don&rsquo;t fully practice it yourself. Shying away from your own mistakes or entirely pushing the blame onto someone else for a problem means that your employees will probably use the same tactic for their own shortcomings, which in turn will frustrate you. Instead, be completely transparent because after all isn&rsquo;t that what you&rsquo;re trying to achieve with them? Showing your employees that you are aware of your own errors and that you regret them and have learned from them will encourage respect from your team for your honesty. If you own up, then your employees will see that it is OK to make genuine mistakes and will be truthful about their own errors. In these instances, show support and understanding when communicating the facts about problems whilst also being sensitive to their efforts. Watch your own behaviour. Ensure that you are practicing what you preach, if you say that teamwork is important, reinforce this by working across the teams; if you say numbers are important, reinforce by getting on the phone and contributing. Your team will be impressed that you are willing to get stuck into the hard work with them and will trust that you too will understand any difficulties they face. Don&rsquo;t allow a disconnect between what you say and what you do because people will copy your behaviour good or bad rather than act on your instructions, it&rsquo;s just human nature. Don&rsquo;t make your team walk on eggshells around you. Yes, sometimes employees need a bit of reality check when it comes to performance but if a bad day translates into yelling and pessimism it isn&rsquo;t going to result in best outcome and will probably make your team feel more disheartened. Instead, when addressing low performance, explain the situation clearly but speak positively, motivate and reinforce the objectives necessary to turn it around. Listening to your employees and not just telling them what to do is an important part of working effectively together. Don&rsquo;t just steamroll ideas at them &ndash; talk solutions through and let them be part of the decision on how to achieve a goal. Trust underpins a good working employer &ndash; employee relationship. By building trust managers can achieve significant improvements in performance and engagement. Vice versa, losing that trust will led to performance and engagement problems. Team members will feel uncomfortable addressing issues because they are unsure of how you might react. If your employees trust you they will have confidence in your decisions and believe in what you are saying. Even in uncertain times, this trust will influence your leadership ability.

Does Your Sales Team Trust You?

​The world is fast becoming a place where people, not just corporations have a brand to nurture, maintain and build. It could be said that people are in fact much better at building their own&ldquo;Personal PR&rdquo;than companies who pay marketing leaders huge salaries to do it for them. So why has personal branding become so important? With the rise of social media,your online reputation can be your biggest asset,especially to gain a competitive edge. Companies nowadays often hire based on information found about you online, rather than your CV or experience. So, if you&rsquo;re looking to grow your own business, nab your dream job or just take your career in the right direction, personal branding is the ultimate requirement.
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Your brand should be an outward reflection of who you are and who you want to be. It should reflect what you want to accomplish, the path you currently are on and where you want to go.Your brand is a strategic outward expression in wordsand pictures of your purpose, and helps you communicate what you can contribute to your future employer.A negative online presence can impact on your employ-ability.
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When building your online presence, think about your&ldquo;brand persona&rdquo;;are you creative innovator or an industry leader or a niche expert? Use a variety of social media outlets to share your persona via examples of your work, your blogs and your successes. Become anactive member of relevant groups and network with the right connections.Avoid uploading anything that may be a negative reflection of you, such as pictures on nights out and steer clear of using offensive language when replying to comments. Most importantly, always make sure to align your brand persona with yourself; don&rsquo;t hide your true self because maintaining a fake image will not serve your values or goals and will become a difficult chore.
​
Huffington post recently released statistics around how employers use and value online information about potential new recruits. It revealed that 75% of HR departments reported that they are required by company policy to check information online; 90% of recruitment agents said they conduct online research regardless; a total of 85% of recruitment agents and HR professionals said that an employee&rsquo;s online presence affects their decision to hire to some extent, with 50% saying that a strong presence influences their decision to great extent and across both HR departments and recruitment agents,75% have rejected candidates based on information found online.
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Successful companies not only want stand-out employees, they want employees that get involved in the marketing and branding strategy by sharing branding messages onto their own platforms.Individual&rsquo;s brands and pages are more powerful than corporations, with individuals having 561% more reach when sharing messages than the company they work for. Further, employees on average have 10 times more followers than their company social media and brand messages are shared 24 times more frequently when posted by an employee versus the company&rsquo;s social media channels. Not only will this increase a company&rsquo;s outreach, but will help them gain more trust and creditability because people are more likely to trust people more than corporations and they want to engage with people more than corporations.
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So use your online presence as a springboard to highlight your skills and make youstand out from the crowd for all the right reasons.Employers don&rsquo;t want to &ldquo;catch you out&rdquo; they just want an insight into the person they are employing, so ensure that insight is one that they want to spend more time exploring.

The Power of Personal Branding Today

​The marketing industry has been around for almost as long as humans. People have always wanted to buy and sell from each other, and for years savvy marketers have been leveraging the latest trends to convince them to do just that. 
Today, the global marketing sector is diverse, and growing. With creative industries generating billions every year for the economy alone, and&nbsp;<a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-marketing/growth-in-uk-firms-marketing-budgets-slowest-since-start-of-2016-idUKKBN1HO3FA">22.9% of companies</a>&nbsp;across the business landscape having increased their marketing budgets since last year, it&rsquo;s clear that the future is bright for this dynamic and exciting sector.&nbsp; 
However, as consumer habits shift, marketers have had to adapt to keep up. The rise of the Internet, and the digital space, is impacting marketing in new and interesting ways. With the rate of change showing no sign of slowing down any time soon, the biggest question now is: where is marketing headed, and what does it mean for the millions of professionals who work within the sector? 
Getting smarter with AI 
The advent of the Internet brought about perhaps the biggest change in the marketing industry, but that happened years ago. Today, it&rsquo;s AI which is causing the biggest splash. Present on our smartphones, in our banks and on our computers, AI is already a part of our daily lives, and marketing is scrambling to keep up. Indeed,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/306162">58% of Chief Marketing Officers</a>&nbsp;worldwide believe that companies will have to use AI to compete for business if they want to succeed within the next five years.&nbsp; 
AI-driven marketing is already changing everything from the way in which marketers target consumers to the channels on which they do it. With smarter technology at their fingertips, professionals have access to huge amounts of data on customer behaviour, which they can leverage to gain more accurate insights on their target audiences. Marketers can then target customers more efficiently, using this data to get the right message to the right audience at the right time to encourage engagement. They can even measure the effectiveness of certain channels- for instance, email marketing- over that of billboard campaigns, and adjust their spending accordingly to ensure they have maximum impact. 
It&rsquo;s not just data that AI can help with, either: companies are also turning to automation to speed up their internal processes. This allows them to run routine tasks in a matter of seconds, freeing up valuable time to spend on clients, or on innovating their client offering. In the world of AI, being smart is the key to doing better, and digital marketing is definitely improving efficiency, giving rise to a demand for data analysts and software engineers which is only going to grow as this takes off. 
Getting dynamic&nbsp; 
How many channels do today&rsquo;s marketers use to communicate with their target audience? In the fast-moving digital world, integrated digital campaigns that maintain consistent messaging across multiple channels is key to success. Today&rsquo;s customers are discerning: with a wealth of data at their fingertips, they can flick past today&rsquo;s adverts just as easily as click on them.&nbsp; 
To attract these people, marketers are adopting a much more personalised and dynamic approach to the way in which they convince consumers to buy their products.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.smartinsights.com/customer-engagement/customer-engagement-strategy/customer-experience-research-statistics/">64% of millennials</a>&nbsp;value &lsquo;the anticipation and customisation&rsquo; of their user experience over privacy concerns, and with the insights gathered from analytics, companies can target their audience via Google or Facebook ads that are tailored specifically to their user interests.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2018/06/14/digital-marketing-trends-in-an-era-of-constant-change/#5e3b3f6d6f57">Persona-based marketing</a>&nbsp;is now being applied to target people more smartly than ever before, with more accuracy thanks to better software and social media platforms.&nbsp; 
On top of this, the demands of running a digital campaign across multiple channels have given rise to an increased interest in the user journey. Digital marketers cannot work in silos any more: now, the brand message needs to be unified, and driven entirely by audience behaviour and browsing history, so the right message can be shown at the right time to entice the user to click. Backed up by dynamic content and videos that can be shared across social media, and the result is a marketing strategy that is sure to entice today&rsquo;s fast-swiping users. 
Looking to the future 
People who want to stay ahead in the market need to look to the future to keep up with the changes that digital technology is throwing their way.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2017/12/20/the-future-digital-marketing-predictions-2018">55% of teens and 40% of adults</a>&nbsp;use voice search, and many people are predicting that it will become a mainstream trend in the future, having an impact on keyword research and likely increasing the demand for SEO experts in the industry.&nbsp; 
At the same time, video is likely to become even more important as a shareable item on social media and as an engaging, stand-out piece of content in a sometimes-crowded online space. Live video in particular is being touted as the next marketing tool, and with Facebook reporting that it was seeing triple the watch time on live videos than curated ones, it&rsquo;s clear that its popularity is only going to grow. 
One thing&rsquo;s for sure: in an environment where digital is fast becoming king, the need for digitally-savvy marketers, and those specialising in social media and SEO, will soon become the next sought-after jobs.

The digital space: how is marketing changing?

​Every team has its own culture based on the functionality of the role within a company and the personalities within the office. Typically, for a sales recruitment team, you would expect employees to be assertive and talkative &ndash; people with high energy and determination.
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By identifying key traits of an ideal team, hiring managers can develop both an interview process and relevant questions to measure each individual trait. If this is your responsibility, take 5 minutes to think about the below tips.
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1.If the position you&rsquo;re hiring for involves meeting clients or working with people, take the interview out of the office to observe how the candidate acts outside of a typical interview environment. Taking candidates for lunch is a good example because it allows you to observe how they treat others and how they cope in various situations. A little can tell you a lot about someone, such as waiting in a queue, walking down a crowded street and even the weather! Further, a more casual setting such as a coffee shop may allow the candidate to relax and open up to reveal more about themselves and their character.
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2.People often make assumptions based on appearance and it&rsquo;s important to not come across as biased; it&rsquo;s not only appearance but also background and hobbies. To ensure diversity on your teams, evaluate candidates on the same objective criteria for the same positions. Be careful not to discriminate; hiring for the right culture fit doesn&rsquo;t mean that you hire people who are exactly the same. Instead, the values within the workplace should be reflected in a richly diverse workforce.
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3.Being upfront with candidates about your internal culture and environment means that you can manage their expectations of what it&rsquo;s like to work in your office. Direct questions such as &lsquo;What&rsquo;s your ideal working environment?&rsquo; or &lsquo;What sort of culture do you thrive in?&rsquo; allow candidates to describe what they are looking for initially. You can dig deeper by asking about a time when a job didn&rsquo;t work out for them culturally and why; &lsquo;Tell me about a time when you worked with an organisation where you felt you were not a strong culture fit and why was it so?&rsquo;
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4.Teamwork is essential in any office and by enquiring how a candidate would handle a range of challenges and how they approach problem-solving, can show how they might work with their colleagues. You could ask &lsquo;Give me a time when you helped a co-worker and what was the outcome?&rsquo; Or &lsquo;What is the most difficult problem you had to solve and how did you solve it?&rsquo; Analyse their responses based on how well it complements current employees at your company.
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5.Finally, use the interview to introduce your company values. New hires often fail on the basis of not having the right attitude or values rather than the ability to perform the job. Therefore finding people who have a genuine authentic belief in your company values will result in a stronger culture fit than those who don&rsquo;t. Questions based on your company values allow you to evaluate how well the candidate demonstrates that they can embody the value.
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So does part of your hiring process include a cultural fit interview with a clear purpose of assessing how the potential employee will fit within the culture of your organisation? Don&rsquo;t underestimate the power of the above methods to determine the success of the candidate.

Tips for interviewing candidates for a cultural fit

​Sometimes changing your methods of finding candidates can be essential in recruitment, particularly in the IT contract world where an immediate vacancy can spring up requiring urgent action with no time for job adverts. Coming into recruitment as a fresh grad I had tended to just go with what I had been told, after all, someone with 25 years&rsquo; experience will know how to source candidates better than I can. It was only when I heard Catherine Leggett speaking on 5Live one night that I realised our existing methods whilst working extremely well, might hinder some applications. Catherine is an employment consultant at the National Autistic Society, and she spoke exceptionally about the struggles that face Autistic people in the recruitment process. Typical recruitment methods may produce many challenges for autistic candidates at all stages of the process. Job descriptions with a long list of unnecessary skills can be off-putting. Interviews and communicating their own skills can be problematic, particularly when much of it is done over the phone. At Certus it is typical for our first contact with candidates to be over the phone, before meeting them and sending them to our clients. On the IT desk, we had been flirting with skill assessments to differentiate the best candidates from the rest of the pack. Even though we appreciated how important technical competency in the form of tests was in IT roles, phone conversations remained prominent throughout the process and it was only when I heard Catherine speak that I realised this may have put limitations on sourcing the best candidates available. Our IT Desk is in a fortunate position as it&rsquo;s very new. This means we haven&rsquo;t necessarily got embedded practices as is the case with many recruitment companies. When I realised how our methods had emphasised a candidate&rsquo;s ability to communicate their skills rather than the skills themselves, I decided to get in touch with the National Autistic Society to see how we could change this. It was made clear that rearranging some of our processes could open doors to excellent candidates we may not have&nbsp;accessed&nbsp;across the entire company. Changing the way our adverts are set up, aspects of our interview processes and placing more emphasis on a candidate&rsquo;s skillset through tests, we could massively open the number of suitable candidates available to us for any given role. Initially, our efforts will be focused on the IT desk, with hard work underway to adapt the process with a view to 2019 already. Many people will primarily think of autistic candidates that may have exceptional technical skills, and of course, given my role in IT recruitment, this is an aspect that was at the forefront of my mind when thinking about this issue. However, something the National Autistic Society are demonstrating so well is that Autistic candidates can offer so much beyond this stereotype. Employers are finding that autistic candidates demonstrate above-average levels of concentration, reliability, persistence, factual knowledge and memory and attention to detail. All of these are excellent attributes to have in a candidate. To put it simply Certus need the best candidates so that our clients are successful. In order to do this, we need to make sure our practices don&rsquo;t prevent people on the autism spectrum from entering the process. Hopefully adapting our strategy on the IT desk will be the start of an influx of great candidates to Certus.

How removing barriers is going to benefit everyone

​It&rsquo;s no secret that modern day life can be stressful. Amongst the majority of us there is often a persistent feeling of being weighed down by jobs that never feel fully done from answering endless emails to picking up the kids, to food shopping. This feeling is referred to in the corporate world as a &ldquo;perennial time-scarcity problem.&rdquo; This time famine is a new, current day phenomenon and has been growing ferociously amongst executives all over the world; with white collar working parents affected the most acutely. By contrast, leisure time has actually been slowly increasing since the 1960's and we are regularly told that new technology is one of the reasons this has happened. Designed to make our lives easier, technology should be increasing our leisure time, right? We now have dishwashers, washing machines and microwaves to assist with household chores; plus an app for everything from collecting your dry cleaning to delivering recipes and ingredients to your door. So with new technology helping to increase the number of free hours we have in a day, why do we feel like we still never have enough? There are two factors at work here; how we now perceive our time and our expectations of what we should be doing with it and secondly, technology actually doing the opposite and eating up all our free time. Ever since the industrial revolution used a clock to measure output, our days are financially quantifiable and this creates a need to use them profitability. I&rsquo;m sure your manager is always talking about working &ldquo;smart&rdquo; and using the hours in your day effectively to increase results. T his is only intensified in bigger, richer cities where the wages are higher, the cost of living is dramatically rising and this in turn, increases the value of people&rsquo;s time. According to a recent Gallup poll, the more well-off you are the more time poor you feel. So it makes sense that the more you are paid for work, the more you tend to work because working becomes a more profitable use of time. Meaning those leisure hours are far and few between; and the few you do have become more stressful as you feel compelled to use it wisely to ensure that it is as worthwhile as working. Secondly, fuelled by technology such as smart phones, social media and email, we have become a society of instant gratification which creates a desperate urgency to make every moment count. The expectations on us, and us on others, to respond instantly to questions and demands from messages, means we are constantly switched on and this has a huge impact on our down time. Gone are the days of long lunches that used to be enjoyed by executives on the golf course as we grab a sandwich and trawl through endless emails hunched over a laptop at our desks. This technology eats into our leisure time by creating an assumption from managers that we should be constantly available on our work phones during evenings, weekends and holidays. The demands of full time modern working means we don&rsquo;t get to switch off anymore. This is impacting our health and well-being without us even realising it. Psychologists have recently studied the link between stressing over a deficit in time and lower well-being, anxiety and insomnia. In a series of surveys carried out by the University of British Columbia, it was found that those who pay for chores, are happier and have a higher life satisfaction. This allows for more leisure time and means less time doing a &ldquo;second shift&rdquo; of household chores at the weekend and in the evenings. More recently greater feelings of job insecurity and concern about competition due to slow economic growth, the rising costs of living and living longer are all making people more nervous about career prospects than they used to be. This means we feel under pressure to plug more hours into future security in the here and now. It is undeniable that an increasing number of people are trading leisure time for work because of the gains of working and the costs of not, are higher than ever. Although, let&rsquo;s not forget that some people put in long hours because they enjoy their job and the prestige and rewards that come with it. Being &ldquo;time poor&rdquo; is on the rise, especially for the better-off, better educated parents of this world. It has become expensive to stop work, even for a short period of time for example maternity leave, and this has led to less time for play and a harried leisure class.

Is modern working making us all "time poor"?

​Put simply, disruptive talent is an individual who can bring new ideas, direction and drive to a business by challenging the status quo and revolutionising the way in which an organisation approaches things. We are talking about figures like Sir Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg and Travis Kalanick. People who can spot a trend before it has begun and someone who can &ldquo;shake things up&rdquo;. Technology has played a major role in creating and honing disruptive talent. Companies such as Uber and Air BnB have been born out of a new way of thinking and a new approach to utilising resources. This technology has created markets that are transitioning at breakneck speed, making it hard for many companies to keep pace with competitors who are offering a faster and easier product or service. This revolutionary technology has caused many of history&rsquo;s great companies to fail, such as Kodak and BlockBuster who failed to get ahead of competition or even just move with the times. So now organisations are actively seeking disruptive talent to combat competition in their market and find the &ldquo;next big thing.&rdquo; Disruptive talent is necessary to create continuous advances, changes and improvements because this is what gives companies an &ldquo;edge&rdquo; and drives the economy into new ventures. So in this market, can companies succeed without it? With the level of competition that companies face today alongside consistently declining economic growth and on top of consumer overload because we have so much to choose from, it is safe to say that without an innovative product or service, companies will never turn over the kinds of returns seen in the past. That doesn&rsquo;t, however, mean to say that they will fail. There are many who argue that actually, one super talent can&rsquo;t fix the huge multi-faceted issues that businesses face today and in fact only collaborative working is the way to success. This could be a result of disruptive talent itself failing within a business, rather than the business failing at being innovative. Disruptive talent is ruthlessly ambitious and driven, often stepping on other&rsquo;s toes, even if they don&rsquo;t mean to. This bold and fearless approach is the reason that disruptive talent can be difficult to work with and team work is hard work! Peers often view them as stubborn and volatile which can impact on working relationships and they become labelled as &ldquo;insensitive&rdquo;, &ldquo;a pain&rdquo; or &ldquo;difficult&rdquo;. But it is important for companies to remember that disruptive talent may not score highly on conventional measures of success such as teamwork, empathy and diplomacy and instead to test them on talent evidence and behavioural/ personality traits. So it is vital for a company to be able to distinguish between disruptive talent and just plain disruptive because genuine disruptive talent will be on a mission, with an intense focus and insatiable drive, but will understand the boundaries which are important. Disruptive talent is a rare find and to harness it, requires a certain kind of support. A strong manager, who is able to clear obstacles in the way of new and better business practices and ideas, is essential as well as a resilient and supportive team and a robust governance model. Additionally, making key stakeholders aware of plans and providing a clear vision which is consistently and widely communicated, will avoid a misalignment of goals so that progress is not inhibited by internal factors. However, not everyone is born to be an entrepreneur and it would be detrimental for any company to put all their eggs in one basket. This is especially prevalent if you consider the rise of the &ldquo;gig economy&rdquo; alongside the number of start-ups, particularly in the tech field. Starting your own business is easier that is has ever been, so why would disruptive talent stay somewhere they feel caged, or even, accept a job offer that doesn&rsquo;t include free reign to create something new and different to their own specific design. Ultimately, companies who manage to attract, hire and hone disruptive talent will be those who send shock waves through their industry and siphon off a large chunk of the market away from the established organisations or alternatively, create a whole new market. These will be the businesses that boom rather than just survive, and there&rsquo;s a big difference between booming and surviving.

Can Businesses Only Survive in this Market If They Hire “Disruptive Talent”?

​Whilst many, nay likely all of us have suffered at least some form of negative impact throughout the pandemic so far, the already high-pressure environment of a sales career has undoubtedly seen some of the most concerning spikes in poor mental health in the workplace. When performance is so finely attuned to the financial wellbeing of your family, livelihood etc, yet so easily influenced by outside factors, it adds more stress to what&rsquo;s already largely considered one of the most stressful professions out there. So, as business leaders, it&rsquo;s more important than ever for us to cultivate a healthy, safe sales environment for the betterment of our employees&rsquo; mental health. How to go about doing so? 1.Prioritise stress management techniques as a benefit of the job Encourage your staff to take regular breaks, and get active during them &ndash; stepping away from their desk (whether back in the office or a makeshift one at home) just to stare at another screen, this time that of the TV, isn&rsquo;t really disengaging. Exercise is a key player in the stress-management toolbox; is there a subscription you could provide, like Calm for meditation or 8fit for workouts? These are things that your employees may not want to pay for themselves, but it&rsquo;s a small outlay from your end which could hugely benefit the mental health of your salespeople. 2.Encourage creativity; new ideas to solve new problems The truth is, whilst the overall activities of a sales job likely remain the same, the objections and circumstances surrounding every call have changed. This means that the same old training and support being offered likely isn&rsquo;t going to cut it. Get the team together (whether in-person or virtually) to hold regular discussions about what they&rsquo;re coming up against, ways in which they&rsquo;ve managed or attempted to get around these challenges, and how they might do so better moving forwards. Not only will this help drive performance in general, but just the camaraderie and understanding that everyone&rsquo;s facing the same issues, everyone&rsquo;s in it together, will go a long way to promoting the positive mental health of your team. Creativity in unprecedented times comes second only to adaptability in terms of success moving forwards. 3.Communicate with each and every member of your sales team, daily It&rsquo;s often easy to tell when a member of your team isn&rsquo;t doing so well, more so in sales than other professions; they&rsquo;re not as forthcoming, involved, communicative in general. This is something we all as business leaders should be aware of, on top of, and make a huge effort to mitigate &ndash; if you feel like something&rsquo;s off, it probably is. Communicating with each salesperson each day, even if only in short, will make sure you pick up on any potentially negative mental health developments, and be able to try and help from the off; getting to the root of the problem is key to solving it. Not only this, but simply the act of taking the time to communicate individually will strengthen the relationship between manager-employee and leave everyone much more likely to express if they are feeling under the weather or struggling in any way. We all know that mental health simply isn&rsquo;t spoken about enough, so now is the time to change that. 4.Last but not least, be realistic, agile and understanding I&rsquo;m not saying that we should all be given an excuse to underperform against sales targets here; simply that sales targets are very likely going to need rethinking, for the most part. Each situation, industry, product or service needs to be given its fair due in terms of what&rsquo;s realistic right now, and targets or expectations adjusted as such. Unrealistic targets are one of the largest factors to underperformance in sales regardless of the pandemic so, now more than ever, take the time to thoroughly research and understand what your team can achieve &ndash; which might change from day to day, even. Stay agile in your approach to setting expectations. And give your salespeople who, like all of us, are likely suffering some outside pressure, something realistic to aim for. Cultivating a mentally healthy sales environment is something that all business leaders, managers or otherwise decision makers should take pains to do &ndash; what could be more important? It&rsquo;s something we&rsquo;ve been advising clients on for years &ndash; not to mention developing our own. If you&rsquo;d like to talk more for some general advice, or to ask any questions you might have about mental health in sales, it&rsquo;s a subject close to my heart &ndash; leave me a comment below, or drop me a DM here on LinkedIn.

How to Cultivate a Mentally Healthy Sales Environment

​Too busy... Too expensive... Too many Applicants... Objections, objections, objections - we hear them every day and through understanding you're busy, we work hard to save time, increase your ROI and deliver the very best in available and often "not on the market" talent. Reach out to our experienced team to discuss your next hire!
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Recruitment Objections (Video)

​​If you are a Senior IT candidate, consider the following Do's and Don't's when preparing your next resume. Reach out and our team of experienced Consultants will help you secure your next position.
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IT Resume Advice (Video)

​​It&rsquo;s a debate I&rsquo;ve seen around a few times, and it&rsquo;s pretty polarising; people seem to sit entirely on one side of the fence or the other, no middle-grounders. Thank you emails: should we take the time to send them, or are they irrelevant in this day and age? As with anything, there are obvious pros and cons, along with tons of extraneous variables and situational circumstances which might affect your answer; nonetheless, it&rsquo;s an interesting idea to ponder in general. Should we still go out of our way to extend those lovely, somewhat redundant manners to each person we come into contact with in business &ndash; no less encourage our team to do so &ndash; or does it really not matter at all? To delve more deeply, this isn&rsquo;t about sending a quick note to say thanks; it&rsquo;s about how much value you stake in attention to detail, manners and accountability when it comes to doing business. There are lots of critical tasks which go with many jobs &ndash; let&rsquo;s use recruitment as an example, for obvious reasons. I need to be providing my clients with information, updates, support and ideas; I also need to be proactively trying to generate new ones. I need to be having conversations with potential candidates, existing candidates, job seekers active and passive. All of these tasks centre around me achieving what I need to, being productive and getting things done. So, where does time spent doing the little things which may or may not pay dividends long-term fit into it all? MD of our sister company Certus Graduate, Sam Wheeler, recently wrote about the important/urgent debate. Is sending a thank you email either of those things &ndash; urgent or important? In truth, you could argue it either way &ndash; for both points. Tapping out a quick thank you email isn&rsquo;t going to affect those things which are already in motion, nor is it going to morbidly offend anyone if they weren&rsquo;t to receive one &ndash; hopefully, anyway. So is it urgent or important? Let&rsquo;s go with no in this instance. But then, from the other point of view, it might be both; urgent, because saying thanks in a weeks&rsquo; time for something the client will have forgotten about by then is redundant &ndash; do it now, or don&rsquo;t bother. And important because a client may not specifically remember, a week later on, that you thanked them in an email &ndash; but they&rsquo;re much more likely to remember if you didn&rsquo;t thank them at all. Sending a quick thank you email comes naturally to me &ndash; in the same way that I&rsquo;d say it aloud if someone were to hold the door open for me, serve me a beer, or even in passing tell me how cute my pup Yuki is (see my last post for proof). Most people would agree with those three &ndash; so why shouldn&rsquo;t dropping someone a quick thank you email take precedence? It shows good manners &ndash; but, not sending one doesn&rsquo;t necessarily point to them being bad or non-existent. It also says a lot about how much you value the individual&rsquo;s time &ndash; but again, not doing so might mean that you don&rsquo;t want to take up any more of it with something they may see as pointless or irrelevant. It&rsquo;s truly one I could argue back and forth. Discussing this amongst the team, it certainly got us thinking about the type of recruiters we want to be; it&rsquo;s by no means a black and white, right or wrong answer. But, when it comes to continuing to differentiate ourselves in the markets we operate within, who knows; perhaps a simple &lsquo;thank you&rsquo; could make all the difference between us and one of our competitors. We like to think there&rsquo;s more to it than that &ndash; but it&rsquo;s a great place to start. What say you? Are you a thank you note-er? Whether you&rsquo;re pro thank you emails or against, one thing you can count on from us here at Certus Melbourne is excellence in service above all else; get in touch with our Aussie team.

Thank You Emails: to send or not to send?

​Give it to me straight: do you struggle to manage your staff remotely? It&rsquo;s something all business leaders have had to adapt to, with varying levels of success and enjoyment. The small things we value so much &ndash; dropping by a teammate&rsquo;s desk for a quick coaching session, or having them shadow you on a call (it&rsquo;s a little more difficult to hide an extra zoom attendee) &ndash; are more tough now that so many teams are entirely remote. It&rsquo;s a problem many are grappling with. Fundamentally, once again, it comes down to adaptability. Adapting your skills to work around the requirements of your business. And those requirements right now are all about management and coaching from afar. Here are some things I implemented across my own team whilst we were all working from home during those long lockdown periods &ndash; but which I believe will come in handy from here on in. Focus on outcomes and deliverables, not actions and activity A huge problem facing many managers is how to effectively ask their team, &ldquo;So, what have you been up to?&rdquo;, without seeming as though they&rsquo;re trying to virtually micromanage. Not only is &ldquo;showing up&rdquo; virtually taking its toll on many employees (that&rsquo;s the need to be seen keeping busy without a visual), but you have to understand that activity may look a little different from home. As such, take care to avoid focusing on this; instead, focus on the goals you&rsquo;ve set and the outcomes you&rsquo;re aiming towards. Where the team is at against them, what challenges they&rsquo;re facing and how we can work around these. What limitations has remote work put on them, and solutions to those. Think about what outcomes can we achieve today; not what activity levels are we pushing out on the daily. Establish effective communication Like I said, when you&rsquo;re in the office, it&rsquo;s more than easy to wander over to a team member&rsquo;s desk for clarification on a certain point or question. When your staff is remote, this is virtually impossible, and often results in frustrating back-and-forths to arrange a call for something which may have taken a quick second to sort otherwise. Establish effective communication processes for different things &ndash; i.e. Slack for the quick questions, email for ongoing projects, picking up the phone for urgent answers. You&rsquo;ll improve communication as a whole once they understand the urgency and intent behind each different tool. Provide more feedback than ever Your formal performance reviews are one thing but, with the pandemic as a whole, people may be feeling less secure or confident than ever. As their manager, it&rsquo;s down to you to help coach and guide them through this. Feedback is a great way to do so. In the office, you can shout out a quick well done and hand out high fives (or elbows, as the times would have it) without issue. It can be more difficult to do so virtually. Don&rsquo;t wait around for performance reviews or virtual 1:1s &ndash; provide real-time feedback whenever you&rsquo;re working with a colleague online, whether that&rsquo;s private to them (where an improvement could perhaps be made) or using team channels (to congratulate a success or achievement). Let them know what they&rsquo;re doing well, and coach them on the things they need help with. Ask how they&rsquo;re feeling, and work to ensure each staff member knows where they stand. Being a manager of remote employees requires patience, empathy and a whole lot of trust &ndash; but build the right team, and these will all come naturally. We&rsquo;re helping businesses find the top talent the global market has to offer. Whether in the office, working from home or otherwise, our processes help you qualify all you need to from the staff who might help you achieve those important outcomes. Get in touch.

Management Skills for the Age of Remote Work

​Online presence is a term that&rsquo;s being banded around all over the place these days. Not only do we have to cultivate a certain gravitas and skill for speaking to people &ldquo;IRL&rdquo;, we now have to do the same in the online world, too?! To answer that question, yes. And it&rsquo;s especially important when you&rsquo;re hoping to recruit new staff, whether the business is your own or you manage a team within one. So what does online presence mean? Literally speaking, your online presence encompasses everything someone could find if they were to search your business or name. It includes any associated websites, social media profiles, published works, news and more. It&rsquo;s every post you make, whether personal or professional, company or individual; every blog you put your name to; any press release in which you&rsquo;re mentioned, whether personally or at company level. The job adverts you post, your online reviews&hellip; You&rsquo;re getting it, right? But why is online presence so important when recruiting? We live in the digital age; if you have a question, I&rsquo;m sure the majority of people would agree that the first place you head to is Google. We have to assume the same can be said for any job seeking candidate who&rsquo;s introduced to your business, whether through a recruiter like us or having found you directly. Whether they&rsquo;ve just seen an advert online or yours is a name many endeavour to work for in general, it&rsquo;s pertinent to think about what your online activities say about you &ndash; because the talent you want onboard is going to be looking at it. What should we be thinking about specifically? In short: everything. At company level, your website needs to reflect the professionalism you embody as a business &ndash; in terms of both aesthetics and usability. Make sure it&rsquo;s a representation of what you do and actually gives jobseekers an idea of your value proposition. You should be using company social feeds to talk about industry matters, news, hot topics and fundamentally what you do, to show that you&rsquo;re &ldquo;with the times&rdquo;, up to date on current affairs and ultimately still relevant. And finally, on a personal level, post about things you care about! Humanise the person on the other side of the hypothetical interview table (/Zoom meeting host). Make someone want to come and work for you, not just the company. And don&rsquo;t forget, it&rsquo;s not just about what content you&rsquo;re putting out. Is your website being kept up to date? Do you still have old, long-ago-filled job vacancies listed? What does your online housekeeping say about your business? CEOs, I&rsquo;m talking to you! You shouldn&rsquo;t just be looking after the company page and be done with it &ndash; your personal presence counts, too. More and more jobseekers are searching up C-suite individuals when looking for a new opportunity, to see who it is they&rsquo;re going to be working for and looking for that all-important cultural fit from the off. Plus, prior research into your personal profile could provide them with strong points on which to build rapport at interview &ndash; everyone&rsquo;s a winner. And as for candidates? Yep, it works both ways &ndash; quite rightly, jobseekers are beginning to look at their own online presence as an extension of their resum&eacute;. If a candidate has included a link to their LinkedIn profile, don&rsquo;t be afraid to take a look! As a hiring manager, you&rsquo;ll be able to get a good feel for how they&rsquo;re spending their time online, the sort of content and ideas they connect with (check out the &ldquo;Activity&rdquo; section on their profile) and whether that&rsquo;s something that works for you. As with anything recruitment-related, it&rsquo;s a two-way street. Online presence is something all business leaders need to be aware and on top of in order to attract the very top level of talent. We&rsquo;re proud to have recently hit 30,000 followers on our company page and, if you&rsquo;ve followed me for a while, you&rsquo;ll see that I like to throw out some of my own inner musings from time to time. The truth is, I&rsquo;m hiring &ndash; and I want people in this wonderful world of LinkedIn to see the real me, so they can make an informed decision about getting in touch. Now is an incredible time to be joining Certus Melbourne so, if you&rsquo;re an experienced recruiter reading this and thinking about how well aligned our values seem to be&hellip; I&rsquo;d love to hear from you!

The Importance of Online Presence

​It&rsquo;s with much pride that I&rsquo;m able to say, after 10 years working in the recruitment industry, the vast majority of roles I work on with clients on are now done so on a retained basis. It&rsquo;s something which we recruiters truly understand the value of &ndash; because we&rsquo;re the ones driving it &ndash; but it&rsquo;s exciting to see that actively recruiting employers are beginning to see retained search in the same light. Particularly in times of uncertainty, engaging with a recruitment partner on a guaranteed-outcome basis simply makes sense &ndash; and here&rsquo;s why. Time is valuable &ndash; so save it Managing applications; working out who came from where. Receiving multiple profiles, which come through at different times, from different recruitment partners who have varying terms. Composing emails to multiple agencies, to coordinate times which may or may not work for their candidate. Receiving confirmations at different times, or requests for a different interview slot, instead of having that one partner simply make the arrangements. Following up with each individual agency afterwards. These are just the extra tasks you have to do when working with multiple agencies&hellip; Now add to that all of your actual recruitment activities &ndash; the interviewing itself, for instance &ndash; and you&rsquo;ve got yourself some serious man-hours to put aside for this. Retained search means one simplified, streamlined channel for all communications. That&rsquo;s one person to talk to regarding who&rsquo;s in the process, when you&rsquo;re meeting them, how they feel about the opportunity, and everything else which comes along with making a hire. Working on a retained basis saves you time &ndash; of that fact, there&rsquo;s no doubt. Quality trumps speed &ndash; the best, not the convenient The upfront nature of retained placements mean that they&rsquo;re our number one priority to fill. However, that by no definition means we&rsquo;re going to rush; in fact, quite the opposite. We want to fill the role with the best candidate for the job, however long it takes, but with a priority push at all times. When working on a retained assignment, it&rsquo;s not a race to pre-qualify candidates and get them over to you before another agency does, potentially missing out key pieces of information and things which needed further qualification, in the name of securing their representation. Now, it&rsquo;s about taking our time to present the most fully-qualified, relevant people &ndash; still in a timely manner, of course, but ensuring that quality of hire is top of mind, rather than speed. Retained search means more candidates who are fundamentally right for the role, rather than those who are simply available. Money is an object &ndash; but not an obstacle Because of the &ldquo;pre-authorised&rdquo; nature of these projects, you simply don&rsquo;t have to worry about &lsquo;paying extra&rsquo; should a higher-level candidate come about, or negotiating salary based on the fee you may end up paying us. Money becomes less of a priority and, again, it all comes back around to ensuring you get the absolute best candidate. When we recruiters work on a contingency basis, nothing is guaranteed; from the off, we&rsquo;re trying to recoup hours (and therefore costs) spent on sourcing, interviewing and placing candidates. When it comes to retained, we can focus our efforts without the stress or pressure which might lead to a less than perfect decision. That&rsquo;s all not to mention that you know what you&rsquo;re paying for this hire from the get-go &ndash; plus the time (AKA cost) savings we mentioned above. In times like that which we&rsquo;ve been experiencing for the past 12 months or so, with uncertainty rife and finances never entirely secured, it just makes sense. Recruitment is what I do, retained search is what I love; if you&rsquo;re currently or soon-to-be conducting a recruitment campaign for a key position within your business, I&rsquo;d love to show you some case studies where my team has been successful in the past &ndash; moreover, how we&rsquo;re doing things differently to add value throughout the process. Send me a direct message here on LinkedIn, or call the Melbourne office today on +61 (03) 8644 6891.

The Beauty & Benefits of Retained Search

​Many of our clients are beating the same drum as we are when it comes to investing in their people; those who will help drive customer experience forwards, upwards and onwards &ndash; the importance of which can&rsquo;t be underestimated in 2021 and beyond. But what CX trends do we have to look forward to this year? CX Trends: Social proof is the key Verifying products and information has become a pivotal part of the customer journey and decision-making process. Per Hubspot, 82% of people look at online reviews when researching a product or service and 70% of those trust the online customer opinions they do read. Social proof provides customers with a story, and it has a few means to being extremely influential as to whether they purchase or not &ndash; from customer success (hearing stories from people who&rsquo;ve used/implemented your product or service successfully and how so), to peer approval (reviews from people they consider to be of their own ilk, and trustworthy, which reinforces their own thoughts and feelings about your business), and that all-important expert endorsement (figureheads who customers consider to be an expert giving you the thumbs up). This year, companies will place even more of a focus on generating social proof as a key part of their CX strategy, to convert those inquiries or &ldquo;might-bes&rdquo; to the next stage of the journey. CX Trends: Voice is making a come-back Whilst the instantaneous nature of online chat still has a huge part to play, the pandemic seemingly taught us a few things &ndash; one being that many people are now more likely to seek out a friendly voice on the end of a phone than they are to jump into conversation with a bot on your website or send an email. The reason behind this is two-fold: with the advent of Covid-19, the problems customers are looking for a solution to are often more complex than before and, aside from that, a sympathetic ear never goes amiss. Companies will begin analysing their communication channels in order to understand which provide the best results &ndash; which could come down to number of sales closed, percentage of queries resolved in one call, and so on and so forth. Particularly with consumer-driven businesses, voice will continue and grow to be a key channel for customer service in terms of taking CX to the next level; as it&rsquo;s also a job which can largely be done from home as well, we expect to see businesses recruiting and investing heavily in the training for these teams. CX Trends: Emotion analytics to the forefront Emotion has always played a huge part in the customer decision-making process, whatever it is your business does &ndash; but actually utilising tools to understanding what&rsquo;s going on in customers&rsquo; minds will be at the forefront in 2021. As brands seek to understand more about their customers&rsquo; needs and the psychology behind their buying process, the emotions involved will become ever more important &ndash; particularly as we navigate into this new world of empathy and community. Using emotion analytics as a tool to upgrading customer experience (that is, measuring the impact you have, from advertising to the product or service itself) could provide interesting and useful data as to where we should be focusing efforts and aiming to improve. CX is a team affair &ndash; having the right people in key places is crucial to making a strong strategy work. Get in touch to learn more about how we can help you find those individuals and get things rolling.

CX Trends for 2021

3 simply ways in which to make your hiring process more diverse...
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Hiring Diversity (Video)

​Recruitment - It's who we are - It's what we do! Contact Certus Recruitment to see how we can help you secure the very best in available talent, find that dream job or help you strategise your next hire.<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sDDxlLS46fc" width="560" height="314" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe>

We Are Recruiters... (Video)

​I think we can all agree that the back end of last year had us contemplating what the next one looks like, more so than ever before. Like many small businesses here in Melbourne, we were in the throes of start-up excitement and growth when the Covid-19 pandemic hit: 18-months or so deep, team growing nicely, solidifying relationships and giving amazing service to some fantastic clients. Things were looking extremely positive. In fact, they still are &ndash; if a little different. All this contemplation has left me asking myself one key question: am I working on the business, or just in it? For any start-up looking to achieve growth, it&rsquo;s important to know the difference; it&rsquo;s something I&rsquo;m slowly learning myself and, as we help so many other start-ups achieve their goals, thought it might be pertinent to share some thoughts. But first off, what&rsquo;s the difference? Working IN your business: It means doing all the things.&nbsp;Speaking to the people. Meeting the clients. Building the relationships. Invoicing the customers. Answering the queries. Working IN your business means to conduct the basic tasks which fundamentally make your business tick &ndash; providing the service and/or products and keeping things moving. Working ON your business: It means the big stuff.&nbsp;Making strategic decisions. Setting goals and milestones. Improving processes. Analysing data. Understanding marketing. Working ON your business is the tough part. It&rsquo;s making time to do those things which might not &lsquo;make you money&rsquo; immediately but, long term, will. With all that in mind, here are some pieces of advice which I&rsquo;m slowly implementing myself to ensure that this year I prioritise working on my business, rather than just in it: 1.&nbsp;Delegate.&nbsp;It can be a painful process, but it&rsquo;s a healthy practice to implement. As the owner of a small business, your time needs to be spent working ON &ndash; so delegate those time-consuming IN tasks to your people. Outsource them even, if need be (until you grow to a point that it makes sense to hire internally). But use delegation as a means to freeing up your time, not to mention headspace, for the more strategic tasks which only you can do. 2.&nbsp;Research.&nbsp;Think you know something? Are things going really well, and you think you understand why? Or do you think you&rsquo;ve cracked the reasons behind something not working? Do some research &ndash; online, speaking with competitors/peers in the industry, mentors or industry figureheads, even your own customers &ndash; and try to pick apart your assumptions. Whilst it sounds counterproductive, it&rsquo;ll bring better clarity around your own business and what to continue/begin/stop doing &ndash; whether it&rsquo;s a deeper understanding of what people want, what your own clients love (or don&rsquo;t love), or simply inspiration as to how the business is going to move forwards. 3.&nbsp;Don&rsquo;t get comfortable.&nbsp;As the owner of a start-up, when things start seemingly falling into place it&rsquo;s an incredible feeling &ndash; but great things never came from comfort zones. When things start working, it&rsquo;s time to start diversifying. Keep testing. Keep trying new things. Utilise your data, listen to your employees and, overall, keep pushing. They say &ndash; whoever &ldquo;they&rdquo; are &ndash; that business owners should spend about two hours a day working on their business. I&rsquo;m in a unique situation as a small business owner, being that I had the backing of our amazing UK contingent with Certus Recruitment Group in London; further to that and better yet, having started my career there myself before emigrating to Oz. 2020 was most certainly not the year we expected it to be, but it doesn&rsquo;t have to have any bearing on 2021. Let&rsquo;s all focus on working on our businesses, whilst continuing to work in them as well as ever. I&rsquo;d love to hear from likeminded individuals to talk start up challenges, achievements and successes, or from businesses who we could help make the strategic hiring decisions which will take yours to the next level. Happy new year everyone.

Working On vs Working In Your Business

​Is your business ready to expand into Australia? Through our own international expansion and through helping other companies grow their footprint, our 3 keys to successfully building an office overseas are:
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International Expansion (Video)

​Folks, I know that we&rsquo;ve been talking about it a lot &ndash; customer experience, that is. But what does it actually mean? Customer experience &ndash; largely referred to in the IT world as simply &ldquo;CX&rdquo; &ndash; encompasses many things. But we could explain it simply as an amalgamation of the service, feelings and overall usability of your brand; the impression any customer or prospect has with your business, whether such interactions resulted in a sale or not. With that in mind, it&rsquo;s not surprising that CX has been shown time and time again to have a direct impact on almost every aspect of a company &ndash; most importantly, your bottom line. It affects the way customers new, existing or future view your business; the likelihood that they&rsquo;re going to do or continue doing business with you. It has a large impact on how you source new customers &ndash; think referrals and networking specifically. CX touches upon all areas and, as such, it&rsquo;s a job for everyone. So, just who is responsible for customer experience and what are the key roles involved in managing or improving it? To start with, we need to understand that there are two sides to CX: people and product. Product (or service) refers to what you actually do for customers; the enjoyment/ease of use/fulfilment/usefulness they find in what you bring to market. People means, of course, the individuals that a customer comes into contact with on their journey with your business &ndash; the service they receive in terms of customer care and support. As such, having the right people in the right position to make sure both of the above are operating at their absolute best is crucial to a strong customer experience strategy. Here are some of the key places you should consider investing, if you haven&rsquo;t already, to improve your own: CX Analyst: Having a strong analyst on board can prove invaluable when it comes to understanding the data you&rsquo;re currently producing, moreover using it to predict customers&rsquo; future needs. What are customers loving? How are they behaving? What areas do we need to improve? Where do we lose people? There&rsquo;s no end to the questions such a person could and should be asking about your customer journey; combine this inquisitive nature with the ability to spot trends and patterns in the data, and you&rsquo;ll soon be exposing the holes. Once you know what you&rsquo;re up against, it&rsquo;ll be all the easier to create a strategy which overcomes these challenges. CX &lsquo;Guru&rsquo;: Okay, I know it&rsquo;s a little bit of an American term &ndash; but the premise stands. Having on board a dedicated expert, one who toes the line between interpersonal skills and technical understanding, is priceless from a customer&rsquo;s perspective. As a customer/user, having your issue &lsquo;escalated&rsquo; or being passed around multiple individuals to solve a problem simply isn&rsquo;t ideal. Enter the CX guru: someone who knows their stuff and can, on many occasions, save your prospect multiple steps (and a lot of hassle). They&rsquo;re not a salesperson, nor are they technical support or customer service; this person is going to be extremely talented, multi-faceted &ndash; and a great addition to the team. CX Product Developers: With an ineffective or undesirable product or service, no matter how incredible your customer care team is, you can only go so far. No one wants to be known for providing amazing service around a product which doesn&rsquo;t work, or simply doesn&rsquo;t match up to its competition; so, having a dedicated product development team who work with both of the roles I&rsquo;ve just mentioned, to understand where customers are falling out of bed, means they can come up with exciting, innovative ideas and ever-improving developments. Your CX-specific product developer isn&rsquo;t a person or team who are simply coming up with the next big idea &ndash; they&rsquo;re working based specifically around what you learn each day about what customers love, don&rsquo;t love and want to change. A CX-specific product development team uses data and common sense to improve the journey your customers go on with your business, ultimately generating prolonged repeat business and, hopefully, a generally happier customer! The truth is, we&rsquo;re seeing CX cited on the financial reports of many clients whom we&rsquo;re extremely keen to work with in the coming year. Is it on yours?

Getting the Low Down on CX

Lockdown lasted a long while here in Oz and finding myself stuck inside the house with so much time on my hands was certainly challenging. Besides listening to a ton of books on Audible to engage my mind and spending some well-needed quality time with the pooch, I found a few new interests. One of these developing interests was marketing; specifically the part it plays alongside recruitment in the overall outward image of businesses. Should marketing be a part of your recruitment strategy, or should recruitment be a part of your marketing strategy? Or both? This all culminated in me actually undertaking a marketing course for recruitment leaders, through the guys at Hoxo Media (Sean Anderson) which was eye-opening to say the least. As someone looking to grow my own business, as well as consulting with clients as to how to grow theirs, I found some key takeaways which I thought would be helpful to put down in writing &ndash; for whether you&rsquo;re a recruitment company, tech start-up, large corporate or otherwise. How you attract and moreover engage talent should form a large part of your marketing strategy. When it comes to hiring, we&rsquo;ve moved far away from the typical model of posting a job online and waiting for applications to come flying in. Yes, that still happens, but an outdated approach to recruitment could speak of an outdated approach&hellip; Period. The industry&rsquo;s top talent &ndash; whatever your industry maybe &ndash; isn&rsquo;t doing things the old school way, and they won&rsquo;t want to work for a business who are. They&rsquo;ve gotten to the top of their game by innovating; by bringing new ideas to the table. So, thinking seriously about how you go about trying to attract these very people couldn&rsquo;t be more important &ndash; including considering every piece of collateral you put out there, from your job ads to LinkedIn posts, social feed and more. It&rsquo;s as much about the process as it is the initial engagement. You could have the best-written job adverts in the world &ndash; but follow up with a shoddy candidate management process and you&rsquo;re going to lose all of that initial buy-in. The way you follow up with candidates, respond to their enquiries, and generally communicate with them &ndash; in terms of frequency, speed and manner &ndash; should be an extension of how you do business as an organisation. Are you consistently reliable? Professional? Friendly? Transparent? Does HR have the time to commit to making sure every candidate, whether successful or not, gets the absolute best from each communication? Having excellent talent engagement strategies in the form of job ads and outreach means nothing if the follow up is poor, much like conducting a fantastic lead generation campaign with no funnel or process to convert. Could your recruitment process be diluting your brand? As a business leader, everyone we speak to forms at least a small part of our marketing strategy &ndash; clients, suppliers, even family and friends. By using multiple agencies and partnering with the masses to undertake your recruitment campaigns, you lose a certain amount of control about what they might be saying, to whom, and how. Is each agency portraying your values accurately? Do they embody your brand in every communication they have, with each candidate they&rsquo;re working with? Do they represent your business well in everything they do? All of the above is why it&rsquo;s key to partner with only a small number of select agencies &ndash; those who take the time to build a relationship and understand who you are, how your business operates and what&rsquo;s important. After all, it&rsquo;s your name they&rsquo;ll be saying &ndash; make sure you trust that they&rsquo;ll do justice by your brand. Employee engagement is a fundamental tool in talent attraction moving forwards. Just like the suppliers you use to recruit, each and every employee plays a part in your marketing strategy as well &ndash; or they certainly should be doing. What do they tell their friends, their network, about what it&rsquo;s like to work for you? For years now the employee referral trend has been building; if it&rsquo;s not something your organisation has experienced much of yet, it&rsquo;s time to wonder why. Treat your employees well, engage with them and earn their loyalty, and watch as they become your biggest advocates &ndash; not to mention an amazing source of fresh talent. More than ever, it&rsquo;s important for businesses to have their marketing, HR teams and people at large working closely to establish the messaging you want to go to market with. And it&rsquo;s our awareness of all this which makes our clients so happy to use us continually, often as a sole agency, when it comes to filling roles. Here at Certus we do more than just your bog-standard recruitment. Talk to us today about how to transform your talent acquisition marketing strategy and recruitment process ready for the new year.

Recruitment: A Crucial Piece of Your Overall Marketing Strategy

With COVID-19 forcing many employers to rapidly develop working from home strategies, we take a quick look at some of the areas affecting employers of every size.
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Homeworking - Is this the Future? (Video)

​A couple of weeks ago, we put a job advert online here on LinkedIn. The next morning, we had to take it down &ndash; a mere 12 hours or so later &ndash; due to the massive amount of applications we received overnight. And almost every single applicant was entirely relevant. It&rsquo;s something which recruiters and hiring managers all over the world are experiencing right now; team Certus UK are experiencing much the same over in London. A huge amount of people have found themselves, almost entirely unexpectedly, looking for a new job. That means an increase not only in applications, but in relevant applications, as the job scene is flooded with talent. And it&rsquo;s this talent-rich market which really means you need to stand out as an applicant &ndash; in the right way, not the wrong one. I&rsquo;m grateful not only to have kept my own job, but that it allows me to help others secure a new one; as a result, I&rsquo;ve put together a guide for job seekers as to the etiquette which might help you do just that. Candidate etiquette tip #1: phone manners matter If you&rsquo;re out there actively searching for a job right now, my advice is this: be prepared for&nbsp;every&nbsp;phone call you receive from a private or unknown number to be opportunity knocking (or calling, if you like), and answer it appropriately as such. First impressions count, whether they&rsquo;re made on the phone or in-person; this means answering the phone in a professional way (for example, using your name &ndash; &ldquo;Leanne Mohan speaking,&rdquo; or &ldquo;Leanne here, how can I help?&rdquo;) makes all the difference. Answering the phone in an abrupt, terse or impatient manner doesn&rsquo;t give off the best vibe. Similarly, if your surroundings aren&rsquo;t ideal (loud noises, distractions, poor signal etc) then be sure to answer professionally, quickly take down the details of the person calling, explain the situation, and ask if you can find a better place to talk and call them back shortly. This will be hugely favoured over struggling through a difficult, awkward and disjointed conversation! Candidate etiquette tip #2: organise your applications Whilst you&rsquo;re undoubtedly applying for many jobs, that fact only makes it more important to properly keep a record of&nbsp;what&nbsp;you&rsquo;ve applied to,&nbsp;when&nbsp;and&nbsp;where. If you&rsquo;re not doing so, how can you expect to be prepared when the call does come? Save yourself being caught off guard by a call from a recruiter or employer, finding yourself having to mentally scramble and put the pieces together as to which role we&rsquo;re calling about &ndash; it just doesn&rsquo;t get any call off on the right, let alone best, foot. Creating a simple Word document or even an email draft where you make a note of the company/agency, job title and date you applied to each job will give you something to quickly refer to &ndash; and allow you to come across as confident, knowledgeable and organised. Not only this, but the act of copying each job down will naturally reinforce the role in your mind, meaning it&rsquo;ll be easier to draw upon when you pick up the phone. Candidate etiquette tip #3: recruiters are a job-seeking tool like any other &ndash; use us! The process begins here; we&rsquo;re effectively a&nbsp;direct line&nbsp;to a business which is currently hiring, and presumably someone with skills similar to your own. Speaking with a recruiter may seem like just another step to endure but, simply put, we want you to get the job &ndash; truly. Our own success depends on the success of you, and others like you, securing a position which is a great fit; when you receive a call from a recruiter, it&rsquo;s not a test &ndash; it&rsquo;s a qualification. If your skills match the job description on paper, we&rsquo;re not necessarily trying to understand whether you fit the spec &ndash; we want to learn more about you, your personality, if there&rsquo;s cultural fit with the client we know so well. Don&rsquo;t be afraid to showcase who you are and show some enthusiasm; if you come across lacklustre and indifferent, the likelihood is we&rsquo;ll feel the same when we put down the phone. And with so many candidates to qualify, many of whom possess the skills we and our clients are looking for, that could make all the difference. All in all, the idea is this: job searching should be best foot forward, at all times. Whether you&rsquo;re speaking with a recruiter, the HR department, the hiring manager or even the CEO his or herself, candidate etiquette is key to consider. How did you come across during that call? Did you do yourself justice? Did you ultimately give yourself the absolute best chance of success? Whilst Covid has certainly shaken up the job market, it&rsquo;s fair to say that these coaching tips should stand, universally, whatever the circumstances; I&rsquo;m proud to say that since joining Certus here in Australia almost exactly a year ago, I&rsquo;ve been providing candidates with exceptional experiences and constantly offering advice and coaching along the way &ndash; having been on the other side of the fence myself, it&rsquo;s something that resonates with me. To check out the roles I&rsquo;m currently working on, head to our jobs page &ndash; www.certusrecruitment.com.au/jobs &ndash; and don&rsquo;t forget to write down the ones you apply to!

A Guide to Candidate Etiquette – Pre, Post & During Covid

Embarking on a job search? Check out the following tips to help you secure that dream job.
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Tips for a Successful Job Search (Video)

​Well, 2020 &ndash; what a year you&rsquo;ve been so far. My own recruitment career began back in 2010 &ndash; another somewhat dicey year for businesses across the UK (where I was living at the time) &ndash; and, ten years on, I can confidently say that this is the most broadly talent-rich candidate marketplace I&rsquo;ve yet had the pleasure of working. It may not be thanks to ideal circumstances, far from it, but as a recruiter it&rsquo;s fascinating, if not of course a little concerning to see such a swing from the strongly candidate-driven market we were experiencing back in January of this year. When the market is full of incredible talent like it is today, things get a little bit trickier for you jobseekers. Competition is always high but, with so many highly-qualified individuals actually seeking work actively, getting your resum&eacute; to the top of the pile can pose a challenge. Resum&eacute; writing is tricky &ndash; it&rsquo;s difficult enough to write about yourself, let alone trying to explain what you do effectively within that highly-touted 2-page limit. For me, the key thing to remember is, as we&rsquo;ve said before, your resum&eacute; is a&nbsp;sales document. When selling in general, you don&rsquo;t sit and simply tell the prospect why you&rsquo;re so great &ndash; you&rsquo;re trying to answer two questions: what is it going to do for them, and how is it going to benefit them? With that in mind, and an unprecedented number of resum&eacute;s to scan every day, my biggest tip would be this: stop listing soft skills. Why? Because space on your resum&eacute; is&nbsp;precious. Because those skills are going to be listed on&nbsp;every other&nbsp;resum&eacute;. Because those skills are almost entirely&nbsp;non-tangible, meaning there&rsquo;s no way to measure them &ndash; you could effectively list whatever you wanted to. Because those skills aren&rsquo;t something you can become certified in; they&rsquo;re to be&nbsp;learned&nbsp;and&nbsp;honed over time&nbsp;through experience. Let&rsquo;s think about hard skills for a second &ndash; C++, UI design, a foreign language, what have you. If the job advert calls for these skills, it&rsquo;s because the role requires them &ndash; these are things you need to know, and could be used to promptly qualify candidates in or out on paper. Communication, however, can&rsquo;t be examined until interview stage. Just writing it on your resum&eacute; isn&rsquo;t enough for the person reading to understand whether you possess skills in communication, and if so to what degree. Listing it alongside teamwork, leadership and time management doesn&rsquo;t help. And this whole exercise is taking up valuable space on those two all-important pieces of A4. So, what should you do instead? Tell the reader a&nbsp;story. Use the employment history and experience section of your resum&eacute; to demonstrate those soft skills. Give clear examples in each piece of employment where you were able to show those skills, the circumstances under which they were important, what benefit they brought your current employer &ndash; and, as such, the benefit they&rsquo;ll provide to your next. Here are some examples of what I&rsquo;m getting at. Instead of this:
<ul>
<li>
Communication
</li>
<li>
Teamwork
</li>
<li>
Leadership
</li>
<li>
Problem solving
</li>
<li>
Conflict resolution
</li>
<li>
Creativity
</li>
</ul>
Try something more along the lines of this:
<ul>
<li>
Responsible for explaining niche deal components in a succinct manner to ensure ideas are communicated properly and aims are aligned
</li>
<li>
Working closely with multiple decision makers, colleagues and external partners to see projects through to completion
</li>
<li>
Leading a high-performing team of 5 SDRs to achieve a target of $Xm per annum (achieved 112% FY19)
</li>
<li>
Conducting thorough research to identify and overcome challenges which may arise throughout
</li>
<li>
Resolving any issues between staff members through active listening and promoting an open line of communication at all times
</li>
<li>
Successfully designed multiple ad campaigns throughout the year, exercising creativity to come up with fresh concepts and innovative angles on an ongoing basis
</li>
</ul>
This way, that one line you&rsquo;ve used to merely list your skill has turned into a real-life example; I think they call that two birds, one stone. So, to go back to my original point: stop listing soft skills on your resum&eacute; &ndash; instead, prove them at the same time. Make them tangible, believable. It might just set you apart from the crowd. Take a look at the roles we have live here in Oz via our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.certusrecruitment.com.au/jobs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">jobs page</a>, which is constantly being updated with positions we&rsquo;re working on for our clients. And, if you do happen to apply for one, don&rsquo;t let me down &ndash; I can&rsquo;t wait to see your beautiful, story-telling resum&eacute; in my inbox.

Jobseekers: stop listing soft skills on your resumé. Here’s why.

​​Management. It&rsquo;s a new height in your career and one which many, nay the majority of us aspire to. So, if you&rsquo;ve recently made it to that level &ndash; congratulations! Making the jump from a general team member or even team leadership role is a big step and great achievement. It&rsquo;s likely that you&rsquo;ve found yourself here by way of one of a few different scenarios: You&rsquo;ve been promoted and are now managing those you worked alongside previously You&rsquo;ve been promoted and given the responsibility of hiring your own team from scratch You&rsquo;ve been hired externally and brought in to build a new team You&rsquo;ve been hired externally and brought in to manage an existing team Each situation poses its own challenges, its own obstacles to overcome, but more than anything, its own opportunities. Here are 3 important things you as a new manager should consider doing as you ease into your new role: 1.Clarify expectations And from every angle. As a new manager with a team already in place, it&rsquo;s important to understand what each individual is expecting from you as a manager &ndash; and to make clear what you&rsquo;re looking for from them. Take some time to sit down with your team and answer some key questions such as what the overall goal is, what they feel is achievable and realistic, where they require your help and support the most. One of the most common causes of discord between a new manager inheriting an in-situ team comes down to a discrepancy in expectations so, over the first 30 days of your new role, take the time to set expectations and hold yourself, and your team, accountable to them. Equally, in terms of your own responsibilities, clarifying the expectations from those sitting above you is crucial. If there&rsquo;s no team in place yet and it&rsquo;s your responsibility to build one, ensure you&rsquo;re on the same page with regards to hiring &ndash; profile, timeline and budget. 2.Be both visible and available It goes without saying that in your new role as a manager, you should be hands-on from the off. Whether that means proving your tenacity to the powers-that-be above and creating an energetic persona as you go about hiring your soon-to-be team, or spending real quality time on the floor with the current one, being seen &lsquo;in the trenches&rsquo; so to speak will ensure your success in the initial stages. Being available and being visible as a manager go hand in hand; when employees become used to you being around, they&rsquo;ll know they&rsquo;re able to approach you for support, expertise and resources. Prove your accountability and presence in that first month, and you&rsquo;ll be off to a flying start. 3.Ask for feedback We&rsquo;re not just talking about, &ldquo;How am I doing?&rdquo; here. If the team is already in place, understanding how they&rsquo;re feeling is important &ndash; what&rsquo;s changed since you became their manager? What hasn&rsquo;t? What could be done differently, or improved upon? Whilst it doesn&rsquo;t hurt to have the odd catch up and understand how they feel about you as a manager directly, it&rsquo;s also pertinent to make your team feel involved. Consult with them on strategy, operations, goal setting. Are you all on the same page in terms of the vision? Asking for feedback and consulting regularly with your team will help you all connect and build strong relationships, employee-employee as well as employee-manager; it&rsquo;ll also help mitigate any problems before they arise or grow out of proportion. Asking for feedback lets your employees know you have their interests at the heart of everything you do &ndash; which will garner trust and respect, from both sides. Management can be challenging, but as business leaders I&rsquo;m sure we can all agree that there&rsquo;s little else so rewarding as seeing the team you work alongside thrive. Our teams are experts in building yours &ndash; and we have a tip or two about strong management and leadership skills, as a business improvement and growth strategy, too. If you&rsquo;re a manager whose team has capacity to grow, we&rsquo;d love to hear more about your vision. Get in touch with Certus Recruitment Group today.

3 things every new manager should do during their first 30 days on the job

Wellbeing &ndash; what does it mean to you? The official definition is a state of experiencing happiness and healthiness. When we delve deeper into this, it actually boils down to having a sense of purpose, finding satisfaction in what we&rsquo;re doing and understanding our own ability to manage stress (because, let&rsquo;s be honest, a stress-free life would simply be too much to ask!) And where do many of us find all of the above? The workplace. Around the world, it&rsquo;s no secret that dissatisfaction at work is a leading cause of depression; being that this is where we spend most of our time, it&rsquo;s no wonder. As a business leader, making sure your employees are looked after by more than just their compensation package couldn&rsquo;t be more crucial to running a successful business. What is a corporate wellbeing strategy? Just like it says on the tin, a corporate wellbeing strategy is an initiative which is implemented to monitor and hopefully improve the wellbeing of your employees. Key measurables in terms of business deliverables will largely include the following:
<ul>
<li>
Employee satisfaction
</li>
<li>
Sick days/absences
</li>
<li>
Productivity
</li>
<li>
Staff retention/turnover
</li>
</ul>
A well thought-out and properly implemented wellness program can have myriad benefits on your workplace; not to mention, from a moral perspective, it should be a no brainer. When developing your strategy, there should be a focus on a few main aspects, which might include:
<ul>
<li>
Workload (becoming overworked and unable to properly complete responsibilities; not enough work leading to boredom and dissatisfaction)
</li>
<li>
Company culture (working relationships; environment)
</li>
<li>
Resources (whether or not employees have the tools at their disposal to complete their work to their very best ability)
</li>
<li>
Control (over their own career path/progression; over their ability to complete their own job and reliability on others to do so)
</li>
</ul>
What does it entail? To begin with, you need to understand the lay of the land. If your business is lucky enough to still be in the small and intimate stage, this could happen in a more casual setting &ndash; an open-forum meeting to discuss the general feeling in the business at present, a discussion around areas which could be improved. At any size or level, conducting a survey &ndash; anonymously &ndash; will yield more honest data for you to utilise with regards to how your team is feeling. Once you understand potential problem areas, developing and implementing a wellness strategy is a team effort; at senior management level, you all need to be on board (no pun intended) and dedicated to ensuring the wellbeing of your employees. It can mean an investment of time, funds or both; from simply implementing channels with which employees can communicate their feelings, issues and feedback without fear of negative consequences, to actually offering tangible benefits such as gym memberships, subsidised counselling or regular massages, for instance, it should be widely understood that their wellbeing is priority &ndash; simple as. And the outcome? Healthy, happy employees require fewer sick days; reducing absenteeism across your staff is a generally agreed upon result of implementing a solid corporate wellbeing strategy. Consider it a tool with which you can identify problems before they become one; by checking in regularly, you&rsquo;ll understand on an ongoing basis what it is that your employees love &ndash; or don&rsquo;t love &ndash; about your business. Naturally, when you understand these aspects, the environment you cultivate will be one which your employees are more productive, motivated and happy within &ndash; meaning they&rsquo;ll stick around for longer. As a business leader, ensuring your company goals align with those of your employees will make sure each individual understands the part they have to play, their purpose within &ndash; leading to an increase in motivation, a feeling of doing a meaningful job. When your employees are happy, your business will thrive. Understanding what makes them happy, will show you the tools you need to get them there. Giving your employees those tools, will really prove to them that you have their best interests at heart. With everything going on in the world right now, I think we could all stand to look after each other a little better. As a business leader, this is a great place to start.

Corporate Wellbeing Strategies – what they are, and why you need one

Did you choose your career path, or did you fall into it? There&rsquo;s a kind of stigma attached to the unsurety some people have when it comes to their career. But the truth is, uncertainty about the path we&rsquo;re on hits most of us at one time or another, whether when you&rsquo;re first starting out in your career and trying to answer the big question of &ldquo;what to do with your life&rdquo;, or years later when we&rsquo;ve experienced a lot but maybe lost direction. When you lose your sense of purpose, it&rsquo;s difficult to express to a potential employer how you&rsquo;re feeling without being labelled as &lsquo;unmotivated&rsquo; or &lsquo;not driven&rsquo;; the truth is, you need to stop your mind from spiralling and get to the bottom of things. If you&rsquo;re feeling overwhelmed and suffering from some career uncertainty, there are a few things to consider. What goals are you working towards? Understanding your own long-term goals is arguably the most important thing; knowing how to get there another thing entirely, but at least having an idea of what you want to achieve is crucial to overcoming career uncertainty. Where do you want to be in the next 12 months, 3 years, 5 years? Don&rsquo;t focus on a job title or position &ndash; focus on what you want to learn or understand by then, where your earnings need to be, the personal goals which are tied in with your career development. They&rsquo;re big questions, but worth thinking about now, even if the path to achieving them isn&rsquo;t clear. Vocalising your goals makes them infinitely more approachable and thus achievable. Which leads me on to&hellip; What are your most proud achievements to date? Read that question again: not your biggest achievements, but those you&rsquo;re most proud of. Think about the things which really felt worthwhile, where you really added value, where you went above and beyond for a customer or colleague. Being good at a job doesn&rsquo;t mean it fulfils you, so understanding the things which actually make you feel good about what you were doing may give some insight into what you should be pursuing in your career moving forwards. What is it you&rsquo;re unsure of &ndash; the job, or the sector? Try to isolate what it is about your career which has left you uneasy. It may be that you love the sector you&rsquo;re working in but the job itself doesn&rsquo;t appeal any more. Alternatively, the job itself might be right, but you feel unsure about your passion for the sector you operate within. Could it be worth changing one and not the other? What does the long-term future of this industry look like? Sometimes, career uncertainty can be caused by tangible reasons &ndash; if there&rsquo;s uncertainty in your industry as a whole or for the longevity of the path you&rsquo;re on, it&rsquo;s worth writing down the skills and experience you have and where they would be transferrable to. This could give you some fresh motivation and reboot your excitement to try your hand somewhere different altogether. And on the other side &ndash; from an employer&rsquo;s point of view? When someone says they&rsquo;re unsure of what they want to do or where they want to be &ndash; after all, gone are the days of linear hierarchies and rigid career paths &ndash; it doesn&rsquo;t have to reflect poorly on their drive; not knowing what you want to do doesn&rsquo;t equal not wanting to work hard. If you come across this as an employer, try approaching the question from a different angle: what is it that motivates this individual? Is it helping others and making a difference which drives them forward? Learning? Money? Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations differ greatly, so understanding what&rsquo;s going to most appeal to them will help you determine whether the job is going to suit them. With so many people having been thrown for a loop due to the Covid pandemic, it&rsquo;s important to take a step back, a deep breath, and remember that we all go through this at some point. Take the time for some self-reflection, write things down and do your research; if all else fails, try speaking to the professionals &ndash; like us &ndash; for guidance on market conditions, opportunities and the different paths available to you. Get in touch with my team in Melbourne today.

Career Uncertainty: what to do when you don’t know what to do

The world of LinkedIn is a funny place at the moment; we&rsquo;re all being bombarded with motivational quotes (quite rightly), advice on how to optimize our home-working space and/or musings about what a post-Covid world might look like. You may have also seen this meme circulating of late&hellip;
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Pretty hard-hitting, and certainly differs from the usual light-hearted, humorous memes we&rsquo;re used to. But it does make a good point. How many of us simply weren&rsquo;t ready for Covid-19? How many &lsquo;digital transformations&rsquo; &ndash; a tricky prospect and arduous process at the best of times &ndash; have had to be fast-tracked over the past 8 weeks? We&rsquo;ve all learned a lot as to how we should be approaching the digital age and how we should be forming the futures of our businesses to ensure digital longevity. But, what does that look like? As business leaders, where should we be focusing our efforts? Here are my 3 steps to digital transformation: 1.Make sound technology investments The first thing to remember is that &ldquo;digital transformation&rdquo; quite literally means integrating technology into every aspect of your business, in order to fine-tune and optimise your operations. So, every investment in tech you make now will pay dividends in the future. Give your team the tools to be successful &ndash; not just by way of the newest, latest-and-greatest laptop, but in providing them the programs they need to operate at their optimum. Conferencing set ups, which allow them to communicate with clients, hold virtual meetings (during and post Covid-19 &ndash; I&rsquo;m sure most of us will agree, this IS a thing of the future), participate in high-energy catch ups with the team. Software which gives them the ability to manage their time, workload and achievements effectively. And for the business as a whole? Spare no expense when it comes to security systems &ndash; when your business is operating digitally, this is imperative. Invest in a payments system which works for you and suppliers/customers alike &ndash; something which does your business favours as well as being externally-friendly. Do your research on the myriad tools the market has to offer, understand where your business could improve with the implementation of tech, and make fundamentally sound investments which will last the course. 2.Streamline internal processes Whilst these may take a minute (read: few months) to hammer out, it&rsquo;ll be crucial to have your own internal processes down pat once your digital transformation is complete. This means understanding what we do, how we do it and why, with regards to each and every aspect of our operations. You&rsquo;ll undoubtedly experience a few &lsquo;digital teething problems&rsquo;, but consistency is key. Understand why you&rsquo;ve made the choice to change, properly and consistently introduce certain applications, new functions etc, and at all costs ensure that your company values are kept prominent and paramount. The digital age holds the customer at the forefront of every business decision, so ensure that your business processes reflect exactly that &ndash; from the tools you use to communicate to the ways in which you follow up after a sale has been made. 3.Lead from the front! Leading from the front means to embrace the changes as they&rsquo;re happening, taking an active role in championing digital transformation as it happens. Whether you&rsquo;re at the helm of a small business or have a CIO/IT Director to defer to, as a business leader your job is to ensure that your workforce understands what is happening and why. To ease any unsurety and maintain cohesive, motivated teams throughout. Strong, reliable and energetic management is key for success during any period of change &ndash; and the technological kind is certainly no longer a potential, but inevitable. Overall, the term &lsquo;digital transformation&rsquo; may sound daunting &ndash; but, it&rsquo;s less of an overwhelming item to check off the list nowadays as it is a change in mindset. It&rsquo;s not something that will happen overnight but, as the current pandemic situation has proven globally, it&rsquo;s something we all need to be cognizant of. Focus on your customers first, alongside getting your employees on board and, with the right tools in place, the roll-out and implementation will follow.

3 Steps to Digital Transformation

​All business leaders talk about change &ndash; how to manage it, embrace it, and approach it as an inevitable, ever-positive thing. And yet, so many have been caught unawares in the last month by the Covid 19 pandemic, large and small businesses alike. Many of those businesses that were already operating online weren&rsquo;t ready for an influx of extra activity and information whilst, on the other hand, some are still scrambling to get their business operating virtually. In a positive sense, many people are learning things about their business; a potential they perhaps had seen but not acted upon, or a new way of working altogether. Whilst there&rsquo;s no doubting that the coronavirus has brought about destruction and devastation &ndash; to both humankind itself and the economy around us &ndash; it also has huge potential to engender positive forward movement. The pandemic has changed life as we know it for now, and will continue to do so for months, maybe years still. But what are the changes we think have the potential to stick around for the foreseeable? 1. Working from home This is certainly one of the most obvious and widely-adopted measures being taken to stop the spread of the virus and, seeing as remote-working was already trending upwards before all of this, we can safely assume many businesses will adopt such schemes long-term. The office will always play an important part in employment, if only for the presence of company culture, sociability and building team spirit. But, from an employee satisfaction standpoint, for the many people who&rsquo;ve gained potentially multiple hours in spare time by cutting out their commute on a daily basis, WFH capabilities could prove to be key for retaining staff in future. 2. Digital education Online courses and &ldquo;self-learning&rdquo; have been changing the world of professional qualifications for years now &ndash; but what about actual schooling? Of course, as a child, your early years at school physically are key for many areas of development and utterly invaluable. However, for colleges and universities, internet-based classes, virtual seminars and online resources could be one of the things we see sticking around for good. Colleges and universities will potentially be able to access talented professors and expert educators from around the world for the betterment of their students&rsquo; education &ndash; not to mention the cost savings involved in hosting online lectures instead of in-person. Digital education is a thing of the present, and hopefully future. 3. Recognition for the right people It&rsquo;s become swiftly and universally agreed upon (albeit a shame we needed reminding), that the people we should celebrate aren&rsquo;t the reality TV celebs, sports stars and business moguls of the world, but those within the industries who keep our countries moving. Those who are risking their lives every day, whether serving the public in our supermarkets or saving lives on the front line. The teachers going into school each day to look after the children of those people. The individuals making sure that critical supplies make it to where they&rsquo;re needed the most. Hopefully, in the future, we will all be more cognizant of who and what actually makes the world go round, as it were. There are, of course, a fair share of celebs, sports stars and business moguls who have done and are doing amazing things; I&rsquo;d never say otherwise. But, one of the biggest changes we hope will stick around when this is over is society as a whole recognising the right people for the incredible things they bring to the world. Change is inevitable, whether forced unexpectedly or taking a planned approach; none of us have been untouched by the circumstances which are constantly evolving worldwide. Nonetheless, there are positives to be taken from every situation. What other changes have you seen effected in the world today, which you&rsquo;d like to see continue post-Covid 19?

Changes to Continue in a Post-Pandemic World

What a funny time to be alive. Not funny in the literal sense, of course &ndash; anything but. Perhaps I should say what a weird, troubling, unprecedented time to be alive &ndash; but, alive we are, so persevere we must. You may have been following my posts this week as my team here in Melbourne transitions to working full-time from home &ndash; we&rsquo;ve been employing a &lsquo;daily theme&rsquo; for each day, thus far encompassing hat day, sports team day and black Friday (we&rsquo;re getting really creative over here). We adore the co-working space we occupy in the heart of Melbourne&rsquo;s CBD, and WFH isn&rsquo;t something we ever thought we&rsquo;d need to employ so abruptly, let alone so completely; but, in times like these, we want to do our bit to stop the spread of this dastardly virus, Covid-19. I&rsquo;m more proud of my team than I thought possible. We&rsquo;re lucky as recruiters &ndash; we use a phone, a laptop and an internet connection to do what we do, making it fairly easy to up sticks and head home for the next few weeks. But what&rsquo;s struck me throughout this whole pandemic is how adaptable it&rsquo;s proven our staff to be.I can&rsquo;t say for sure that &lsquo;adaptability&rsquo; would have been top of my list for top traits to look for in a new hire; hard-working, of course, possesses initiative, definitely &ndash; but adaptable? What exactly does it mean? I&rsquo;m fast learning exactly that: To be adaptable means to embrace challenges, rather than shy away from them, understanding that it&rsquo;s probably necessary in order to grow. It&rsquo;s knowing that change is inevitable and, instead of working to downplay situations or wait until things reach breaking point to react, taking charge and doing what you can with the hand you&rsquo;ve been dealt. It&rsquo;s the willingness to crack on, even if it means making mistakes in the beginning or struggling through a &lsquo;teething period&rsquo;, in the name of getting the job done. Adaptability is finding the silver lining under any circumstance; problem-solving; learning as you go. And, certainly, in our case, it&rsquo;s doing that all with a smile on your face. I&rsquo;ll reiterate, I couldn&rsquo;t be more proud of my team; for the work they&rsquo;re putting into service clients who themselves may be struggling, the support they&rsquo;re offering to job seekers (new and previous), the work they&rsquo;re doing unaided, with only themselves for motivation (in the physical sense, anyway). The word &lsquo;adaptable&rsquo; may not have been the first to my lips in previous recruitment campaigns, whether of my own team or those of clients &ndash; but it will be from now on. Wishing everyone all the best; those who still have jobs, those who don&rsquo;t, the business leaders navigating these challenging times, healthcare workers and everyone else out there &ndash; sending love from Team Certus here in Melbourne. PS &ndash; we&rsquo;re open to suggestions for upcoming daily themes&hellip;
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The Beauty of Adaptability

​​We humans are an interesting bunch &ndash; despite there being no scientific evidence that ostriches do in fact bury their heads in the sand, the term &ldquo;being an ostrich&rdquo; has become synonymous with doing exactly that. Fun fact &ndash; ostriches do no such thing. But managers do. The running of a business isn&rsquo;t always a process without its challenges and bumps in the road; problems are going to arise which you need to face head-on, rather than pretending you&rsquo;re unaware or hoping they&rsquo;ll disappear of their own accord. I think the situation which is fast-blooming here in the UK with regards to Covid-19, and around the world for that matter, speaks enough to this cause. Myriad issues can arise in the workplace, both those which can be avoided in future and those which are entirely unprecedented, as we&rsquo;re all quickly learning; the key is, as a manager, not to bury your head in the sand and hope it&rsquo;ll all blow over. Here are some key tips on how to stay conscious in your leadership whilst trying to manage through a period of conflict. Know when to step in. There are tiers of leadership for a reason, sure &ndash; it&rsquo;s so that when an immediate manager feels unable, they too have someone to turn to. As a business leader it&rsquo;s crucial that you understand what&rsquo;s going on, when it&rsquo;s gone beyond your subordinate&rsquo;s power, and when it requires you to take the matter into your own hands. We could be talking about a clash of personalities for instance, creative differences between employees, or even staff who get on well but don&rsquo;t play benefit to one another in the workplace; rather than waiting to see if it can be handled by another, know when it&rsquo;s your turn to step in and bring about a solution. Leave discussions open. A problem arose, and you solved it &ndash; well done, pat on the back. But, that doesn&rsquo;t mean it&rsquo;ll forever be so; in the fast-changing world of business, it&rsquo;s important that your team understand that any subject is still open. One of the worst things you can do as a manager is to leave employees feeling as though they&rsquo;re unable to bring something up, for fear of &lsquo;dwelling&rsquo; or bringing negativity back into play. When it comes to new processes and systems where problems have been perceived, ongoing awareness and monitoring is needed; new insights, ideas and therefore obstacles are inevitable. As a manager, be willing to admit that your original solution may have been temporary &ndash; take the bull by the horns and focus on finding new solutions, for the now and for the long-term. The longer you bury your head in the sand, the worse things will become. Know when to get serious. As we&rsquo;re all learning &ndash; Mr Johnson the UK PM included, I&rsquo;d imagine &ndash; it&rsquo;s tough to know when a concern becomes an issue, and when an issue becomes a problem &ndash; one which requires action, and immediately. But the fact is, if you deign always to be an informed, open leader &ndash; one who&rsquo;s abreast of the inner goings-on of your business, current affairs and industry trends &ndash; it&rsquo;s less likely that you&rsquo;ll be taken unawares. When facing a problem head on, it&rsquo;s important to know when to get serious; stop putting things off, stop employing the &lsquo;wait and see&rsquo; method, and take action when it&rsquo;s most needed. Do you tend to bury your head in the sand as a manager? Whilst we can all agree that optimism is paramount and finding the bright side key, being able to admit to an issue and find solutions quickly is tantamount to success across all aspects of your business. False optimism in a time of struggle is more likely to hinder rather than help, especially if your employees feel as though you&rsquo;ve been ignoring it thus far. Transparency in business is a huge trend for 2020 and it&rsquo;s never been more important to face issues with an open, forward-thinking viewpoint. Whilst this always applies, with such divided opinion as to the UK government&rsquo;s response to the coronavirus pandemic, it&rsquo;s never been more relevant. As business leaders, it&rsquo;s our time to face the music and do as best as we can by the businesses we&rsquo;re responsible for, whether that be by implementing home working systems, offering support to our employees or simply trying our best to go on as normal in a safe manner. Whatever you&rsquo;re able to do, don&rsquo;t bury your head in the sand: this is happening, it will affect us all, and we can only tackle it as we must. Sending well wishes to our blog community and beyond under these challenging circumstances!

Ostrich Management: why it doesn’t work

They say that running a business is easy &ndash; finding the staff is where the difficulty lies. Now, I may be biased, but the service of a decent recruitment company couldn&rsquo;t be more valuable in my opinion &ndash; so much of a valuable service it appears to be that recruitment companies even hire OTHER recruitment companies to do their own recruitment. Try saying that three times fast. Hiring is hard. Knowing how to ensure your company&rsquo;s outward image is on brand, on point and on trend; how to write a decent ad and get that ad in front of your target audience; enticing them to apply or entertain a conversation after a direct approach; arranging interviews around busy work schedules; subsequently conducting said interviews and moreover actually getting out of them what you need to know; managing the offer process, dodging counter-offers and negotiating salaries, then keeping that (sometimes) tenuous line of contact in place until they start&hellip; It&rsquo;s exhausting &ndash; a task that few business leaders look forward to doing. But it&rsquo;s the absolute most necessary of evils. Particularly if the skillset you&rsquo;re looking for is niche &ndash; a more narrow candidate pool means less applicants, less talent to go after &ndash; recruiting can seem like a never-ending cycle of resourcing, until you finally find someone who fits the bill. It&rsquo;s more exciting yet, not to mention a relief, when you find that they tick all the boxes. They have the skills you want, the experience you need and they come across well. Sounds like it&rsquo;s time to put that offer in writing, no? &hellip;Wait &ndash; no? You&rsquo;ve spent days and weeks sourcing and interviewing; you&rsquo;ve found someone who you really like, believe could do the job and has bought in to your process thus far. But you&rsquo;d like to see &lsquo;what else might be out there&rsquo;, right? Unfortunately, this is something we recruiters do sometimes see. And it simply doesn&rsquo;t work. Why, you ask? Imagine the entire process you&rsquo;ve just read about above, but from the perspective of a job seeker. You&rsquo;ve put time, effort and sometimes finances into researching a company, understanding their business and how you could be a part of it. You&rsquo;ve gone in for at least two, maybe three interviews, have spent hours of your day discussing this job with many people internally, and both parties are in agreeance: this is a good fit. To then be told that, despite acing the entire process, the company would like to first ensure there&rsquo;s no better fit out there&hellip; Speaking from experience, 9 times out of 10 you, the employer, end up selling yourself out of a great candidate, and end up losing someone who could have been a fantastic addition to the team. In essence, it doesn&rsquo;t look good for you. To put it into perspective, simply, consider how you would feel if, after the arduous recruitment process, you offered your chosen candidate a job&hellip; And they responded by saying they&rsquo;d like a few more weeks to see what else is out there and make sure it&rsquo;s the best they can do. Disclaimer: I am by no means saying that a candidate, when offered a job, should have to cancel all other interviews or should accept immediately despite other processes happening &ndash; or should even accept at all, for that matter. Nor am I saying that as an employer you should &lsquo;settle&rsquo; or offer the job to someone you believe to be less than great for the job. But what I am saying is, if you&rsquo;ve gotten this far through the process already, you should be armed and ready to pull the trigger. If you&rsquo;ve only interviewed one person and you know they could be an asset, it&rsquo;s time to press Go. If you&rsquo;ve interviewed five people already and this is the only one to meet standards, you should have the information you need to understand whether they&rsquo;re right or not. Seeing if there&rsquo;s &ldquo;better&rdquo; out there, in today&rsquo;s candidate driven market, simply isn&rsquo;t an option. Not a fair one, anyway, and one which will rarely bring about the result you&rsquo;re hoping for. If you&rsquo;re still wanting to test the market, chances are your gut is telling you this person isn&rsquo;t right after all &ndash; so be open and honest, and respectful to their situation and job search. Hiring is hard; hiring for a niche role, even more so. I&rsquo;d be lying to say that there are no egos involved. The fact is, when dealing in recruitment, we help people make decisions which are going to affect more than just how long they have to commute in the morning &ndash; this role could make this person&rsquo;s career, change their life. It could change yours, the business owner; the direction, productivity, success of your business. So, treat each and every person you meet with respect. With anything in life, ambition is important; but don&rsquo;t spend so much time looking ahead to the next best thing that you fail to see what&rsquo;s right in front of you. When your vacancy is very specific, don&rsquo;t hesitate to hire. If you&rsquo;re struggling to resource top talent or have faced any of the problems above in hiring, starting and retaining staff, we&rsquo;d love to help. We&rsquo;re experts in recruitment, but also experts in people; we consult with our clients, exploring all options to ensure the forward progress of your business. Get in touch today.

Niche roles? Don’t hesitate to hire

​Have you heard of imposter syndrome? It doesn&rsquo;t sound like a real thing, I know; however imposter syndrome is in fact alive and thriving in today&rsquo;s corporate world. This psychological phenomenon is said to affect up to 70% of people at some point during their life &ndash; a huge number &ndash; and can be found in people at literally any career level, from graduates to CEOs and beyond. So, what is it? Well, Harvard Business Review called it, &ldquo;&hellip;a collection of feelings of inadequacy that persist despite evident success.&rdquo; Others have described imposter syndrome as the feeling of simply not deserving the position you&rsquo;ve found yourself in; overall, it&rsquo;s essentially a remnant of the &ldquo;fake it &lsquo;til you make it&rdquo; attitude (despite now, likely having actually made it thanks to knowledge, hard work, skill or all of the above), coupled with a large dose of self-doubt and a generous helping of inadequacy. Sounds like fun, huh. We&rsquo;ve all been there: the times where you&rsquo;re not quite sure how, but you reached target; you were asked a complicated question and somehow gave a coherent, relevant and knowledgeable-sounding answer that you didn&rsquo;t know you had in you; you got the promotion over colleagues who you were sure would be first in line. Imposter syndrome is essentially the sense of being undeserving, inadequate or incapable of performing the job we find ourselves in &ndash; despite doing so, handily and consistently &ndash; and no one really knows why it happens. It&rsquo;s not correlated with lack of self-confidence or low self-esteem; in fact, it&rsquo;s more likely to occur in high-performing, overachieving individuals. Imposter syndrome sufferers are largely perfectionists; so, it&rsquo;s not driven by actually being a bit crap at whatever it is you&rsquo;re doing. It&rsquo;s the opposite: you do well, yet despite seeing the results and fruits of your labour, are convinced that it&rsquo;ll soon all come crashing down and everyone will be onto you. It can be really, really tough to deal with. People who suffer from imposter syndrome tend to attribute their successes to something other than themselves: I just got lucky; I got the job because no one else showed up to interview; I won because everyone else was off their game today. They&rsquo;ll play down successes &ndash; &ldquo;It&rsquo;s really nothing, back to work I go,&rdquo; &ndash; and oftentimes will spend time after the fact worrying over how things went well, what happened and &ndash; worse yet &ndash; how they&rsquo;ll have to make up for it when things inevitably do come out in the wash &ndash; those &lsquo;things&rsquo; being how you really don&rsquo;t know what you&rsquo;re doing, are a fake, and so on and so forth. Self-destructive is the term we&rsquo;re looking for, I do believe. Imposter syndrome, unsurprisingly, can be extremely detrimental to your career. Many people simply won&rsquo;t apply for that promotion, new job or pay rise, convinced that they don&rsquo;t deserve or wouldn&rsquo;t achieve it anyway; it can lead to missed opportunities for learning, development and progression, despite there being no real reason for thinking this way &ndash; in fact, usually, in spite of real results and achievements which say otherwise. Imposter syndrome can affect decision making ability, leaving a person unable to pull the trigger on this or that, because you feel as though it&rsquo;s destined to fail regardless. Worst of all, it can leak out of your work life and into your personal life, causing havoc in its wake. Imposter syndrome is no laughing matter. So how can we mitigate it? What can we do to help ourselves out when those feelings of self-doubt and, &ldquo;How in the world did I end up here?&rdquo; start to creep in? Well, experts say that having regular reviews with yourself help &ndash; not with work, a colleague or boss, just yourself. Go through your successes, the achievements you&rsquo;ve made and how far you&rsquo;ve come. When you feel the usual doubts and negative thoughts clouding your mind, acknowledge and then dissect them &ndash; is there any truth to them, at all? If so, what can you do to navigate and remove that doubt? Whether that be educating yourself further, asking for help or otherwise. Most importantly, learn to celebrate the wins and give yourself some credit &ndash; you&rsquo;d be accountable for your failures, so why isn&rsquo;t the same to be said for the things that have gone well? Remember &ndash; you got here somehow, ahead of your peers, colleagues and competitors, and there&rsquo;s something to be said for that. Give yourself a pat on the back. You&rsquo;re doing just fine.

Is Imposter Syndrome affecting your career?

​Since launching Certus Recruitment Group and becoming the MD here in Melbourne, I&rsquo;ve been on a rollercoaster. Recruitment is what I know, but there&rsquo;s so much more to being a leader than being great at the job itself; to use the age old clich&eacute;, spinning many plates at once is the least of it. My team is growing and for this reason, I&rsquo;ve started thinking about the key things I want the people who are joining our business to experience. For me, a healthy, communicative environment is one of them &ndash; I want people to know that in joining my team they&rsquo;ll be able to voice opinions and concerns, ask questions without feeling like a burden and ultimately communicate what and how they&rsquo;re feeling about how things are going, what could/should change/improve and whatever else is happening. Communication is so important to running a business &ndash; that is, the way staff interact with you, their leader, but each other as well. We&rsquo;re developing our plan to ensure ours is a positive culture of communication, and so should you. Things to think about when considering your communication strategy: How you communicate I really like to make sure my staff know that they can communicate with me in different ways. There are different methods different circumstances, and I like to think we mostly exercise common sense to work out what applies on a case-by-case basis. For instance, if it&rsquo;s regarding something important which needs to be recorded properly (i.e. annual leave, a formal request etc), the member of staff in question will send an email. This allows us to ensure there&rsquo;s some process involved, and a paper trail. But if it&rsquo;s a quick question, something less formal or even something not at all work-related, I&rsquo;ve always made it clear that they can drop me a text or ping me an instant message, any time of the day or evening. Phone calls, if I or they are out of the office, are my preferred method of communication; when you can actually hear your employee&rsquo;s voice and vice versa, there&rsquo;s no room for anything to become misconstrued or confused along the way. In this day and age, technology makes it easier than ever for us to communicate with our staff &ndash; so set the expectations and let staff know it&rsquo;s okay to use it. With all that said, technology can sometimes act as a buffer against real-life human contact &ndash; and a way for people to avoid awkward or uncomfortable conversations. Encourage your employees to face communicating with you and their colleagues head-on, without hiding behind technology &ndash; harness it as a tool, not a hindrance. When you communicate To make sure your business runs as well as it can, near-constant communication about any and all things is necessary &ndash; but, it also helps to set a schedule. How regularly do you communicate in a formal setting with your team? Creating a time for regular meetings or calls &ndash; weekly, monthly, quarterly &ndash; creates consistency in communication. If Employee A knows that their monthly meeting is coming up, they&rsquo;ll have time to prepare and think about things to bring up which might not be discussed in the office usually.
Creating a regular communication schedule, to which your workforce will become accustomed, gives them opportunity to express themselves. This doesn&rsquo;t have to be a &lsquo;review&rsquo; or progress meeting necessarily; think of it more as a &lsquo;catch up&rsquo; &ndash; open forum, whether one-on-one, with your team or across the whole company. This also provides time spent with the team to communicating as a collective &ndash; general goings on, successes within various teams and ways to collaborate or share information moving forwards. You&rsquo;ll improve working relationships across the board, and the team will feel even more like one.
Communicating openly Ensuring that your staff feel able to approach you about most anything is key to reducing anxiety in the workplace &ndash; whilst I know that for many companies a hierarchy is important, so is a workforce who are engaged, motivated and happy to be there. Having an open-door policy &ndash; I&rsquo;m available for whatever you might need, whenever you might need it &ndash; helps promote healthy communication. With a real open-door policy in place, you as a manager are much more likely to know the &lsquo;inside line&rsquo; on what&rsquo;s happening within your business. Communicating anonymously Does your workforce have a system in place to communicate things which you might not be privy to &ndash; one which doesn&rsquo;t leave them at risk in any way? Look, we don&rsquo;t need to go into specifics &ndash; sometimes, there are circumstances happening or things going on which you aren&rsquo;t involved in as the business leader, but it might be helpful to be aware of. You don&rsquo;t necessarily see what the team sees or know what they know; just because things look peachy from the outside doesn&rsquo;t mean it&rsquo;s so. Implementing an anonymous feedback system ensures your staff feel able to express themselves without fearing any comeuppance on saying aloud what others may be thinking. And no, it&rsquo;s not just about being able to complain to upper management &ndash; it&rsquo;s about sharing an idea, a question, an improvement which they think could be beneficial to the company as a whole. And at the end of it all? Listen to what your employees are telling you. Communicating regularly, openly and with honesty is useless if you&rsquo;re not taking on board what&rsquo;s being talked about! Communication is a two-way street but facilitating it in a healthy way will help your team in so many ways &ndash; least of all when it&rsquo;s ready to grow like ours currently. How do you go about fostering a culture of open communication across your business?

Communication: It’s important, and it’s down to you

​KPIs, KPIs, KPIs. Is there any other aspect of business operations so widely spoken about, furthermore contested? It&rsquo;s a divisive subject in the business community &ndash; where some live by them, others dispute their place altogether; some employ but largely ignore them, either way. Whether you utilise them day-to-date or oppose them entirely, if you work in the corporate world, you&rsquo;ve come across KPIs at some point. The fact is, the reason they&rsquo;re so highly contested is that KPIs are seldom implemented effectively, or used properly. It&rsquo;s not about the &lsquo;numbers game&rsquo; &ndash; it&rsquo;s about business efficiency. Let&rsquo;s stop thinking about KPIs as targets, first off. There&rsquo;s a clear distinction between the two. The definition of a KPI is, as it says on the tin, a key performance indicator &ndash; a figure which is (or should be) derived from information your business is providing you. KPIs should be used to evaluate the activity a business needs to undertake in order to achieve its targets &ndash; not as a target in and of themselves. Get it? Let&rsquo;s put it into real terms. Your business currently has 10 sales execs. The team&rsquo;s target is to generate $100,000 in revenue each month, so each individual&rsquo;s target is $10,000. Currently, each person is achieving $8,000 per month; upon drilling down into their activity, you find that they&rsquo;re each making 8 phone calls per month. What can you take from this? Your business is indicating that your team&rsquo;s activity needs to increase in order to reach target, and is telling you, hypothetically, how much it needs to increase by. Analyse these tricky figures and you&rsquo;ll find it makes sense that, were they each to make 10 phone calls per month, everyone would hit that $10K, no problem. But here&rsquo;s the thing &ndash; there&rsquo;s no need to now storm onto the sales floor and inform the team that they had all better hit those 10 calls, or else. Not in that fashion, anyway. You&rsquo;re not setting this as a target: your business is doing it for you.
It&rsquo;s a KPI, not a target. See? KPIs should be in place to motivate, not condemn. Information is king, or so they say, and it&rsquo;s our job as leaders to use it to our advantage. Particularly in sales and marketing, numbers do play a big part in the performance sense &ndash; from calls made to appointments booked, website clicks to conversion rates, your team is constantly running through figures in their mind. Adding a panel of KPIs into that mix, specifically when posing them as targets/must-hits, definitely creates potential for the pot to boil over from time to time. However, if you were to go to your team and say, &ldquo;Hey, we&rsquo;ve collated some really interesting info here which we think is going to help you do your job better/more efficiently, want to take a look?&rdquo;, any employee worth his/her salt will be clambering to see your notes. Keep targets and KPIs separate; monitor them both as equals. Your KPIs should be based on fact and fact alone. Here at Certus we get to know our clients well, and I&rsquo;d be lying if I said we don&rsquo;t sometimes have to do a little &ndash; err &ndash; re-education, shall we say. Often, businesses blindly set their KPIs based on industry standards or what their competition appears to be doing which, fundamentally, doesn&rsquo;t make sense. Just because Oracle&rsquo;s techs have to sit four appointments per day, doesn&rsquo;t mean that your hyper-growth, disruptive SaaS start-up should be doing the same. In fact, we need to move away from this idea of &lsquo;setting&rsquo; KPIs altogether &ndash; I reiterate, your business sets them itself. Monitor activity, productivity, operations, all aspects of your business, over time to understand what your KPIs are and where they should sit in terms of activity. Don&rsquo;t pull numbers out of the air and &lsquo;set&rsquo; KPIs based on what you think you should be doing &ndash; base them on what you are doing, and the improvements that you want to make. Remember, more doesn&rsquo;t always equal more. Numbers and humans behave in very different ways. When a calculator does a complex mathematical equation, it doesn&rsquo;t need to take into account that, maybe, number 3 is recovering from a bout of the flu, or that number 4 is off on holiday for two weeks this month. So, when you take a look at your figures and see that 25 calls equals 1 appointment, don&rsquo;t think it&rsquo;s as simple as commanding your team to make 50, and expecting them to achieve 2 appointments as such. It just doesn&rsquo;t work that way. I&rsquo;m not saying that we as leaders shouldn&rsquo;t always strive for excellence and improvement &ndash; but, alas, we are humans managing humans. And that needs to be at the forefront of our approach, always. We shouldn&rsquo;t be setting KPIs, we should be running our businesses based on the information it provides us &ndash; looking at them as the dataset they are, rather than another number to hold over our teams&rsquo; heads. As ever, love to hear your opinions &ndash; what&rsquo;s your approach to KPIs, and are you making the most of them across your business?

KPIs: Use them properly, or else

​It&rsquo;s the beginning of a new year and, for the vast majority of us, it&rsquo;s a time when we&rsquo;re feeling more open and receptive to change; we evaluate our past successes, what worked and what didn&rsquo;t, and spend time making plans for the coming year. Changes can apply to any and all aspects of your business; perhaps you&rsquo;re looking to improve your hiring strategy, make adaptations to your policies, change up company structures internally or even implement new systems and technology into the day-to-day. Here at Certus we live by the ethos that if you always do what you&rsquo;ve always done, you&rsquo;ll always get what you always got &ndash; change is inevitable, and truly a good thing for the most part. This year we&rsquo;re embracing it. It&rsquo;s not always easy and the road to business improvement isn&rsquo;t always a smooth one, but it&rsquo;s necessary; so, here are our top behaviours of business leaders who are embracing change for their organisation in 2020: Seeking out what isn&rsquo;t working, as well as what is. Embracing change can also mean facing some home truths and becoming more self-aware. This year, business leaders should be truly seeking out the things that could be improved from external sources, rather than just going off of what you know &ndash; or think you know. In today&rsquo;s corporate world of 5-star reviews and testimonials, harnessing customer feedback is key to bringing about positive change. Instead of just asking for another testimonial to display on your company website, survey customers and question what you could be doing better as a business &ndash; whether it be your product or service offering specifically, improving communication, and so on and so forth. Knowing what&rsquo;s going well and what you need to continue doing is important &ndash; but where there&rsquo;s room for change, there&rsquo;s room for improvement. Understanding the why &ndash; and then the when. It&rsquo;s important that when implementing something new you&rsquo;re able to articulate the reasoning behind it to your workforce. As a business leader you should be able to explain the benefits of what&rsquo;s taking place, always demonstrating strong belief in why: nothing turns people off more than change for the sake of change. And, on the other hand, know when to sit back and let things progress naturally &ndash; it&rsquo;s all about knowing your business, knowing your employees and knowing how to handle things. Change can be timely or not, but as captain of this ship it&rsquo;s your job to ensure that there&rsquo;s always a solid &lsquo;why&rsquo; behind it. Promoting your business&rsquo; goals and vision consistently, despite the change happening. Arguably the most important behaviour to exhibit whilst leading your business through change is ensuring that the company ethos is still as relevant and visible as ever. Exuding your company values and providing reassurance to employees is key; it&rsquo;s incredibly important that they too embrace change as you&rsquo;re doing. Change can, rightly or wrongly, cause frustration or confusion, and feelings of unease amongst staff; so it&rsquo;s important that the things they know and love about their employer stand strong and true. It&rsquo;s your job to lead the business through any period of change large and small, all the while keeping the brand and culture consistent throughout &ndash; assuming that isn&rsquo;t what&rsquo;s changing! ---- As humans, we instinctively shy away from change; as business leaders, we have to overcome this very part of our being to drive our company forward. Even embracing change when it comes to simple tasks, like agreeing on the profile you&rsquo;re looking to hire currently and thinking &lsquo;outside the box&rsquo; to generate new talent, can be tricky to do &ndash; but, as we&rsquo;ve said before, change is all but inevitable and can truly bring about huge benefits. What do you plan to do this year to drive your business forward? What other behaviours do you see as integral to embracing change across your business?

Three Behaviours of Leaders Who Are Embracing Change In 2020

The lead up to Christmas was a mad one for us in Melbourne this year, although I&rsquo;ll admit it&rsquo;s becoming the norm; many clients scurry to secure those offers ahead of the new year, so they can rest easy over the holidays &ndash; as can their new hires. Everyone&rsquo;s a winner.
 Just the week before we broke up for the Christmas break, I travelled to Sydney to interview candidates for a Head of Sales position we&rsquo;re currently working closely with a client to fill. The inevitable airport and in-flight time gave me ample time to be thinking about how best to fill this and other senior roles we&rsquo;re working on.
 Senior hires are tricky; after all, this individual is going to impact your business greatly, whether they&rsquo;ll be working as high as board level, joining the senior management team or being responsible for the performance of certain individuals. You&rsquo;ve exhausted all internal options and still, your business is faced with a problem or situation which requires talent and insight from outside of the organisation. The solution can&rsquo;t be found from within, so we need to make a plan. And, sometimes interviewing isn&rsquo;t just about spotting talent, but about understanding the reason behind the hire.
 Do we need someone who knows our business already? Or do we need someone to come in and make change happen?
 It&rsquo;s an age old debate, that of hiring someone from inside your industry or with experience from those which differ to the space you operate in; in truly understanding what your business needs, right now, you&rsquo;re able to make key decisions throughout the hiring process &ndash; namely, those which will provide an answer to the questions above.
 If the business is stagnating and you&rsquo;re needing to spark (or reignite) a period of growth, new insight and ideas are going to facilitate this. Hiring someone from a different industry &ndash; something disruptive, exciting and &lsquo;new&rsquo; maybe &ndash; is naturally going to generate new ideas, inject your business with energy and give operations the boost they need; better yet, bringing in an entirely fresh set of eyes might just highlight problems you didn&rsquo;t know were there, things which could be done better, areas where efficiency could be improved&hellip;
 There&rsquo;s absolutely no end to the benefits that sharing transferrable inter-industry knowledge can lead to.
 But. A big but.
 Maybe it&rsquo;s not new energy and ideas you need &ndash; maybe, what your business needs is a firm, knowledgeable hand to steer the hull through an oncoming storm. Perhaps you need someone with years of experience and market understanding in order to &ndash; there&rsquo;s that clich&eacute; old phrase &ndash; hit the ground running and take the successes you&rsquo;ve built to the next level. Someone who understands your business, your market and your sector entirely.
 So, what&rsquo;s it going to be: stick or twist?
 I&rsquo;ll reiterate: it comes down to knowing what your business needs, which sounds simple and usually isn&rsquo;t. Nor is interviewing an exact science, resumes accurate to a T, people able to fully articulate the extent of their skills and/or knowledge&hellip; Ah the joy of recruiting.
 Which is why when we&rsquo;re working with a client on something as important as an executive hire, we make sure that each candidate shares something we know you want and need &ndash; but we put together the best shortlist of talent, whether right on the money or a change you wouldn&rsquo;t have thought about elsewise. Besides the obvious &ndash; that is, our sole purpose being to identify, interview and secure talent on your behalf &ndash; we recruiters are simply another set of eyes to look over your business, ears to hash out your thoughts with and minds to utilise in raising questions you otherwise might have not, red flags which may or may not be present and opinions you might need to hear.
 We love what we do, even if it means flying from Melbourne to Sydney the week before Christmas.
 What does your business need in the new year and, moreover, how can we help you achieve it?

Senior Hires: Stick or twist?

​What defines a good &lsquo;company culture&rsquo; in your eyes? It differs for each and every business, going way beyond the company nights out or Christmas parties &ndash; company culture is the personality of your business, encompassing so many different things. The workspace you inhabit, your company goals, ethics&hellip; And, of course, it&rsquo;s the employees who undoubtedly create it. Employee wellness, happiness, attitude and expectations all play a big part &ndash; so hiring becomes ever more important. More specifically, hiring the right people. When I first started out in recruitment, I remember my boss asking me to drop in on a candidate he&rsquo;d interviewed and was considering to join our team; beyond a brief, &ldquo;Yeah, like him/her, they could do alright,&rdquo; at the time I don&rsquo;t remember having much else to offer in terms of feedback. As I grew in my career, my opinion on potential hires developed also &ndash; there&rsquo;s a reason we often ask for a second opinion on most things, and it&rsquo;s increasingly important to do so when looking for new employees to join the team. Now, as MD of the Certus brand in Melbourne and fundamentally responsible for the growth of the business &ndash; both in terms of numbers and our overall company culture here in Australia &ndash; hiring takes on a different spectrum of thinking entirely. What do we actually need? What should I be basing this decision on? How do I know if I&rsquo;m just hiring someone because I like them, or because they&rsquo;re going to contribute to the business long-term? In almost ten years of working in recruitment, helping others build their teams and now, doing so for myself, there are a few key things I&rsquo;ve learned to bear in mind when hiring &ndash; at any level &ndash; to build and grow a strong, diverse team. A team that will, in turn, cultivate and embody your company&rsquo;s culture. Core values We&rsquo;ve all conducted interviews where, simply put, you just got along well &ndash; or should I say, &ldquo;built great rapport&rdquo;. But just because you could happily share their company over a few beers when the working day is out, does that mean that this candidate shares your values inside of work, too? Consider your company&rsquo;s core values and mission statement &ndash; moreover, whether this person is truly committed to those things. It could be that they&rsquo;re simply happy with a seemingly pretty casual working environment and a team they get along with, rather than a company to whom they can commit and grow alongside. If you&rsquo;re lucky, your new mate will encompass both. Beware of your own mind exaggerating the skills and suitability of a person, based on a great personality fit alone. My own weaknesses (yes, they exist&hellip;) As business leaders, we can all admit that at some time or other during our careers, we&rsquo;ve all thought, &ldquo;I just wish I could find another one of me.&rdquo; Whilst there&rsquo;s no shame in admitting that, nor is it necessarily a bad thing to hire someone like yourself, I&rsquo;m fast learning that sometimes it&rsquo;s more important to in fact go the other way &ndash; instead of trying to find someone who shares the same qualities and attributes that I do, actually sourcing somebody who can fill the gaps. Diversity doesn&rsquo;t just mean age/gender/race etc &ndash; it can also be considered in terms of skill sets, mindsets and personality types. From the way we approach tasks to the way we process information and problem solve, it&rsquo;s important to appreciate each candidate for what they CAN bring to the table, not the things we don&rsquo;t share in common. Accept change as it comes Company culture is something which grows, adapts and changes as your business does &ndash; so be ready to stay open-minded and if you find a star, albeit one who might shake things up a little, go with your gut. If the improvements and positivity this person potentially brings on board make sense, despite being a little bit scary, take the leap and bring them on board. ---- As a hiring manager, you&rsquo;ll learn what works and what doesn&rsquo;t &ndash; but the most important thing we can do is ensure that we personally embody the culture we want to see across our business. What are your tips for trying to hire with an unbiased or non-introspective view? Have you any horror stories to share when it comes to hiring your own clone &ndash; or that of another employee? Our job as your recruitment partner is to be the first set of eyes and ears when it comes to interviewing; our pre-qualification process is thorough, moreover proven. At the very least, we understand what you&rsquo;re going through &ndash; get in touch to discuss your recruitment strategy and the challenges you might be facing today.

How to Hire for Culture, not Clones!

​​Take a second to ponder how many times throughout your professional life you&rsquo;ve heard the phrase, &ldquo;first impressions count&rdquo;. As far as English-speaking colloquialisms go, I don&rsquo;t think I&rsquo;d be wrong to say it&rsquo;s up there as one of the most widely-known and moreover universally respected. But why is that all-important first impression so very crucial? Why is it that we form snap opinions of a person &ndash; and then only very reluctantly turn them around, if it happened that we were wrong? In this two-part series we&rsquo;re going to be exploring the psychology behind first impressions, why we humans have the tendency to judge so quickly and, most importantly, what you can do to ensure yours is as positive as can be. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t get a second chance to make a first impression.&rdquo; You may have heard, that it takes merely 7 seconds to make your first impression &ndash; that&rsquo;s 7 seconds to sell yourself and display a transparent, genuine projection of who you are. What you may not know is that, 7 seconds aside, it takes only one-tenth of a second for our deep subconscious to make that judgement. Do we even stand a chance? What we want to know is why it happens altogether. Why is it that we can seemingly decide within a matter of split-seconds what we think of the person stood in front of us? (With that said, research shows that we even make first impression judgements based on still photos too &ndash; but that&rsquo;s a whole other kettle of fish we need not get into today&hellip;) The answer is simple: it&rsquo;s in our DNA. &ldquo;First impressions are the most lasting.&rdquo; Think back &ndash; way back &ndash; when people were first exploring the planet, perhaps coming upon new people for the first time. Back then, a first impression didn&rsquo;t mean the difference between getting the job or not; first impressions were inextricably linked to whether you were going to SURVIVE or not. Evolution did away with many unnecessary or now-redundant skills and senses of ours, but not the first impression. We&rsquo;re designed to judge a face based on a few key details, quickly &ndash; the main, most important of those things being trust. And we simply can&rsquo;t help doing so. What else do we look for subconsciously? Fascinatingly and moreover unbeknownst to us, when we see a face for the first time our mind flips through troves of memories to identify whether this face is familiar to us &ndash; it could be that it shares features with an aunty or old friend, generating feelings of warmth, love and trustworthiness; equally, this particular face could share fundamental similarities with that of an estranged ex-partner or old boss. You see how things can go downhill, fast. Other factors include gender, race and, interestingly, attractiveness &ndash; I suppose it makes sense that, once upon a time, survival meant picking a mate. Whilst we all know fundamentally that you can&rsquo;t judge a book by its cover, our innate, human instinct does often take the reins on this one. So, what does this mean in a professional setting? Interviews can be daunting enough without all of this uncontrollable malarkey to think about &ndash; so we reiterate to our candidates day in, day out, the importance of doing your bit to protect that all-important first impression. We might not be able to stop evolution, but we can certainly help ourselves along the way. Think posture. Tone of voice. Eye contact, expression&hellip; The list goes on. All of these things go a long way to creating a genuine, positive and &ndash; I hate to use the word, but &ndash; generally GOOD first impression. Check back in for tomorrow's article, where I&rsquo;ll be spilling the tea on what 20+ years of recruitment experience teaches you about first impressions &ndash; what to do, what not under any circumstances to do, and everything in between.

First Impressions: it’s in our DNA (Part 1)

​Throughout the Spring and Summer season in Australia, I play beach volleyball competitively. Roughly every other weekend there is a tournament, and last weekend was round 2 of the season. Despite the hit and miss springtime weather which I&rsquo;ve so grown to love here in St Kilda, it was a good but not great start to our campaign. After some pretty intense play and some encouraging words from partner to partner, we ended up placing 5th of 12 teams in our division. Why am I telling you all this? I&rsquo;m a competitive person. Obviously, no one enjoys losing, but for me, it goes further than that. As I mentioned in my previous article, I do have a tendency to beat myself up &ndash; but regardless, my competitive edge sometimes gets the better of me and I can become pretty frustrated. The tournament got me thinking about competition&rsquo;s place in the working environment, how it can motivate some and demotivate others completely. The concept of competition has actually been proven not only to change the way we think but to bring about physiological changes in humans &ndash; that is, your body and mind responding physically to the idea of being in competition &ndash; which can improve brain function and as such productivity. But, on the other hand, those physical reactions may also include symptoms of anxiety, panic even, and fast become counterproductive. It&rsquo;s a fine line. Certain professions &ndash; my own, recruitment, being one of them &ndash; can benefit greatly from an air of competition and the often results-orientated reward systems which go with them. Sales is another obvious one, but competition can play an important role in the legal sector, PR and marketing and even more techy-roles such as software engineering and development. Competition breeds innovation, and as such it can be a helpful tool. With that being said, it&rsquo;s important not to go too far the other way; when does competition stop helping progression and begin creating barriers? As a manager myself, I spend a lot of time thinking about how to motivate my team. Here are my thoughts on the core factors for a healthily competitive office environment. Create excitement, not anxiety The prospect of competition amongst your employees should be a positive one, not a negative; it&rsquo;s not about punishing the losses but celebrating the wins. Highlighting top performers in any profession is key &ndash; studies show that physical reward or not, recognition in the workplace goes a long way towards motivation. But steer way clear of anything which could be perceived as &lsquo;naming and shaming&rsquo;; nothing takes the fight out of a person more than being touted as the loser of the show. Sure, the odd hyper-competitive individual may hear that they&rsquo;re trailing and step up their game &ndash; but is that the kind of environment you want to promote or be a part of? I&rsquo;m leaning towards a hard &lsquo;no&rsquo;. Encourage innovation, not short-cuts What we don&rsquo;t want our employees doing is feeling as though they must win at any cost &ndash; the term &lsquo;by hook or by crook&rsquo; comes to mind, &lsquo;crook&rsquo; being the operative word. Competition in the workplace has proven to encourage people to come up with new ways of working, new routes to the goal they&rsquo;re trying to achieve &ndash; innovation. Unfortunately, for the uber-competitive amongst us, it could be taken too seriously &ndash; you don&rsquo;t want your employees feeling as though they must win, whether the job is done properly or not. Keep it clean, keep it healthy Banter is one thing &ndash; but it can go too far quickly and without warning. As a manager, it&rsquo;s your job to make sure that the competition is as healthy as can be, without encouraging employees to put their co-workers down as a result. The ego is a real thing, and it must be managed as such; keep office chatter in check and make sure the environment is a heartening and supportive one for all involved.

Competition and its place in the professional world

​​In the previous article (<a class="c-link" href="https://www.certusrecruitment.com/au/insights/first-impressions-it-s-in-our-dna-part-1-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.certusrecruitment.com/au/insights/first-impressions-it-s-in-our-dna-part-1-1" data-sk="tooltip_parent">https://www.certusrecruitment.com/au/insights/first-impressions-it-s-in-our-dna-part-1-1</a>&nbsp;) , I talked about the science behind first impressions &ndash; why we make them, the part they played in our evolution, and generally why they&rsquo;re such sticking points for us human beings. The fact is, whatever the reason first impressions happen, they do &ndash; and it&rsquo;s important to know how to make a good one. Without further ado, let&rsquo;s work through this from the beginning: Timing is everything A very famous man once said &ldquo;Five minutes early is ten minutes late&rdquo; &ndash; and not only has it stuck with me, but it&rsquo;s never let me down yet. You make your first impression before you&rsquo;ve even arrived &ndash; that is, when you get there. We get it &ndash; things happen, unforeseen issues arise and sometimes, despite your best efforts, the world works against your good timekeeping. Plan for any eventuality, give yourself way more time than you need, and Do. Not. Be. Late. You&rsquo;re in &ndash; now what? Phew &ndash; traffic aside, you arrived on time. So, take a minute to straighten yourself out, make sure you look smart and ready. Take some deep breaths. Think about how you&rsquo;re presenting yourself, and be ready for your interviewer to make an appearance at any moment &ndash; possibly, having been having a gander at you for a couple beforehand. We&rsquo;re not just talking about what you&rsquo;re wearing here &ndash; if you&rsquo;re sat in a waiting area, don&rsquo;t slump in your seat. Sit up straight and present a positive, professional image. Stand, even, and take a look around you; show an interest in any plaques which may be dotted around, photographs on the walls, certificates etc&hellip; It&rsquo;s not all how about how you&rsquo;re dressed (although it helps to be dressed appropriately) &ndash; it&rsquo;s how you present yourself as a whole. The meet-and-greet This is it &ndash; make it count. If you are still sitting, stand &ndash; always. Don&rsquo;t crush your interviewer&rsquo;s hand, but don&rsquo;t leave them wondering if you even took it or not either. Most importantly, smile &ndash; smile wide, and smile genuine. Make eye contact from the off and be ready with a question, or some means with which to build rapport (here&rsquo;s where those certificates you&rsquo;ve been looking at for the last ten minutes come in handy). Get your interviewer talking, be the one to make conversation, and go from there. ---- The truth is, a lot goes on subconsciously that we don&rsquo;t know is happening during those crucial first moments. What we&rsquo;re talking about here is giving ourselves the absolute best chance to make those goings-on positive, rather than inadvertently enforcing any negative initial feelings or findings. I could go on forever &ndash; project confidence, be yourself, maintain eye contact but don&rsquo;t stare, have your elevator pitch ready, and so on. No matter what sort of job you&rsquo;re interviewing for, industry, level or title, and no matter how many first impressions you&rsquo;ve made throughout your professional life so far: each and every single one is different, so it can&rsquo;t hurt to keep reminding ourselves of the basics. Do you have any stories to share about first impressions? Have you ever met someone who you weren&rsquo;t convinced on immediately, but managed to turn it around? Or vice versa? We as recruiters meet hundreds of candidates each year and are constantly having these first impressions happen to us &ndash; it&rsquo;s part and parcel of what we do to make, review and then develop that first impression into an understanding of each person we meet; their skills and experience, where they might fit within the scope of one of our client&rsquo;s teams. We&rsquo;re proud to do what we do thoroughly, properly and well. Get in touch today to discuss your next career move with a partner who&rsquo;ll truly guide you through the process &ndash; and we&rsquo;d love to hear what your &lsquo;first impression&rsquo; of us might have been, having read this article.

First Impressions: it’s in our DNA (Part 2)

​We spend eight hours a day with them. We work on projects together which take up weeks or even months of our time. We exchange hundreds of emails. We know who always goes out to buy fast food for lunch every day and who drinks all of the Coke Zero from the fridge. As Tim says from The Office, &ldquo;You spend more time with them than you do your friends and family.&rdquo; I am, of course, talking about work colleagues. According to a recent survey, 42% of us say we don&rsquo;t have a single close friend at work. Workplace loneliness is rising, but if we are just there to work &ndash; as every school teacher will have said to us at one time or another &ndash; then why do we care if we don&rsquo;t have friends in the office? Having a close ally at work has been proven to increase productivity and employee loyalty as well as being a key contributing factor in boosting your career progression. It also plays a significant role in generally increasing our day-to-day happiness. A recent survey by Bright HR shows that 68% of workers aged 16-24 illustrated workplace enjoyment as &lsquo;having great colleagues I enjoy spending time with&rsquo;. &ldquo;Camaraderie and social connection are key to their [workers&rsquo;] workplace satisfaction&rdquo; says Jenny Roper, deputy editor of HR magazine. Laurie Cohen, a professor at Nottingham University Business School says, &ldquo;In my research, many women in male-dominated organisations said they felt lonely, but what they described as &lsquo;loneliness&rsquo; was often marginalisation: their voices weren&rsquo;t being heard.&rdquo; This isn&rsquo;t, however, a gender issue. Take a sales environment for example, if you aren&rsquo;t loud and lairy then you aren&rsquo;t usually heard over the extrovert show-offs in the office. People who are more introverted feel undervalued and as though they aren&rsquo;t being listened to over the top of those who shout the loudest. Being an introvert certainly doesn&rsquo;t mean being a total wallflower, but being a bit shy in an overbearing office can be just as isolating as being the only woman in the boardroom. As a species, we subconsciously gravitate towards people we perceive to be &lsquo;like us&rsquo;. We form friendships with those we see as having similar personalities to ourselves. So what if we find ourselves on the outside of a group of people who have gravitated towards each other? Being on the outside of a dominant group in an office &ndash; whether it&rsquo;s because you&rsquo;re too quiet, or because you&rsquo;d rather talk about Brexit than drinking, eyelashes and football &ndash; can affect your progression and likelihood to succeed in a company. Cliques will be formed within companies, which unfortunately can&rsquo;t really be helped and feeling like an outsider only leads us to isolate ourselves further. Steve Martyn, psychotherapist and workplace coach, says that being on the outside of these kinds of groups &ldquo;can alter your self-perception. Someone who feels like they don&rsquo;t fit in begins to doubt what they&rsquo;re capable of achieving in their career, even beyond their current place of work.&rdquo; When this happens, we see ourselves as rejected and pushed out by the group, so our brain&rsquo;s self-preservation mode kicks in, causing us to err on the side of caution as opposed to pushing us to be more social. Nowadays, it&rsquo;s much more difficult to form strong bonds and friendships with our colleagues as the turnover in business is much higher than it used to be. People used to spend 30-40 years at the same company, now the average time spent in one place is 4.6 years. Sociologist at New York University, Eric Klinenberg, says, &ldquo;It&rsquo;s the quality not the quantity of social interaction that best predicts loneliness.&rdquo; With the way that we work now, hot-desking, freelancing, network marketing etc, the time to create close friendships just isn&rsquo;t there. According to technology company Intuit, by 2020 40% of workers will be freelance and by 2018 the number of self-employed in the UK will outweigh public sector workers for the first time. We all feel the need to fit in but we just aren&rsquo;t spending enough time with the same people to cultivate those relationships. This isn&rsquo;t just &lsquo;newbie mentality&rsquo; either; feelings of isolation tend to increase as we get promotions up to more senior positions within our companies. A survey by Harvard Business School found that half of CEOs said they feel lonely in their positions and 61% believed said loneliness hindered their performance at work. They are constantly fighting a battle between showing authority and leadership versus being liked and having friends within their company. Forcing yourself to go for drinks when you&rsquo;d rather be at home is as much a recipe for misery as not going at all. &ldquo;It requires a huge amount of emotional effort to put a mask on and pretend to be someone you&rsquo;re not&rdquo; says psychotherapist, Hilda Burke. You need to make a compromise which fits and works for you, not everyone else. The last thing you want to do is to change who you are just to fit in and be accepted by other people, who you may not even like that much. Compromise is the important thing to remember. You don&rsquo;t have to go out to every little get together, but say yes to the odd dinner or go to the pub for one drink. You&rsquo;ll find that because you are turning up to things every so often, you will be considered for other events and start being invited along more frequently, even if you don&rsquo;t go. Alternatively, start asking your colleagues yourself; see if they want to go out for lunch or for a drink, very few people will say no. Despite all of this, forcing social interaction will not cure the issue of loneliness because you may not necessarily stop feeling lonely just because you are surrounded by people. The human species needs a reciprocated connection, where the relationship is valued just as much by the other person as it is by them. It&rsquo;s only natural to seek out connections with the people we spend most of our lives with. We have formed such strong societies because of our aversion to loneliness. As Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and founder of the Lean In Foundation says, &ldquo;Acting like a coalition really does produce results.&rdquo; And if there&rsquo;s someone in your coalition who will go to Starbucks for you and lend an ear when you need it, even if the only thing you have in common is the fact you walk around on the same bit of carpet for eight hours a day, it beats walking around on it alone.

Is workplace Loneliness on the rise?

​It is common knowledge that an ironed shirt, clean teeth and brushed hair give you brownie points in a job interview, but does your success come down to much more? In today&rsquo;s world, the way you look and present yourself play an important part in how you are received; as a possible partner, friend and now, a professional in your career. However unfair it may seem, those who rate higher on levels of attractiveness have a better chance of being successful in a job interview, going further in their careers and even being paid more. This phenomenon is called the &lsquo;beauty premium&rsquo;, and sees attractive men and women gaining more success in their careers than their, shall we say, less photogenic colleagues. Human beings are hard-wired to respond better to people who are more attractive, according to Dr Gordon Patzer, Founding Director and CEO of the Appearance Research Institute. &ldquo;Good looking men and women are generally regarded to be more kind, talented, honest and intelligent than their less attractive counterparts.&rdquo; This theory reflects upon the way a person is viewed in the workplace as well. Studies show that a boss who falls in the &lsquo;good looking&rsquo; category is seen as more competent, collaborative and is considered a better delegator. Furthermore, anyone who is in a customer-facing, sales rep or CEO role is considered the &lsquo;embodiment of the brand&rsquo; and a reflection of the business, so it makes sense that attractive people in these roles climb up their career ladder quicker, and are taken more seriously. There are also downfalls to appearing too attractive however, as assumptions are often made about how a person got the job or people may question how skilled a good looking person is. In these cases, people may have to push harder to prove their worth in the workplace or in an interview, or strive to maintain trust and loyalty as a leader. This can ring especially true for women, who in today&rsquo;s image obsessed world are expected to emulate what is perceived as beautiful in the media. &ldquo;Whether it&rsquo;s about our appearance or whether or not to assert ourselves, we&rsquo;re damned if we do and damned if we don&rsquo;t&rdquo; says Bonnie Marcus, president and CEO of Women&rsquo;s Success Coaching. A lot of companies see an attractive woman as a distraction; a rather sexist way of thinking, considering how far society has come in terms of equality for women in the workplace. So how far do looks get you? It&rsquo;s one thing to show up with fantastic genes, but unless you put your skill set forward into actions and behaviours than unfortunately good hair and a great set of teeth won&rsquo;t get you very far. One critic of the &lsquo;beauty premium&rsquo; is Adam Eyre-Walker from the Centre for the Study of Evolution at the University of Sussex. He argues that the theory is a culture phenomenon rather than an evolutionary one. &ldquo;We are taught to look upon small women and tall men as desirable.&rdquo; Height, amongst other factors such as symmetry in the face, good teeth and a slim/muscular physique are attributes that define an individual&rsquo;s level of attractiveness in this day and age. &ldquo;Our preference for attractive people has been culturally created and not hard wired in the human species&rdquo; he continues. This reaffirms the idea that a person looking to further their career is better off depending on their skills and personality, which are longer lasting than looks. Being genetically blessed can be useful and there is no shame in admitting that and using it to your advantage in love, life and even in the workplace. It may get your foot in the door and a second glance, but a person with a great sales pitch, brilliant communicative skills and a strong work ethic is much more likely to leave the right lasting impression.

Does your level of physical attractiveness dictate your job success?

​In an ideal world, businesses want to hire people that encompass the perfect balance of attitude and skill. Having the right skill set is vital for candidates to hit the ground running and minimise loss from a new hire. But when collaborating with a team and working with clients, attitude and more importantly, social skills have to be the right fit. The right attitude means employees are more motivated and easily adaptable to learning new skills at a faster rate. However, improving attitude is often more of a challenge than up-skilling. This difficulty lies within trying to change a person&rsquo;s behaviour and traits, which are often ingrained over the course of their life. This can be hard to alter because it often relies on the person in question being open to changing themselves. Donna Wells, CEO of online trading platform Mindflash stated that any skill can be trained, but its personality and temperament which are the deciding factors in how this person will fit into your team and perform to your customers and clients. When it boils down to it, employers are ultimately more attracted to attitude rather than the qualifications you have on paper. Companies and clients will look for people who are going to fit in with their culture, values and environment. Hire people with the wrong attitude and they could clash with the culture at your workplace, disrupting teamwork and office environment as well as the overall performance of other employees. Former Red Arrows pilot and Executive Officer Justin Hughes, says effective leadership is the key to unlocking a high performance culture. Now MD of consultancy Mission Excellence, Hughes claims good management has more in common with precision flying than people might think! He argues that to be a fighter pilot, you are required to work in an extreme version of a cross-functional matrix team with a line management structure. It is fast paced and often ambiguous with demanding deadlines, imperfect information and an element of risk. Hughes believes if you take away the military and flying aspects, this is what businesses face day to day. He claims high-performance teams such as New Zealand&rsquo;s All Blacks rugby team, have primacy of attitude over skills; &ldquo;It&rsquo;s not just about being the best in the world you have to have the right attitude as well.&rdquo; You will find people who are good at things such as decision making and compromise but the important thing and point of difference will be the team dynamic and the realisation that some are always going to be better at certain things than others, for example there are those who will naturally take to leadership and whereas others are more team players. But give someone the right environment and the right opportunities within that environment no matter what position they are in, and it will help them on their way. Let&rsquo;s also not forget hiring for attitude opens up a wider pool of candidates. &lsquo;Hire for attitude, train for skills&rsquo; has become the catchphrase recently for recruitment. Despite this, lots of businesses across the globe say that they&rsquo;re facing a critical shortage of appropriately skilled entry-level workers and entry level vacancies are going unfilled because of the skills gap. Apparently, the number one issue American businesses face when looking to recruit for entry-level staff is an inability to communicate in a professional manner. This basic inability to express themselves and communicate across a variety of stakeholders is going to be severely off putting. However, hiring solely for attitude is not always the best route if the candidate does not posses the ability to learn technical skills required for a role. Plus teaching said skills to a proficient level is an expensive and time consuming process and can take months, if not years. Making the decision to hire can sometimes be a tough call, but looking to your top performers for attitudes/personality traits and seeking candidates who show signs of similar characteristics can provide a solid benchmark for recruiting. However, be careful not to discriminate indirectly by having a lack of diversity within a company, as this could have a detrimental effect on your company&rsquo;s competiveness.

The age old question: should you hire for skills or attitude?

<h2>​What is a &ldquo;Gap Year&rdquo;?</h2>
​
A gap year is simply a constructive &ldquo;time out&rdquo; to travel in between life stages. It gives young people a valuable learning experience where they can take on new challenges to expand their personal development. However, gap years are no longer just for college leavers. More and more adults who have a few years work behind them are also taking up the opportunity to go away on a gap year with many programmes being suitable for those taking a career break, retired or those simply needing a change of scenery for an extended sabbatical. Going on a gap year will broaden your view of the world and open you up to new experiences. It may even open a door to new career options post-retirement. Everyone talks about going travelling all the time and you can be sure to see a multitude of photos, videos and blog posts all over social media when they do go &ndash; let&rsquo;s just admit it, we&rsquo;re all jealous, they look like they are having great fun!
<h2>​</h2>
<h2>What are the benefits of taking a gap?</h2>
​
While a gap year gives you the chance to recharge your batteries and think about your future, it should be used to achieve much more than just a year-long break. With some proper planning, you can develop your gap year programme to build on your strengths, overcome your weaknesses and gain valuable life experience that cannot be taught in a classroom. A well-structured gap experience will add real value to your confidence and sense of achievement and can go a long way in helping you decide on what you want to do next. It will also &ndash; possibly more importantly &ndash; help you to understand yourself better and it&rsquo;ll say more about you as an individual (your passion, interests, ambition) than exam results. As the competition for university places and jobs gets hotter, a gap year could really push your application up. It demonstrates skills, determination and willingness and is inevitably an interesting topic of conversation in interviews.
<h2>​</h2>
<h2>What do employers say about gap years?</h2>
​
Employers are looking for candidates who can come in and hit the ground running pretty much straight away, so your CV must reflect your skills and experience to demonstrate that you are able to do the job in question. If you have enjoyed a well planned and structured gap year, you&rsquo;ll find you can draw on those experiences to prove you have what it takes. The increase in confidence and the skills gained on a gap year such as thinking on your feet, working under pressure, team leadership and an international perspective gained through working around other cultures, are highly sought after by employers.
​
City firms such as Deloitte and Slaughter &amp; May, openly welcome applications from graduates who have a vast range of experiences, including a gap year (a productive one though &ndash; not just a season in Ibiza!). These companies understand the importance of an individual&rsquo;s ability to show evidence of maturity, enterprise and constant commitment both in and out of formal education.
​
A retired recruiter of a major international company has commented, &ldquo;A well-organised gap year largely spent overseas is a powerful way of developing many of the personal characteristics that my company seeks in graduate recruits: initiative in planning the year, the commercial and influencing skills often deployed in raising money at the start, the teamwork involved in many projects, the drive that is needed to succeed in a very different environment and the international perspective developed from immersion in another culture.
​
Above all, the experience as a whole builds confidence &ndash; the confidence that comes from tackling a major challenge and succeeding.&rdquo;
​
So whether you want to go abroad to work with endangered animals, teach English, or partake in agricultural work, there is a gap year programme out there for everyone.

Thinking about taking a “Gap Year”?

​A whole new generation of HR systems is beginning to emerge. The collection and storing of data has always played a central part in the HR function of any business, and in the past this has meant huge amounts of painstaking paperwork, filing said paperwork in a cabinet and having to hunt through piles of more said paperwork to retrieve it when needed. All of this has of course led to inefficiencies, security issues, and compliance risk and data loss amongst other problems. These methods are not only time consuming, they hinder this kind of data being used to its full potential. Then came the cloud; a secure, centralised system where data could both be stored and retrieved at a touch of a button. Alongside core HR software, the systems managed payroll, recruitment and employee records easily. But now, with the development of more automated and sophisticated algorithms and applications, new innovations are taking HR by storm; and we need to consider the long term impact. The market is beginning to flood with start-up tech companies armed with solutions to manage every HR scenario. From continuous performance management tools; feedback and data driven engagement tools; learning experience and smart learning tools; social recognition and rewards tools; wellness and fitness tools; candidate analysis and sourcing tools to team productivity tools. Phew! That is a list and a half to contend with. But these tech solutions will undoubtedly begin to challenge traditional HR processes and ways of working in the next couple of years. Processes will become more automated and be run by AI systems. For example, the system will recognise a new employee and identify what is required for their induction based on what is relevant to the job role they are filling. We know that machine learning is allowing AI to develop its own level of intelligence by collecting copious amounts of information and results; using it to adapt to differing sets of circumstances. This technology could also be very effective at managing performance and making risk management decisions based on real time information around employee performance, conduct and training by identifying and highlighting issues quickly and with clear evidence. These solutions will put the power of &ldquo;big data&rdquo; into the hands of HR and allow for easy analysis of all data collected. This could contribute in areas such as talent identification. By using the data to find trends etc on current successful employees, companies can identify the best locations, educational institutes, employment history etc to source new employees. Control of simple everyday things that need constant attention such as reviews, follow ups, anniversaries, and birthdays could also be passed to the technology thus reliving the pressure and volume of such from HR. Power could also be passed to employee by creating access via a portal or app to personal HR records, allowing them to update personal information, check their pay and follow their performance amongst other things. This would relieve HR from the many formality tasks which are time consuming but necessary. The biggest challenge with this however, is making the technology accessible and user friendly enough that employees want to use the app instead of speaking to the HR department. So these solutions need to be consumer centric, easy to use and mobile. It requires a system that people enjoy using and is there to help employees with their daily working life, not hinder it. HR needs a fundamental shift from &ldquo;systems of engagement&rdquo; to &ldquo;systems of productivity&rdquo; in order for this to work. Further, consideration needs to be given to how the new innovations will actually be integrated into the department and the company as a whole without too mush disruption or pushback from staff. HR also needs to be able to measure tangible value and competitive advantage. Like other departments, HR needs to have technology at its core if it is to deliver it&rsquo;s main responsibilities to an organisation and play a critical role in the business. HR has a huge tech boom to look forward to, but must also be constantly keeping on top of and adapting to the impact, nothing short of a major task at hand.

Technology vs HR departments

​In case you hadn&rsquo;t noticed, the world is going digital. Organisations from multinational corporations to corner shops have realised that digital technology not only makes things like communication, data processing and market research many times easier, it also facilitates entirely new types of innovation which can drive barely believable growth. When else in history could a company go from worthless to a $400 billion valuation in 12 years? Facebook has. I&rsquo;d quite like to be worth $400 billion, say other organisations, so they&rsquo;re choosing to go digital too. The process of going digital has its own snappy acronym: DT, or digital transformation. This term covers everything from going paperless to changing the very culture of an organisation to better handle a digital future. It&rsquo;s a broad designation, certainly, but there&rsquo;s perhaps no more important task to modern organisations than understanding and undertaking DT. Because of this groundswell, DT is no longer an opt-in process. It is absolutely vital for the long-term health of any organisation, no matter how big or small, tech-driven or traditional. And we now find ourselves at somewhat of a tipping point &ndash; with 55% of start-ups adopting a digital business strategy from the outset, and 38% of traditional businesses already boasting a digital strategy, those who choose not to take the leap will soon find themselves in the minority. Recruitment, along with the just as important HR responsibilities of training and retention, plays a crucial but often ignored role in DT. The right people to assist you in your digital transformation need far more than IT skills. They&rsquo;ll also have to bring (or develop) soft skills - being able to understand your organisation and your people, your culture and your direction, and work well within these parameters to get your company moving forward. Great recruitment is vital to the success of your digital transformation. And here&rsquo;s why. It brings in the missing skills you need Sure, training up your current team will eventually see them becoming a well-rounded unit. But development takes time, and there&rsquo;s no guarantee that a team member will be interested in gaining certain skills, nor hang around after they&rsquo;re trained up. You need a diverse, skilled team to get the DT process underway, and recruitment is the most efficient way to build such a team. Let&rsquo;s say your expenses system needs to be upgraded as part of your DT, but none of your team knows how. By recruiting someone with that skill set you can get the job done sooner rather than later. And by training them up on your in-house systems into the future, their mix of skills will see the long-term potential of your team skyrocket. New people drive cultural change We&rsquo;ve always done it this way. If it ain&rsquo;t broke, don&rsquo;t fix it. People don&rsquo;t like change. It can be seen as a lot of effort, or downright scary. If the culture of your organisation has been static for some time, generating excitement around a digital transformation can be difficult and can make actually enacting change all but impossible. Recruiting offers a circuit breaker. Bringing in more digitally literate talent can initiate a culture shift within your organisation. Young people have grown up in the digital age. Their presence will help to make your digital transformation far less scary, and they can train less literate employees in the basics. Once your employees see DT for what it is, they&rsquo;ll be far more open to it. They also bring new ideas and ways of working &lsquo;But why don&rsquo;t you do it this way?&rsquo; It&rsquo;s amazing what a fresh set of eyes can see when they look at your business. And if those eyes belong to a recruit with skills and experience in digital transformation, the insights are even more valuable. The talent search shouldn&rsquo;t be constrained to your industry &ndash; other sectors may be further along the DT pipeline than your own, and bringing in new ideas and ways of working from the professionals in these fields can prove invaluable. Temporary workers plug skills gaps The digital transformation process is a multi-faceted one, and on occasion, you&rsquo;ll require a skill set not possessed by your team. Recruitment allows you to plug these skills gaps with temporary workers and keep up the momentum. These gaps won&rsquo;t be unique to IT either &ndash; trainers, management consultants, CTOs and other highly skilled professionals may need to be quickly and temporarily recruited to ensure that your digital transformation is successful. DT necessitates a long-term, strategic view, and this view must extend to the team members who will enact the transformation. Skills planning, training and development all play key roles in your transformation being a success, but recruitment is the most efficient way to ensure you&rsquo;ve got the necessary skills and experience. Recruit well, digitally transform, and who knows, you could be worth $400 billion too.

Why Great Recruitment Should Be at the Heart of Digital Transformation

It&rsquo;s something we as business leaders rarely speak about &ndash; but a challenge many will face throughout our careers: friction in the workplace, specifically between manager and new employee. What happens when you make a new hire and aren&rsquo;t sure that you&rsquo;re going to end up on the same page after all? I mean really; are you working towards the same goals? Are your priorities in line with one another? Do you both/all understand where the business is going and how to get there? When you add to your team &ndash; whether it&rsquo;s a small, one-on-one start-up type of environment or managing a full-scale operation &ndash; there are a lot of things which can cause friction, frustration and the inevitable resulting lack of productivity. Which is probably why &ldquo;managing up&rdquo; is fast-becoming one of 2020&rsquo;s biggest corporate trends. Oftentimes, it&rsquo;s simply a discrepancy in &lsquo;the way you do things&rsquo; which creates tension between manager and employee. Where some may succeed in spite of their scatter-brained approach, others require strict routine and process to get through the day, as an example. Inevitably, when one of these types of person is managing the other, it can result in confusion, misunderstanding of expectations and, frankly, an employee sometimes being unsure what to do next, what their job entails. Enter &ldquo;managing up&rdquo;. Think of it this way: whatever your level, your manager&rsquo;s success hinges on your own &ndash; so, it&rsquo;s in your interest to understand them, how they work best, what&rsquo;s going to help them (and, in turn, you) the most. The process of managing up is essentially implementing all of the above into your team&rsquo;s way of working, to give them the power to manage what they need out of you and when. Examples of managing up in the workplace include holding employee-to-manager led one-on-ones which gives your member of staff the opportunity to pick your brains in a more private setting &ndash; there are some things they just may not feel comfortable saying in a team meeting. The agenda of the meeting should be set by the employee, to focus on understand what it is they want to know &ndash; help with X, Y and Z; feedback on this project or that presentation. By letting them take the lead you&rsquo;re also learning a lot about the person &ndash; which well help you manage this employee in the traditional sense, too. Other ways to encouraging managing up are to complete goal setting exercises; perhaps in a more casual, outside of the office setting, getting your team together to talk strategy, share ideas and set some key goals for the coming months. Having joint goals &ndash; as in, the business achieving its goals means the employees can reach theirs &ndash; is imperative for a smooth-running team whose staff are in it for the long run. Tension in the workplace between manager and employee doesn&rsquo;t have to come from a clash of personalities; it could simply be that you and your new team member work best via different methods, leading to miscommunication and subsequent friction. Encouraging your team to manage up is sure to improve employee engagement, but you might also look forward to an increase in motivation, and certainly stronger employee relations as a whole. As professionals, there should be very few issues which won&rsquo;t resolve themselves once time is taken to understand one another. Whether you&rsquo;re managing a team of one or a hundred, our expert consultants are exactly that; they know how to build, and then maximise the retention of, industry-leading talent. Our process doesn&rsquo;t stop once a placement is made, and it&rsquo;s this exceptional after-care which defines us as a true leader in the Melbourne recruiter marketplace. Get in touch today to discuss your post-COVID goals and hiring strategy.

Why Managing Up Needs to Be Part of Your Strategy for 2020

​We all give credit to the students who stay up nights cramming for their final exam or upcoming test. We all empathise and/or sympathise when a partner or loved one has a deadline to meet, or is under some level of temporary pressure in their job. In these circumstances, we&rsquo;re talking about a week, maybe a month, of anxiety and stress which can do serious detriment to the mental health of the individual. Working in sales? That doesn&rsquo;t finish at the end of the week. To work in sales means ongoing pressure and constantly building towards &ndash; look away, Sales Managers &ndash; something you don&rsquo;t necessarily have full control over. Sometimes, your sales team could do absolutely everything right, and a deal still might fall through. It&rsquo;s having the highest expectations placed on you from the off, to perform and hit those targets &ndash; no excuses. Which is why mental health is something that, as a business leader, we should all focus on emphasising. This high intensity, often stressful career path can be incredibly rewarding &ndash; but, without the right understanding and focus from a mental health perspective, it can do damage. Particularly in the post-Covid era, where the world&rsquo;s economies are edging toward turmoil and nothing is set in stone, we need to manage the mental health of our sales teams. Here&rsquo;s how to do so: Be open and build trust If you&rsquo;re currently in a position of seniority over other salespeople, chances are you&rsquo;ve been there yourself. It sounds cheesy to say &ldquo;never forget where you came from&rdquo;, but it&rsquo;s important &ndash; build a real connection with your sales team on the basis that you truly understand how they&rsquo;re feeling, the pressure they&rsquo;re under. Be open and share your own experiences, where your career began, the path which led you to here; in doing so, you&rsquo;ll build trust and allow them to share their own fears or concerns in turn. A problem shared is a problem halved, so building these relationships and trust across your team will go a long way to easing many of the mental health hiccups they may encounter. Prioritise collaboration and teamwork It&rsquo;s likely that your employees work to personal targets; nevertheless, building a culture around collaboration and working as a team couldn&rsquo;t be more key to promoting positive mental health. Sharing connections, experience and knowledge amongst the team will show them the meaning of what goes around comes around, whilst ensuring that each individual feels like a part of something bigger than simply that number hanging over their own head. By working together, we also reinforce the notion that asking for help truly is not just okay, but encouraged. Teams which work together have been proven time and time again to perform better &ndash; I&rsquo;d be speculating to suggest a link between collaboration culture and mental health, but it does make sense. Give your team a breather from time to time ABC is dead &ndash; sometimes, instead of closing, let&rsquo;s take a breather. Let&rsquo;s let our teams simply mull over and discuss the happenings of the last week, month or quarter in a safe, positive environment. There have been studies in which employers have given sales teams a &lsquo;week off&rsquo; &ndash; that is, a week without a target. A week to simply sit back, reflect on what worked &ndash; what didn&rsquo;t &ndash; and make a solid plan to attack the upcoming sales period. Whilst this might not be entirely possible for many organisations, it certainly is food for thought; giving your salespeople time to breathe for a while, however often, lets them know that you value their headspace and allows them to arrange, organise and understand their own mind. Addressing mental health in the sales arena is something which has needed to be done for a long time, and yet still so many aren&rsquo;t doing so. In a world of moving goal posts, unpredictable economic circumstances and general unsurety, there are still SDRs, BDRs, reps and a plethora of other job titles out there expected to achieve a certain number each month &ndash; and if any of them work for you, their mental health should be held paramount moving forwards. Whilst building high-functioning sales teams is the &lsquo;bread and butter&rsquo; of what we do, helping our clients develop best practices and retain their employees comes a close second. Promoting mental wellness strategies is just one way in which we do so; get in touch to talk more.

Mental Health in Sales

​Mindset. It sounds clich&eacute;, but it&rsquo;s undeniably important. If there&rsquo;s one thing which is prevalent among successful people, whatever their profession or chosen niche, it&rsquo;s having a growth mindset. The arch nemesis of a growth mindset is the fixed; a fixed view of the world, of yourself and those around you. There are some key differences between the two, but they largely revolve around learning. A person with a fixed mindset believes that the traits they&rsquo;re born with are essentially as good as it gets &ndash; we&rsquo;re born with a certain amount of talent or skill in any given subject, and whilst we can practice in order to hone that skill, we&rsquo;ll never &lsquo;get better&rsquo; at it than the maximum innate level. On the contrary, those with a growth mindset are of the opinion that any trait can be learned, and certainly improved on, with practice, education and plain old effort. These are the people you want to be hiring. Besides the obvious, those with a growth mindset are beneficial in business for many reasons; they&rsquo;re great problem solvers, for one. Growth mindset-ers will face down any challenges which come their way with fervour and enthusiasm. They&rsquo;ll learn from their mistakes to become a more well-rounded version of themselves. Generally speaking, they&rsquo;ll make a great addition to any ambitious, forward-thinking team. There are ways to identify the two different types of mindset, and certainly some things to look out for at interview. Have a read of the points below. Signs of a fixed mindset:
<ul>
<li>
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m not a [insert skill here] person, but I make up for it elsewhere.&rdquo;&nbsp;We all have things we&rsquo;re better at than others, but statements like are a fundamental barrier to learning. If a line like this one comes up at interview, probe to try and understand more about it &ndash; is it something they&rsquo;ve tried to improve, or have they effectively written it off and avoided the subject completely? Furthermore, what does either of these scenarios say about their mindset?
</li>
<li>
Little to no mention, or avoiding talking about, past failures.&nbsp;Those with a fixed mindset tend to view failures as exactly that &ndash; something to steer clear of at all costs. Conversely, those with a growth mindset understand that failure is a) inevitable and b) one of, if not the most important tool for learning. We want candidates to promote their successes, for sure, but to also be mindful of what brought them there &ndash; and failure may well have played a part in that.
</li>
<li>
Viewing the success of others as a threat &ndash; which may manifest as not coming across as a true &lsquo;team player&rsquo;. Where, on the other hand, individuals with a growth mindset will seek out mentorship and collaboration with successful figures, as a source of inspiration and learning. Ask questions around team situations and opportunities they&rsquo;ve had to work alongside colleagues or managers they respect, and try to grasp whether they fit within the fixed or growth mindset based on their feelings about them.
</li>
</ul>
An interesting point to remember about fixed vs growth mindsets is that it is possible, if not particularly common, for someone to have a mixture of both. When it comes to certain aspects of their life, a person could simply believe there&rsquo;s no hope &ndash; for instance athleticism or maths &ndash; whilst consistently pushing themselves to grow and learn in their career or another area. Just as no two skills are the same, nor are two mindsets. It&rsquo;s not our job to pigeonhole a candidate at interview stage, but to understand as much as we can and make as well-informed of a decision as possible. Also try to remember that interviews are far from a natural situation, one in which most people feel uncomfortable. If someone&rsquo;s portraying a decidedly fixed mindset-esque outlook, that&rsquo;s not to say it will be so on the job. With almost 20 years of experience in qualifying executive level candidates through thorough tactical interviewing, Certus Recruitment Group are truly able to grasp these important concepts at interview on behalf of our clients. We&rsquo;re also well equipped to help you do it yourself. Get in touch with our team to discuss the ramifications of hiring growth vs fixed mindset individuals, and the incredible dividends doing so can pay for your business.

How to Identify and Hire for Growth Mindset

Covid-19 has undoubtedly taught us a lot, about many things. Change is happening all around us, from how we shop (online, wearing a mandatory mask or via curbside pickup) to how we communicate (Zoom fatigue, anyone?) and even the way we greet one another. There&rsquo;s also been positive change in the way we see and treat each other. There&rsquo;s a feeling of community when out and about; people are coming together. Sure, some things have changed which we&rsquo;ll miss &ndash; potentially for good &ndash; but there are some things which are changing for the better. And one of them, almost certainly, is the way we work. The way we do business. As we shift towards the new normal, there are certainly some business practices, or &lsquo;maxims&rsquo;, you could call them, which we&rsquo;d be happy to leave in the past &ndash; particularly when it comes to managing sales teams. As we move into a future where employers have to be evermore considerate of the circumstances surrounding their business, here are the 3 business maxims we&rsquo;d love to see catch up with where 2020&rsquo;s focus should be moving forwards. &ldquo;Always be closing&rdquo; We&rsquo;re salespeople, yes. But shouldn&rsquo;t we be thinking more about solving our customers&rsquo; problems than we do about closing the deal? &lsquo;Doing business&rsquo; is no longer about just making sales; it&rsquo;s about consulting with clients, understanding their needs. And being willing to turn away if you know that your solution isn&rsquo;t the one which serves them best. Sales teams who value customer experience and excellence in service over targets and revenue will be the ones who thrive in the months to come. Always be closing &ndash; business maxim number one, out. &ldquo;Failure is not an option&rdquo; It might not be an option, but it&rsquo;s an absolute inevitability. Our social media feeds are littered with memes, motivational quotes and the like about getting back on the horse; relaying stats about how many shots Michael Jordan missed before he made it big; reiterating the importance of trucking on in the face of adversity. Yet, there are still sales teams being run into the ground by unrealistic targets and a lack of awareness about the fact that, yes, sometimes external circumstances do effect your ability to hit target; sometimes we have to fail to grow. Failure is a part of learning; it&rsquo;s how we learn what works, and what doesn&rsquo;t. Failure literally helps us improve what we do and how we do it; it shows us which processes need to be created, implemented or streamlined. Not only is failure an inevitability &ndash; it&rsquo;s a tool which we as managers should be harnessing to help our teams learn and improve, continuously. Business maxim number two &ndash; not this year, thank you! &ldquo;If your business isn&rsquo;t growing, it&rsquo;s dying&rdquo; I disagree &ndash; it could be changing, evolving, learning. Or, in truth, it could simply be surviving. And there&rsquo;s absolutely no shame in that. Of course, growth is a sensible, moreover practical end goal for a business to have. But long gone are the days when the notion was that growth is everything. As we transition into the post-pandemic world, many businesses and their leaders will be trying to determine the direction of their business whilst staying afloat and trying to do best by their employees; that should be the focus over the coming months, not simply money. No growth equalling a dying business is the third and final business maxim which needs to catch up with 2020. As the leader of Certus&rsquo; business here in Aus, I&rsquo;m proud to say we&rsquo;ve always conducted business with our clients in mind, rather than just focusing on the numbers &ndash; and we&rsquo;re looking forward to partnering with businesses who operate in the same way. When it comes to building cohesive, customer-focused sales teams who perform, we&rsquo;re proud to provide recruitment solutions tailored to your business. Contact our team in Melbourne today to talk about the current market conditions and what you can expect from a hiring perspective over the next few months.

3 Business Maxims Which Need to Catch Up

​There&rsquo;s a big difference between doing well, and just doing. There&rsquo;s an even bigger difference between being engaged and just &lsquo;being there&rsquo;. Is your team thriving, or just surviving? I&rsquo;m not talking in terms of sales figures or company financials; what I mean to ask is, are your team really all-in, giving it their best and moreover loving what they do each day? To thrive literally means &ldquo;to prosper; flourish&rdquo;. In the workplace, this means more than hitting target &ndash; although, that&rsquo;s undoubtedly a common result of a thriving time. Thriving at work means your team is aligned with the company goals, they&rsquo;re happy, nay excited, to be there, and they&rsquo;re motivated to work hard. This team is a productive, high-performing one; a team who merely shows up each day, merely &lsquo;survives&rsquo;, not so much. So how do you know if your team isn&rsquo;t thriving? And what steps can you as a business leader take to help them do so? Read my 3 tips to answer both of these questions below. 3 warning signs your employees are only surviving:
<ul>
<li>
Energy.&nbsp;Or a distinct lack thereof. As your employees go about their day-to-day, are they doing so with energy? Are they enthusiastic and positive in their actions, mannerisms, general mindset? Energy affects everything from performance to posture &ndash; yes, you can tell an awful lot about how an employee feels about their job by how slumped their shoulders are! &ndash; and it&rsquo;s important to recognise when energy, enthusiasm and, in turn, morale is down.
</li>
<li>
Relationships.&nbsp;If an employee has become disengaged with their job, it can show in the working relationships they&rsquo;re cultivating in the office/across team. Are there tensions between them and another employee, or number of employees, which seems unusual or out of character? Is their attitude toward their colleagues worsening in general? Time for a sit down and a heart to heart.
</li>
<li>
Performance.&nbsp;Simply put, a thriving, engaged employee is one who&rsquo;s going to graft to hit targets, goals and otherwise; a &lsquo;surviving&rsquo; employee may be putting in the bare minimum needed to keep their seat. If there&rsquo;s someone on the team whose performance is suffering, it&rsquo;s important not to look at this with an attitude of &lsquo;they can&rsquo;t do it&rsquo; &ndash; but instead to wonder if it&rsquo;s that they just currently don&rsquo;t want to. Ask the right questions, get to the bottom of it and try to bring them back into the fold; back to thriving.
</li>
</ul>
3 things to encourage to help your employees thrive:
<ul>
<li>
Creativity.&nbsp;In the workplace, don&rsquo;t hinder creativity &ndash; embrace and encourage it. Let each and every member of your workforce present ideas; ideas which are never belittled or dismissed without at least a discussion. A healthy workplace where employees thrive is one which is inclusive, open and ever-evolving.
</li>
<li>
Identity.&nbsp;Make sure you reinforce the individual part everyone plays within the team and encourage them to truly own their job role. Ensuring that each of your employees understands their own identity within the business, instead of just feeling like another brick in the wall, helps them stay accountable and remain motived to perform in their job to the best of their ability.
</li>
<li>
Learning.&nbsp;Whether they&rsquo;re passionate to do so or not, with learning comes a natural sense of achievement. Whether you allocate a few hours per week to training inside of work hours or reimburse employees (at least in part) for undertaking some form of professional education in their own time, encouraging them to continue their learning in any form will ensure they&rsquo;re more engaged with their job, their profession and their place within your team.
</li>
</ul>
Building thriving teams is what we do best. COVID may have thrown a spanner in the works but, we still pride ourselves here at Certus on our ability to get to know our clients inside out; it&rsquo;s how we go beyond just finding your next star hire, to help you retain and develop those you already have, too. To talk more about the recruitment and consulting services offered by Certus Recruitment Group, call our team in Melbourne today.

Thriving or Surviving? 3 Warning Signs & 3 Things to Encourage

​What words spring to mind when I say, &ldquo;COVID-19&rdquo;? For myself, whilst there are many positive words floating around &ndash; adaptability; innovation &ndash; the immediate terms also include upheaval and disarray. The transition from office to home working isn&rsquo;t necessarily one we were ready for as a business, not in totality, but I&rsquo;d still say we&rsquo;ve triumphed regardless. And one way we&rsquo;ve managed to do so, is by starting our day right &ndash; wherever we&rsquo;re working. How do you begin each working day right now? For many it probably involves making a coffee, opening the laptop and checking your emails. All fine things to be done &ndash; in due time &ndash; but, by beginning your day by responding to the requests/enquiries of others, you&rsquo;re already relinquishing power; the power to take your day where you want to go with it. Personally, I love nothing more than doing something for myself first thing in the morning. Normally this involves a pre-work walk, either on my own or with the dog, headphones in, podcast or audio book on greeting the day. Working in recruitment means working to many different deadlines and schedules, all intermingling with one another; it takes a HUGE amount of planning to chat with your client James on his lunchbreak, before catching up with your client Sarah before her 3 o&rsquo; clock meeting, with three 30-minute interview prep calls scheduled for the between time. To say we understand the importance of planning would be an understatement. But, all of that aside, whatever your profession may be, just taking 10 minutes at the beginning of each day to plan what you&rsquo;re going to achieve can make a huge difference to the way you go about doing so. So, what could you be doing differently to start your day right? Implement proactive planning. Enter your workspace; don&rsquo;t turn on your laptop/computer screen yet. Get into position &ndash; coffee in hand, if you&rsquo;re anything like me (long black in case anyone wants to send me one&hellip;) &ndash; and commit the next ten minutes to not responding to your phone, emails, or anything for that matter. We&rsquo;re not being reactive during these ten minutes; it&rsquo;s time to make a proactive plan. Ask yourself this question: when I close my laptop/leave the office/turn off my computer this afternoon, what will have given me a sense of accomplishment? I used to have the world&rsquo;s longest, never ending to-do list. I now stick to 5 core things I need to achieve each day. I find this approach much more realistic, and it allows room for all the ad-hoc things that come up in a day. Hey, if you finish them all by lunch time, I&rsquo;m sure you&rsquo;ll be able to think of more things to do! Proactive planning isn&rsquo;t just about having a tick list of things to do today; it&rsquo;s about making them actionable items. For example, instead of having on your list, &ldquo;ABC proposal to finish&rdquo;, word it as below: ABC PROPOSAL COMPLETION:
<ul>
<li>
Research 3 competitors and add notes to proposal
</li>
<li>
Run numbers and add proposed fees to agreement
</li>
<li>
Proofread entire proposal and contract
</li>
<li>
Send completed proposal to Ken @ ABC
</li>
</ul>
You may notice that each of these points now begins with a verb, and has become extremely digestible; research shows that the more specific your goals are, the more likely you are to achieve them. By making each item actionable with a &lsquo;doing word&rsquo;, it becomes that much more likely to get done. Why does beginning your day this way get you off to a good start? To state the obvious: it simply puts into perspective how many tasks you have to complete today, how to reach that feeling of achievement. It helps separate the important tasks from the urgent, those which fall under neither of those categories, and allows you to plan/prioritise your day as such. Further than this, it&rsquo;s about starting your day in a proactive way. Stimulating novel thought. Essentially, not responding; forcing your brain to do some work, first thing. It&rsquo;s a sure-fire way to understand which variables you have control over, which tasks you can complete without outside influence or input; and, importantly, proactive planning helps you foresee any obstacles and set tasks to overcome them. As business leaders, we can all appreciate the importance of starting your day off well; it&rsquo;s far easier to ride the wave of positivity from the beginning than it is to revive and turn around a day which started badly. In working from home, we&rsquo;ve all had to adapt &ndash; but, by beginning each day with some proactive planning, you can at least guarantee 10 minutes of positive input, if nothing else goes right all day. We&rsquo;d love to hear from you if you implement any of the above, to see how it helped &ndash; or didn&rsquo;t! Get in touch in the comments. How do you begin your day? What&rsquo;s your process/ritual/routine? We certainly all have one, no matter what level of your career you&rsquo;re currently at.

How to Start Your Day Right – Proactive Planning

​It&rsquo;s turned our world upside down, our economy inside out and, frankly, some of us around the bend; to say the effects of the Covid pandemic will be long and far-reaching is somewhat of an understatement. But, it&rsquo;s not all bad; I believe many of us will have learned something. I&rsquo;m not talking about a new language, skill or love for cooking &ndash; I mean about ourselves and, certainly as a business leader, what&rsquo;s important moving forwards. When planning the year ahead at the back end of 2019, none of us saw this coming. Businesses have had to adapt, diversify and, in some cases, simply survive. So the question I&rsquo;d like to ask is, how has this changed your people strategy? A &ldquo;people strategy&rdquo; by definition is a plan which pertains to building relationships with your employees, existing and new. It&rsquo;s important to have &ndash; and never more so than right now. Here are my key points which business leaders should consider implementing into theirs over the coming months: 1. Prioritising trust as a key driver of your culture Many businesses are currently facing two scenarios at present &ndash; one where our people have proved themselves able to work productively from home, and the other where they&rsquo;ve stuck by us throughout an uncertain period of furlough or temporary lay-off. In both of these scenarios, the overriding take away has had to be trust. Moving forwards, building a culture of trust, dependability and understanding between your leadership and the team is going to be absolutely key to thriving. Your business should be a community where everyone works toward the same goals, wherever they might be physically working from; placing your trust as a business leader or manager in your people to do the right thing and act in the right way is crucial to post-Covid company culture, regardless of industry, size or otherwise. 2. Maintaining transparency about the future of the business Your growth targets, aims and aspirations for the business this year now likely differ drastically to what you may have written down in January. As such, the employees who are now phasing back into work may feel some unsurety about their own futures here. Moving forwards, business leaders need to provide staff &ndash; new and returning &ndash; with real, transparent information as to where the future of the business lies and what that could mean for them. That means reassuring existing staff as to what they can or should expect, and keeping them updated on what goes on &lsquo;behind closed doors&rsquo; &ndash; to a required and professional minimum, but with transparency nonetheless. For new hires, this means being upfront and honest about the challenges which may have ensued in the wake of Covid, and allowing them more of an inside track. Not only is this simply fair, it&rsquo;ll really help to build the sense of community which many businesses are going to find beneficial as we navigate through the unprecedented and as yet unexplored repercussions to be felt in the UK in the coming months, if not years. 3. Seeing remote working as a part of your strategy, not simply a perk The truth is, even if a vaccine did materialise or somehow Covid simply wasn&rsquo;t around anymore, many individuals just aren&rsquo;t going to be comfortable with being in close-contact with people for a while. No one can deny that remote working is going to become a part of every business&rsquo; future; so, with a view to easing any worries that your existing or future workforce may be having about social distancing and the like, start implementing it as a standard. Even limited face to face interaction will certainly work wonders for your culture, team bonding and the like, but there&rsquo;s no reason that we shouldn&rsquo;t all be considering ways in which our businesses can work as effectively remotely from here on in. Have open dialogue with your staff about how they&rsquo;d like to work, how they feel they work best and what they feel most comfortable with. And, if that happens to be from home, so be it. Remote working is no longer a benefit to list in the &ldquo;why work for us&rdquo; section &ndash; it&rsquo;s a given. What would you add to this list? If you&rsquo;d like some no-obligation advice about the challenges &ndash; and benefits &ndash; of hiring in the current climate, I&rsquo;d love to talk. Don&rsquo;t hesitate to shoot me a message, or get in touch in the comments to arrange a chat.

3 Key Points to Your Post-Covid People Strategy

Established in January 2001, the Certus Recruitment Group has become a leading specialist recruitment consultancy with a global presence and a client list that is envied by our competitors. Revenues have grown consistently and are continually invested back into the business to enhance growth and reward those that contribute to our success.

Established in January 2001, we are a specialist recruiter working with businesses of all sizes from global ‘Superbrands’ through to innovative start-ups and everything in between. Working globally we help our clients plan, source, attract, and retain world-class talent for their business. Our people are each specialists within one of our three practice areas; sales, marketing, and technical, operating at all levels of experience up to Director &amp; Executive level.

At Certus Recruitment Group our people are our greatest asset. We believe a coherent and motivated team of passionate people will always achieve more than a collection of individuals.The ongoing success and growth of our business are determined by our behaviours as commercially focused recruitment professionals who demonstrate expertise and commitment to the provision of service excellence to clients and candidates alike. We have defined these behaviours as:​

At Certus Recruitment Group our people are our greatest asset. We believe a coherent and motivated team of passionate people will always achieve more than a collection of individuals. The ongoing success and growth of our business are determined by our behaviors as commercially focused recruitment professionals who demonstrate expertise and commitment to the provision of service excellence to clients and candidates alike. We have defined these behaviors as:​

"Certus has been simply fantastic. The support along my journey to securing my dream job has been faultless. They provided clarity throughout the process and offered guidance that has undoubtedly helped me prepare for a successful interview!"

We're always keen to introduce great talent to our extensive network

View job

We're always keen to introduce great talent to our extensive network

We're always looking to introduce great talent to our extensive network

At Certus Recruitment Group we recognise that our employees are our greatest asset, which is why we have developed a rewards and benefits package that recognises the value of your contribution to the business. From protection for your family through to discounts on gifts and events, our benefits are designed to ensure everyone benefits, regardless of their individual circumstances.

At Certus Recruitment Group we recognize that our employees are our greatest asset, which is why we have developed a rewards and benefits package that recognises the value of your contribution to the business. From protection for your family through to discounts on gifts and events, our benefits are designed to ensure everyone benefits, regardless of their individual circumstances.

Established in January 2001, the Certus Recruitment Group has become a leading specialist recruitment consultancy with a global presence and a client list that is envied by our competitors. Revenues have grown consistently and are continually invested back into the business to enhance growth and reward those that contribute to our success.We have a clear vision of where the company is going and how it will get there. This vision is shared with everyone at Certus and we work hard to create a vibrant working environment that provides real opportunity to develop, progress and prosper within the Company.To achieve our objectives we need great people and are always looking for applications from both experienced recruiters or from experienced sales, marketing or technical professionals who have a strong knowledge of their sector and are looking to forge a new career within a professional recruitment environment.

We attribute our success to our core values

Global Specialist Recruiter to the Technology Sector

Cookies are files that are recorded in temporary Internet folders on your PC. They're a useful tool as, by recording the way you use our site, they enable us to get to know you better. For example, we’re able to recognise you when you return to the site, identify your preferences so as to provide you with a more personalised service and speed up searches that you conduct when visiting.​You don’t have to accept them. Most browsers allow you to refuse cookies by activating the relevant setting (please check the help menu of your browser for more details) however, selecting this setting may mean that you are unable to access certain parts of our site.​Please note that unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you log on to our site.​Further Detail on Cookies​Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognises that cookie. Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently remembering your preferences, and generally improve your web site experience. They can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.​We can split cookies into 4 main categories:​Category 1: strictly necessary cookiesCategory 2: performance cookiesCategory 3: functionality cookiesCategory 4: targeting cookies or advertising cookies​Category 1 - Strictly necessary cookiesThese cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the website and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the website. Without these cookies services you have asked for, like register for job alerts, cannot be provided.​Please be aware our site uses this type of cookie​Category 2 - Performance cookiesThese cookies collect information about how visitors use a website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don’t collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It is only used to improve how a website works.​By using our website and online services, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device.​Category 3 - Functionality cookiesThese cookies allow the website to remember choices you make (such as your user name and password) and provide enhanced, more personal features. These cookies can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, fonts and other parts of web pages that you can customise. They may also be used to provide services you have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog. The information these cookies collect may be anonymous and they cannot track your browsing activity on other websites.​By using our website and online services, you agree that we can place these types of cookies on your device.​Category 4 - targeting cookies or advertising cookiesThese cookies are used to deliver adverts more relevant to you and your interests. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement as well as help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organisations such as advertisers. Quite often targeting or advertising cookies will be linked to site functionality provided by the other organisations.​We do have links to other web sites and once you access another site through a link that we have provided it is the responsibility of that site to provide information as to how they use cookies on the respective site.​You can find more information about cookies by visiting www.allaboutcookies.org or www.youronlinechoices.eu. Google also have a brief video which explains the use of cookies.

<h2>Our team</h2>Our Senior Leadership Team has a combined experience of 60+ years of recruiting into the technology sector, with experience gained in sales, marketing and technical experience across the globe. They continue to be heavily involved in the business, operating at the coal face and remaining close to clients and candidates alike. Please feel free to reach out to any of our leaders to discuss any aspect of how Certus Recruitment can help you achieve your objectives. We look forward to working with you.

<h2>Our team</h2>Our Senior Leadership Team has a combined experience of 60+ years of recruiting into the technology sector, with experience gained in sales, marketing, and technical experience across the globe. They continue to be heavily involved in the business, operating at the coal face and remaining close to clients and candidates alike. Please feel free to reach out to any of our leaders to discuss any aspect of how Certus Recruitment can help you achieve your objectives. We look forward to working with you.

Global Specialist Recruiter to the Technology Sector.

If you have any further questions or would like to find out more about how we can help your business grow, we'd love to hear from you. Just pick your preferred way of contacting us and we look forward to speaking with you soon.<ul><li>Pick up the phone and give us a call on +61 (03) 4050 7777</li><li>Click&nbsp;<a href="https://certusrecruitment.com/au/submit-job/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(234, 13, 140);">here</a>&nbsp;and you can send us details of your business and your current vacancies</li><li>Send us an email to: hello@certusrecruitment.com</li></ul>

There is no shortage of fantastic recruiters to choose from. There are those that specialize by sector or by function, there are large multi-site high street agencies, global players, and single-site niche businesses. So how do you determine which one will be best to support your business?​We believe the most important element is to choose a partner you trust. If you don't immediately feel they understand your unique situation and they don't go out of their way to really understand your purpose, speak to another. Your reasons for choosing may sometimes be difficult to articulate, however, after speaking you will quickly know which company is best to represent your brand.​And finally, whilst price is an important element in choosing a supplier, make sure you're calculating all the costs - not just the fee %. The company that delivers you a great shortlist the first time round, who organizes your stakeholders and minimizes wasted time will save you thousands over the course of the project.Ultimately, the best way to measure us is to speak to us. However, in the meantime here are a number of frequently asked questions that may just help you decide to include us on your shortlist!

If you have any further questions or would like to find out more about how we can help your business grow, we'd love to hear from you. Just pick your preferred way of contacting us and we look forward to speaking with you soon.<ul><li>Pick up the phone and give us a call on +44 (0) 204 538 8222</li><li>Click&nbsp;<a href="https://certusrecruitment.com/submit-job/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(234, 13, 140);">her﻿e</a><a href="https://certusrecruitment.com/submit-job/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;</a>and you can send us details of your business and your current vacancies</li><li>Send us an email to: info@certusrecruitment.com</li></ul>

If you have any further questions or would like to find out more about how we can help your business grow, we'd love to hear from you. Just pick your preferred way of contacting us and we look forward to speaking with you soon.<ul><li>Pick up the phone and give us a call on +1 737 201 9992</li><li>Click&nbsp;<a href="https://certusrecruitment.com/us/submit-job/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(234, 13, 140);">her﻿e</a><a href="https://certusrecruitment.com/us/submit-job/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">&nbsp;</a>and you can send us details of your business and your current vacancies</li><li>Send us an email to: america@certusrecruitment.com</li></ul>

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"Technology led businesses across the globe depend on us to drive growth through the delivery of innovative Talent Solutions"

We have a clear vision to be the Global Specialist Recruiter to the Technology Sector. To achieve our Vision we need amazing people who share our vision and subscribe to our values: Passion, Energy, Commitment, Integrity and Fun. If the Tech Sector excites you as much as it does us, get in touch or explore our current openings.

Great companies are built on great talent

We’re always keen to introduce great talent to our extensive network.

We’re always looking to introduce great talent to our extensive network.

Call Certus Now

Our specialist consultants can’t wait to hear about your business!

Looking out for fresh talent for innovate organizations

At Certus Recruitment Ltd ("we", "us" or "our" for short) we and our group companies are committed to protecting your personal information. Your personal information (also called ‘personal data’) is the information which identifies you as an individual that we get from you and others in various ways. Under the Data Protection Act 1998 (the "Act") and the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (“GDPR”) specific obligations are placed on us in the way we handle this type of information. The aim of this privacy policy is to let you know what personal information we collect from you when you apply for a job with us or our group companies, when you use our website and when you contact us, how we store and use it, and how you can access and manage this information.​Your personal information may be stored online and therefore we take steps to ensure that our systems are well protected.​The registered office of the above company is at 1 Vincent Square, London, SW1P 2PN. Our company number is 12619774. We and our group companies, together with the products and services we sell and provide, are regulated by the Recruitment &amp; Employment Confederation (REC - https://www.rec.uk.com/)​Please note that this privacy policy only covers https://www.certusrecruitment.com/. Other websites belonging to us or accessible via links are not covered by this policy. If you access any of these sites, please check the privacy policy applicable to these sites (if any) before you submit any of your personal information to them.​So, what personal information do we collect about you?​We process the following types of personal data about you:• Contact details• Identification information• Information about past and current employment• Education and qualifications• Information about your lifestyle​We collect the personal information requested on our application forms and contact forms together with any comments or remarks that you may provide in free text fields (such as personal statements) or CVs (where applicable). We may also keep a record of references received from third parties (including those you give us, credit reference and fraud prevention agencies) and of any other correspondence or communication between you and us, whether written, e-mailed, or as a result of visits, interviews or recorded telephone calls.​We also monitor site traffic, and like most websites, we use a Unique Visitor Cookie (which is supplied and managed by a carefully selected statistics provider) to identify your PC by a random number (e.g. #12489). More details about cookies and how you can disable them can be found below.​We will (unless it's impractical) tell you if we obtain and store information from any other source and also how we intend to use it in accordance with this privacy policy.​Making sure your personal data is secure​Whilst we take steps to protect user privacy, no data transmission over the internet can be entirely secure. We therefore do not guarantee the security of personal information that you send to us, or your use of the site. Any personal information you do send is at your own risk but once we receive it we use strict procedures to safeguard it.​How do we use your personal information?​In connection with a contract between you and us or an employer… We (and any At Certus Recruitment Ltd group company may use and process your personal information where it is necessary for us to do so to in connection with or anticipation of a contract between you and us (or At Certus Recruitment Ltd group company) or an employer.• to process your job application and otherwise manage the recruitment process• help potential employers assess and process your job application;• help potential employers check and confirm the references that you provide as part of your job application;• check with any necessary regulatory, industry and/or security authorities relevant to the position that you have applied for; Our Legitimate Business Interest… We (and any At Certus Recruitment Ltd group company may use and process your personal information where it is necessary for us to pursue our legitimate interests as a business for the following purposes:• help us identify you so we know who we are talking to;• help prevent and detect fraud or loss;• to contact you with information about opportunities that you might be interested in from time to time via phone or post;• assess risk, carry out market research, statistical analysis, test systems, improve the way that we run our recruitment process and your application (including quality assurance) and analyse your application and recruitment history;• train staff and monitor our services. This may mean that we record our conversations or our correspondence with you to make sure we are providing you with a good service and to make sure we keep to our legal and regulatory obligations. Where you have provided consent… We and any At Certus Recruitment Ltd group company may use your personal information where you have consented for us to do so• to contact you by email or other electronic means about opportunities that you might be interested in from time to time;• to provide you with job alerts. This consent can be withdrawn by logging-in to your account on the website and updating your details. Unless otherwise stated, we will hold data processed through contractual and legitimate interests indefinitely. Data processed via active consent will continue to receive marketing relative to the initial opt-in until we have received a request to unsubscribe/opt-out.​Who do we disclose your personal information to?​We may make your personal information available to agencies and employers who subscribe with us or use our Website, working within the above ways in which we use your data. These clients may then use that information to contact you about specific roles via email, phone or post. Other clients or agencies should not send direct marketing messages by email or SMS to you unless you have consented (opted in) to this.​We may disclose your personal information to any member of our group, which means our subsidiary companies, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiary companies.​We may disclose your personal information to third parties:​• In the event that we sell or buy any business or assets, in which case we may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets.• If at Certus Recruitment Ltd or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by it about its customers will be one of the transferred assets.• If we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our terms and conditions to and other agreements; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of At Certus Recruitment Ltd, our customers, or others.​How can you find out what personal information we hold about you?​You are entitled to see the personal information that we hold about you at any time. (If you write to, email or phone us and ask to see this information, it is known as a ‘subject access request’ or ‘SAR’ for short) You can do so by:​• e-mailing us at dpo@certusrecruitment.com inserting the words ‘Data Request’ in the heading or• writing to us at Data Request, Certus Recruitment Ltd, 1 Vincent Square, London, SW1P 2PN​Even if you don’t want a copy of your personal information, you can still contact us to check that the personal information that we hold is accurate or to let us know of any changes to your personal information. We always try to ensure that the information we hold is accurate, up to date and relevant and, as you are applying for a job with us, it is important that we have the right information in order to be able contact you. We'll be more than happy to make changes or to correct any inaccuracies.​You have the following rights when it comes to your data:• to object to any legitimate business interests processing;• to withdraw consent (only in respect of any processing which depends on consent);• to ask for your data to be updated or corrected (where it is inaccurate);• if we have carried out any automated decision making as part of recruitment practices, contest any such decision and ask for a human intervention;• ask for the client to stop processing for any reason or exercise their right to be forgotten;• ask for a copy of their information that they have provided to you electronically (such as their CV) in a portable format;• complain to the ICO.​External links from our site​From time to time we may include hypertext links to sites which are created by individuals and companies outside of our group companies. We do this when there is a particular relevance to the topic you're reading about. Whilst we endeavour to check that the content of these sites is suitable, we unfortunately cannot take any responsibility for the practices of the companies who publish the sites that we link to, nor the integrity of the content contained within them.​What if we update our privacy policy?​We do keep our privacy policies under regular review so please do check each time you use the site. You'll be able to read about any updates on this page - as soon as they happen.​If you have any questions or if you feel that we are not complying with the terms of this privacy policy please do contact us by e-mailing us at the following address dpo@certusrecruitment.com inserting the words ‘Privacy Policy Grievance’ in the heading.​This policy was last updated on Thursday 4th June 2020.

Supporting businesses going through transformation, managing a transition or completing animplementation, our contract services team understand the challenges associated with resourcingyour project. In addition to our knowledge of the technical functions, our understanding of projectmanagement methodologies and the project life cycle means we’re best place to identify the bestcontractors for your project.Recognising the importance of continuity, we ensure our contractors are managed and supportedthroughout the duration of your project, utilising the latest technologies to ensure a seamlesscontractor experience.

Put simply, we help technology businesses scale.

We're always keen to introduce great talent to our extensive network.

We're always looking to introduce great talent to our extensive network

We provide a bespoke, specialist recruitment service that adds real value to your organisation. We believe a truly great recruitment service is not about filling a vacancy, it’s about helping you scale your business. On every occasion it’s our job to identify the right candidate who, due to experience and cultural alignment, goes on to significantly contribute to the attainment of your organisations goals.

We provide a bespoke, specialist recruitment service that adds real value to your organization. We believe a truly great recruitment service is not about filling a vacancy, it’s about helping you scale your business. On every occasion, it’s our job to identify the right candidate who, due to experience and cultural alignment, goes on to significantly contribute to the attainment of your organizations' goals.

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Although we assess each application we receive, due to the volume of responses we are unable to respond to all enquiries personally.<a href="/au/jobs/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">View all jobs</a>

Although we assess each application we receive, due to the volume of responses we are unable to respond to all enquiries personally.<a href="/jobs/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">View all jobs</a>

Although we assess each application we receive, due to the volume of responses we are unable to respond to all enquiries personally.<a href="/us/jobs/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">View all jobs</a>

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