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​As a manager, it can often feel impossible to do your own job to its best, fight all the fires which need fighting AND stay on top of the team and how they&rsquo;re feeling. Fostering motivation across a team, large or small, can be one of the trickiest parts of being a leader. Be honest: doing the same job day in, day out, can become monotonous. From time to time, a member of your workforce is going to become bored or unchallenged, thus becoming demotivated. And a lack of enthusiasm for the job almost always has a directly negative effect on business performance. So, motivate them by helping your employees find meaningfulness in the everyday activities of their job. The word meaningfulness is quite a mouthful, and its definition follows. Meaningfulness doesn&rsquo;t mean to find enjoyment or happiness in what you do, but to delve into why you&rsquo;re doing it; what&rsquo;s the purpose, what is it going to help with, what are you contributing to. Having your employees find meaningfulness in their work can improve:
<ul>
<li>
Job satisfaction &ndash; and as a result, increase staff retention
</li>
<li>
Employee engagement &ndash; by helping align your employees&rsquo; goals with those of the company
</li>
<li>
Mental health &ndash; by reducing the stresses attributed to completing their job
</li>
</ul>
Finding the meaningfulness in their job will help employees remember why they&rsquo;re doing it during the tough times, whilst they&rsquo;re facing challenges. So, some examples of what &lsquo;finding meaningfulness&rsquo; might look like:
<ul>
<li>
Why should I devote some time to clearing my inbox this afternoon?&nbsp;Because it will help me prioritise the tasks I have left to complete, and reduce the chance of me becoming or feeling overwhelmed by my workload.
</li>
<li>
Why am I attending this meeting?&nbsp;Because it will help myself, and my employer, on the path to achieving our goals. It will bring me recognition at work, and a feeling of accomplishment.
</li>
<li>
Why is it important for me to spend time properly analysing this spreadsheet?&nbsp;Because it may contain important data and metrics which could really help boost team direction and performance moving forwards.
</li>
</ul>
When an employee finds meaning in even the simplest of tasks, they&rsquo;ll also find satisfaction. A person who finds satisfaction in the role is more likely to stick around, seeking challenge and/or progression on the day to day. By leading your employees to understand the role they play, you create a connection between the person as an individual, their place in the team and how they contribute to the business. Finding meaningfulness is akin to understanding the value you add, and where. And doing so can play a huge part in positively impacting employee engagement levels. Finding meaningfulness in what some might consider &ldquo;menial&rdquo; tasks has been proven to reduce stress, thus motivating staff to get on with the bits of the job they may not find as satisfying as others. Mental health should be at the forefront of every manager&rsquo;s mind &ndash; so stay abreast of who&rsquo;s avoiding doing what, get to the bottom of why, and us meaningfulness to help them find a way to enjoy even the small, seemingly insignificant tasks. As a manager, motivation is paramount to a high-performing team &ndash; and reminding your employees of the point behind the work they do could be just the ticket to keeping them on track. When you partner with us, you don&rsquo;t just benefit from years of recruiting expertise, a world-class network and a team of dedicated consultants &ndash; but all of that on top of years spent understanding how to retain and motivate individuals once they&rsquo;ve been hired. We&rsquo;re not a one-and-done recruitment agency &ndash; we&rsquo;re a recruitment partner, and we want to grow your business with you, for the long-term. Our team is slowly but surely returning from furlough and we couldn&rsquo;t be more proud &ndash; don&rsquo;t hesitate to get in touch.

Motivating Your Team By Finding Meaningfulness

It can sometimes be difficult to confidently ascertain what level you should be hiring at. Are you time-rich but tight budgeted? Do you have quotas which need to be met from the off, or are you in a position to hire and mould someone to fill the gap in your team? Do you need someone to bring their own experience/knowledge, or are you in a position to do the teaching? Answer our quick and nifty questionnaire below to determine what level your next hire should come in at! Why are you looking to hire? a) We have a problem which needs solving, fast.&nbsp;10 pts b) We&rsquo;re replacing an employee who has left the business.&nbsp;25 pts c) We&rsquo;re growing, so we need someone who&rsquo;s hungry to learn.&nbsp;50 pts More important than anything is understanding the circumstances which led to, and the reason behind, this vacancy you&rsquo;re currently trying to fill. If you answered A, you&rsquo;re most likely looking for a specific skillset, or experience in a certain area. It&rsquo;ll be difficult for someone without to come in and get the ball rolling immediately. B speaks for itself &ndash; you&rsquo;re aware of what worked well, not so well and anything in between with whoever was doing the job previously, so you can base your candidate profile on this. And as for C? If it&rsquo;s a case of business growth and your intentions are less set in stone, there&rsquo;s room for some flexibility in the profile you&rsquo;re going to be looking for. Could a fresh graduate be just the ticket? Where does your salary budget for this role sit in the market? a) Money is no object &ndash; I need someone who can do the job, now.&nbsp;10 pts b) I&rsquo;m interested to see what I can get for the budget I have.&nbsp;25 pts c) My budget isn&rsquo;t huge, but I have time on my hands.&nbsp;50 pts To be frank, budget is one of if not the most crucial factor when undergoing a recruitment campaign of any scope. There needs to be a strong correlation between expectations of the candidates you&rsquo;re hoping to attract and the competitiveness of the salary on offer. All of this depends on where you&rsquo;re at as a business, the time you as a leader &ndash; or another dedicated staff member &ndash; has to spend onboarding a new starter, and the type of role you&rsquo;re trying to fill; are you in a position to invest more money into someone who could truly hit the ground running? Alternatively, can you make up for what you lack in budget by implementing a killer training scheme and investing time into nurturing this person? Speaking of which&hellip; What sort of training do you have in mind for this individual? a) Little, initially. They need to be confident in what they&rsquo;re doing, but we&rsquo;ll be here to provide support and resources. 10 pts b) We will support ongoing training, but we need skills to build upon. 25 pts c) We&rsquo;re looking for a fresh mind to cultivate! 50 pts If you need this person to carry a number from day one, you&rsquo;ll want to hire someone with experience, possibly contacts to draw upon, and likely from a specific sector &ndash; answer A. If you resonated more with answer B &ndash; of course, training when it&rsquo;s needed is a given &ndash; then you need to be looking at profiles/backgrounds which include at least exposure to the role in question. And if C jumped out to you? Well, with the right investment of time and training, you won&rsquo;t go wrong in hiring someone with no bad habits and a clean slate upon which to work. So, what level should you hire at? If you scored 30-50 points: Your needs are specific, your profile more narrow; you need a more senior hire. Someone who knows and understands your industry and/or the role they&rsquo;ll be undertaking. In this instance, it&rsquo;ll be easier to tell from a CV whether someone is going to be suitable, so put your all into engaging and networking with your target candidates online. If you scored 50-100 points: Whilst you require a basis upon which to build, your target candidate profile isn&rsquo;t as strict as above. Hiring someone at junior to mid-level, who already has exposure to a working environment, means at the very least they&rsquo;ve proved their work ethic &ndash; so bring them on board and have them build a long-term career with your organisation! If you scored 100+ points: A graduate could be just what you need! What they lack in experience they make up for in drive, enthusiasm and hunger &ndash; to learn, to progress and to prove themselves in their first career move. If your business has the capacity to nurture and support someone in these early years, it will pay dividends in the future. Certus Graduate source top percentile graduates to build high-performing sales teams on behalf of our clients. Head to their LinkedIn page @Certus Graduate for more content, and don&rsquo;t hesitate to get in touch with our expert team in London to discuss our innovative assessment techniques and recruitment strategies for grad schemes and entry-level roles.

At what level should you be hiring?

Mind Blanking &ndash; why it happens, and how to manage it We&rsquo;ve all been there. Someone asks you a question, even a fairly innocent one which requires little contemplation&hellip; And your mind just ups and leaves. Mind blank. It can happen any time, but most of us will agree that it&rsquo;s one of life&rsquo;s many mysteries, bound to happen at the most inopportune moment. Having a &lsquo;mind blank&rsquo; &ndash; as in, knowing you have the correct information somewhere but being unable to access it at present &ndash; is something many of us experience during, of course, a job interview &ndash; and it&rsquo;s incredibly frustrating. Let&rsquo;s try to understand the science behind mind blanking occurs, in order to try and overcome them in time: Why do they happen? There&rsquo;s science behind those blank moments of searching. Like many innate reactions we humans experience day-to-day, the &lsquo;mind blank&rsquo; is actually one of the age-old fight-or-flight mechanisms we developed to survive; based on feelings of anxiety, the brain attempts to shield itself from the situation it&rsquo;s currently facing, in order to mitigate the stress said situation is inducing. A lot, isn&rsquo;t it. Melodramatic when put into the context of a job interview? Sure. But it makes sense; the brain feels under pressure, the human can&rsquo;t perform, and so our brain moves to protect us from that fear. Almost entirely unhelpful in this context, but interesting nonetheless. So, mind-blanking is indiscriminate and can hit any of us at any moment. When we do research and prep before an interview, our brain is at ease, hence how we&rsquo;re able to learn. When sat opposite your potential next employer, all that goes out of the window. Whether you know the answer or don&rsquo;t, you&rsquo;re as likely to experience this &ndash; so the key is to be prepared when it happens: Take a big, deep breath. Simply put, you&rsquo;re experiencing a mind blank due to nerves. Buy yourself a little bit of time &ndash; take a deep breath, settle yourself and give your brain what it needs. The answer is in there, you just can&rsquo;t access it right this second &ndash; but trust me, oxygen will help. Repeat the question. Going over what you already know not only gives yourself time to think, but reiterates to your interviewer that you understand XYZ &ndash; or, at the very least, presents an opportunity to deal with any confusion in the meantime. Repeating the question is a great way to nudge your mind into motion, as is summarising key points so far &ndash; talking about what you do know will help you find the info you need. Admit that your mind has gone blank! There&rsquo;s no shame in it &ndash; and, as a recruiter of candidates junior, senior and everything in between &ndash; I can tell you for nothing that it happens to all of us, at any level of our career. It happens during interviews, important phone calls, at the key moment of a presentation; so make light of the situation. Trying not to &ldquo;umm&rdquo; and &ldquo;err&rdquo;, admit that your mind has pulled a blank and let you down; it won&rsquo;t take long for it to catch up and get on board, so being honest and open in the situation breeds understanding amongst two people who have both likely been through the same thing. It isn&rsquo;t a big deal. And it certainly doesn&rsquo;t signify the end of your chances at success. Your interviewer will be no exception &ndash; having a mind blank is completely normal, albeit inconvenient and nerve-wracking. Interviewing is a skill, one we&rsquo;re proud to help individuals of all levels improve and develop. Job seeking is a tough game &ndash; so, if any of the above rings true, especially given the current circumstances, we&rsquo;re happy to talk interview tips and technique here at Certus. Get in touch today.

Mind Blanking – why it happens, and how to manage it

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

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)

In Go-To-Market leadership, the line between working in the business and working on the business is dangerously easy to blur.
Especially in growth environments.
Especially in Q1.
Especially when numbers matter.
The strongest GTM leaders understand the difference &mdash; and more importantly, they protect time for both.
<h2 data-start="494" data-end="525">What &ldquo;Working In&rdquo; Looks Like</h2>
Working in the business is operational. It&rsquo;s immediate. It&rsquo;s necessary.
It includes:
<ul data-start="615" data-end="787">
<li data-start="615" data-end="631">
Deal reviews
</li>
<li data-start="632" data-end="650">
Forecast calls
</li>
<li data-start="651" data-end="674">
Pipeline inspection
</li>
<li data-start="675" data-end="696">
Hiring interviews
</li>
<li data-start="697" data-end="721">
Messaging refinement
</li>
<li data-start="722" data-end="747">
Escalation management
</li>
<li data-start="748" data-end="787">
Coaching reps ahead of big meetings
</li>
</ul>
This work keeps the engine running.
And in early-stage or scaling companies, it&rsquo;s unavoidable. Founders and GTM leaders often need to be close to the deals. Close to the customers. Close to the numbers.
The risk? If you only ever work in the business, you become the best salesperson in the company &mdash; not the best leader.
<h2 data-start="1118" data-end="1149">What &ldquo;Working On&rdquo; Looks Like</h2>
Working on the business is architectural.
It&rsquo;s less urgent, but far more consequential.
It includes:
<ul data-start="1256" data-end="1597">
<li data-start="1256" data-end="1312">
Designing territory strategy before performance dips
</li>
<li data-start="1313" data-end="1354">
Redefining ICP based on win-loss data
</li>
<li data-start="1355" data-end="1409">
Reworking comp plans to drive the right behaviours
</li>
<li data-start="1410" data-end="1476">
Aligning Sales, Marketing and CS around shared revenue metrics
</li>
<li data-start="1477" data-end="1533">
Building a leadership bench, not just a revenue team
</li>
<li data-start="1534" data-end="1597">
Pressure-testing hiring scorecards before scaling headcount
</li>
</ul>
This is where leverage lives.
Working on the business creates systems that perform without constant executive intervention.
And in 2026, leverage is everything.
<h2 data-start="1765" data-end="1799">Why GTM Leaders Drift Into &ldquo;In&rdquo;</h2>
There are three reasons most GTM leaders default to working in the business:
1. It feels productive. Closing a deal is visible. Rebuilding a go-to-market motion is not.
2. It&rsquo;s familiar. Many leaders were top performers before they were leaders. Stepping back can feel uncomfortable.
3. It&rsquo;s rewarded short-term. Quarterly numbers favour tactical heroics over structural change.
But heroics don&rsquo;t scale.
<h2 data-start="2230" data-end="2275">The 2026 Reality: Efficiency Over Activity</h2>
Across global GTM teams right now, the conversation has shifted from growth-at-all-costs to efficient, predictable growth.
That shift demands leaders who can:
<ul data-start="2438" data-end="2636">
<li data-start="2438" data-end="2470">
Model capacity before hiring
</li>
<li data-start="2471" data-end="2515">
Define productivity expectations clearly
</li>
<li data-start="2516" data-end="2558">
Improve forecast accuracy structurally
</li>
<li data-start="2559" data-end="2596">
Reduce dependency on &ldquo;super reps&rdquo;
</li>
<li data-start="2597" data-end="2636">
Build systems that survive turnover
</li>
</ul>
None of that happens by accident.
It happens when leaders carve out intentional time to work on the business.
<h2 data-start="2752" data-end="2785">A Simple Audit for GTM Leaders</h2>
Ask yourself:
<ul data-start="2802" data-end="3047">
<li data-start="2802" data-end="2854">
If I stepped away for 30 days, what would break?
</li>
<li data-start="2855" data-end="2918">
Are results driven by system design &mdash; or individual effort?
</li>
<li data-start="2919" data-end="2982">
Do I spend more time reviewing deals or reviewing strategy?
</li>
<li data-start="2983" data-end="3047">
Is our hiring reactive to gaps, or proactive against a plan?
</li>
</ul>
If the answers feel uncomfortable, that&rsquo;s usually the signal.
<h2 data-start="3112" data-end="3136">The Balance That Wins</h2>
Great GTM leadership isn&rsquo;t about abandoning the day-to-day.
It&rsquo;s about rhythm.
<ul data-start="3219" data-end="3386">
<li data-start="3219" data-end="3268">
Scheduled deep work on structure and strategy
</li>
<li data-start="3269" data-end="3314">
Clear delegation of operational oversight
</li>
<li data-start="3315" data-end="3353">
Defined decision-making frameworks
</li>
<li data-start="3354" data-end="3386">
Repeatable operating cadence
</li>
</ul>
The best leaders zoom in and zoom out deliberately.
They inspect pipeline &mdash; and redesign qualification criteria. They coach deals &mdash; and rebuild onboarding. They close gaps &mdash; and eliminate the root cause.
In high-performing GTM organisations, revenue doesn&rsquo;t rely on constant executive involvement.
It runs because the system works.
Working in the business drives this quarter. Working on the business determines the next four.
The question for every GTM leader in 2026 is simple:
Are you building momentum &mdash; or just maintaining motion?

GTM Leadership: Working On the Business vs Working In It

25 Years of Certus Recruitment: Built on People, Not Placements
This year Certus recruitment turns 25!
That&rsquo;s 25 years of conversations, careers shaped, markets evolved, and lessons learned the hard way. In an industry that changes as fast as recruitment does, longevity isn&rsquo;t something taken lightly, it&rsquo;s something that&rsquo;s earned.
Certus Recruitment was founded with a simple belief: that recruitment works best when it&rsquo;s built on trust, expertise, and long-term relationships. No shortcuts. No volume for volume&rsquo;s sake. That belief has remained the foundation, even as the world around us has changed so dramatically.
Over the last two and a half decades, we&rsquo;ve seen entire sectors emerge, mature, and reinvent themselves. We&rsquo;ve worked through multiple economic cycles, shifts in hiring philosophy, and the growing complexity of global talent markets. Through it all, our focus has remained the same: understanding what &ldquo;good&rdquo; really looks like for our clients, and what meaningful progression looks like for the people we represent.
What we&rsquo;re most proud of are the partnerships we&rsquo;ve built. Many of our client relationships span years, not transactions. Many of our candidates have returned to us throughout their careers, often as clients on the other side of the hiring table. That continuity matters to us.
Reaching 25 years is also a moment to recognise the people behind Certus. Past and present consultants who&rsquo;ve helped shape the business. Clients who trusted us with critical hires. Candidates who placed their careers in our hands. Certus Recruitment has always been, and will always be, a people business.
As we look ahead,&nbsp;our&nbsp;ambition isn&rsquo;t simply to keep doing what we&rsquo;ve always done. It&rsquo;s to keep evolving without losing what makes us&nbsp;Certus. Staying curious. Going deeper. Slowing down where it counts. Continuing to grow in the right way, not the fastest.
To everyone who&rsquo;s been such a crucial part of the journey so far; thank you. Here&rsquo;s to the next chapter.
The Team at Certus Recruitment Passion | Energy | Integrity | Commitment | Fun

25 Years of Certus Recruitment

Staff turnover is something every leader, HR team and business owner has to contend with. Often grouped under terms like attrition or churn, it ultimately comes down to one simple but critical question: how well are you retaining your people?
In a market where skills are scarce and competition for talent is high, retention is no longer a &ldquo;nice to have&rdquo; &mdash; it&rsquo;s a business imperative. Hiring costs money, time and focus. But beyond that, every new hire represents an investment: in training, equipment, onboarding, relationships and trust. When people leave too quickly or too often, that investment is lost, and the wider business inevitably feels the impact.
While some level of attrition is natural &mdash; retirements, restructures, or mutually agreed moves on &mdash; high or consistent turnover is often a signal that something deeper needs attention. The key to improving retention is understanding why people leave, and what makes them stay.
Below are several core areas that play a major role in employee retention, and where small, deliberate improvements can make a significant difference.
<h3 data-start="1258" data-end="1291">Hiring with Retention in Mind</h3>
Retention starts long before day one. Hiring the &ldquo;right&rdquo; person isn&rsquo;t just about technical capability; it&rsquo;s about alignment. Misalignment between role expectations, company culture and individual motivations is one of the biggest drivers of early exits.
Ask yourself: are you giving candidates a realistic picture of the role and the environment? Are values, pace, leadership style and growth opportunities clearly communicated? Taking the time to hire with long-term fit in mind &mdash; not just immediate need &mdash; lays a far stronger foundation for retention.
<h3 data-start="1849" data-end="1883">Onboarding as a Retention Tool</h3>
Onboarding is often underestimated, yet it plays a critical role in whether someone feels confident, supported and invested early on. Poor onboarding doesn&rsquo;t usually cause someone to leave immediately &mdash; but it can quietly erode engagement from the outset.
A structured onboarding process with clear goals, realistic timelines and regular check-ins helps new employees feel valued and supported. It also creates space for honest feedback early, allowing issues to be addressed before they become reasons to leave. Strong onboarding sends a simple but powerful message: you matter here.
<h3 data-start="2474" data-end="2512">Workplace Experience and Wellbeing</h3>
People rarely leave companies for one single reason. More often, they leave because of how work makes them feel over time. Work-life balance, flexibility, psychological safety and mental health support are no longer optional considerations &mdash; they are central to retention.
Equally important is the internal dynamic. Healthy relationships, strong leadership and a culture that actively addresses conflict and toxicity will always outperform one that ignores them. Employees who feel respected, supported and heard are far more likely to stay, grow and advocate for your business.
<h3 data-start="3095" data-end="3132">Retention Is Ongoing, Not One-Off</h3>
Retention isn&rsquo;t solved at hiring, onboarding or probation &mdash; it&rsquo;s continuous. Regular conversations about development, progression and engagement matter. People want to know where they&rsquo;re going, how they&rsquo;re doing and that their contribution is recognised.
Ultimately, while some staff turnover is inevitable, high retention is intentional. Businesses that prioritise it build stronger teams, protect institutional knowledge and create stability that fuels long-term growth.
At Certus Recruitment Group, we help organisations think beyond the hire &mdash; building workforce strategies that focus on retention from day one and well into the future. If you&rsquo;d like to explore how a more retention-focused approach could strengthen your business, we&rsquo;d be happy to talk.

Retention - A Strategic Priority

In-house talent acquisition teams carry a huge responsibility. Managing high volumes, working to tight timelines, and ensuring every candidate has a positive and consistent experience, it&rsquo;s a lot, and the pressure rarely lets up. This is especially true in fast-moving sectors like technology, SaaS, and GTM (Go-To-Market) hiring, where competition for talent is fierce, and expectations are high.
Yet despite this, the recruitment industry still often frames the relationship between agencies and internal teams as an either/or dynamic. Who gets the credit? Who owns the process? Who&rsquo;s in control?
At Certus Recruitment, we believe that mindset is outdated, and unhelpful for everyone involved. The best outcomes in technology recruitment and GTM hiring don&rsquo;t come from competition; they come from partnership.
An Extension of Your Talent Function
When we partner with clients, we don&rsquo;t show up as an external agency trying to prove our worth. We operate as an extension of your talent acquisition, GTM recruitment, or tech hiring function, aligning ourselves to your goals, your systems, and your way of working.
Our role is to make life easier for internal teams, not create more work or step on toes. We recognise the critical part internal TA plays, and we&rsquo;re here to complement that, not challenge it.
What Partnership Looks Like in Practice
To us, partnership isn&rsquo;t just a headline, it&rsquo;s how we work every day across sales recruitment, customer success hiring, technical roles, and the full breadth of go-to-market functions.
We integrate seamlessly
We align with your processes, systems, and communication style so collaboration feels natural and frictionless.
We support, not duplicate
Your team remains the centre of the hiring strategy. Everything we do enhances what you already have in place, whether it&rsquo;s GTM talent acquisition, technology recruitment, or broader business hiring.
We add bandwidth when it matters most
Hiring peaks, stretched resources, or hard-to-fill roles, especially in tech sales, software engineering, and product,&nbsp;are where we thrive. We keep momentum high when internal capacity is tight.
We bring insight and intelligence
Market trends, GTM salary benchmarks, tech talent availability, competitor activity, and candidate sentiment, we provide actionable intelligence that strengthens your hiring strategy and supports stakeholder conversations.
We protect your employer brand
In highly competitive markets like technology and SaaS, candidate experience matters. Every interaction we have is designed to represent your organisation with professionalism and consistency.
A Shared Focus on Results
Great collaboration requires transparency, communication, and a shared focus on outcomes. At Certus, our goal is simple: help internal teams deliver stronger hiring results with less pressure, whether that&rsquo;s scaling a GTM function, building out enterprise sales teams, or sourcing niche technology talent.
We don&rsquo;t want credit, we want your success.
Looking for a Partner, Not Just an Agency?
If your talent team could benefit from a partner who genuinely works alongside you, someone who integrates, supports, adds value, and strengthens your technology and GTM hiring outcomes,&nbsp;we&rsquo;d love to talk.

Why “Agencies vs. Internal Talent Teams” Is the Wrong Mindset — And How Certus Does It Differently

Have you ever taken a sip of your drink, only to find that it&rsquo;s not at all what you expected? If you thought it was water and find yourself sipping a diet coke, the feeling is unpleasant &ndash; no matter how much you might like diet coke usually. That&rsquo;s because you weren&rsquo;t expecting it. When it comes to managing expectations, there&rsquo;s no skill more important in terms of building strong, happy relationships. In business, this applies to all parties; your clients, customers, colleagues, even your own boss and those who report directly to you. To give an example: if you make a promise to deliver a piece of work in ten days and have it completed in seven, you&rsquo;re a hero. If you made the promise to be done within five but deliver in seven, there&rsquo;s going to be disappointment. The outcome is the same &ndash; the work was delivered in seven days &ndash; but in the case of the latter, because you didn&rsquo;t properly manage expectations the relationship has been negatively impacted. So, whether you&rsquo;re a manager, salesperson, business owner or otherwise, here are some things to think about when it comes to managing expectations &ndash; moreover, how doing so can really improve and strengthen the relationships you build across the board. Managing your employees&rsquo; expectations Unaddressed employee expectations can unfortunately lead to demotivation, and sometimes even resentment in the workplace. This means you need to clearly define what your responsibilities are as the leader, communicate these to your team and then be accountable for fulfilling these actions. In the employee-manager relationship, many things can fall under &lsquo;expectations&rsquo;. This could be the expectation of one-on-one coaching, regular reviews or feedback; the expectation that you&rsquo;ll step in to help close a deal; even down to making sure your team understands when you&rsquo;re available, i.e. if it&rsquo;s okay to get in touch outside of working hours or not. If your direct reports are expecting something from you &ndash; even something intangible like support or guidance &ndash; it&rsquo;s your job to address this by either providing it or, if it shouldn&rsquo;t be coming from you, pointing them in the right direction instead. Miscommunication of expectations can cause myriad problems and disappointments in the workplace &ndash; which will inevitably affect performance in the long run. Managing your customers&rsquo; expectations Whilst we don&rsquo;t necessarily want to champion the somewhat old fashioned &ldquo;under-promise, over-deliver&rdquo; stance, managing expectations is key to building a long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationship with your customers. Instead, try to take more of a &ldquo;be realistic and deliver your best&rdquo; attitude, remaining transparent, open and honest throughout the journey. Whether you work in recruitment like us or another industry entirely, it&rsquo;s universally understood that humans want to know where they stand &ndash; meaning even if it&rsquo;s not the answer we want, we&rsquo;d rather be told the truth. Managing your customers&rsquo; expectations means giving regular updates, making no excuses and being accountable at all costs. Building a relationship on anything less just simply doesn&rsquo;t cut it; building relationships on expertly managed expectations means that even when things don&rsquo;t go exactly to plan, challenges can be overcome (as opposed to the relationship ending on a sour note). Managing the expectations on yourself Regardless of where you sit in the hierarchy of the company &ndash; you could be just starting out or own the whole show &ndash; there are people to report into and progress to manage. Whether that&rsquo;s being held accountable for keeping the board or SMT updated, or simply checking in with your employees for a quarterly business rundown and review, it&rsquo;s important to keep those who need to be in the loop just so. Being a great manager of expectations is a sure-fire way to build your persona as a strong leader; someone who&rsquo;s dependable, reliable and accountable. No nasty surprises, misleading or misinformation. Managing expectations means your customers get better service, your employees learn from your exemplary practices, and your own boss &ndash; whoever they might be, directly or indirectly &ndash; is happy and content. It&rsquo;s no secret that the management of expectations is an area where the recruitment industry has fallen down historically. I couldn&rsquo;t be more proud that, across all three Certus brands, we endeavour to change that in every communication we undertake &ndash; and every relationship we build to prove it. To learn more about the difference you&rsquo;ll find in partnering with us, get in touch.

The Importance of Managing Expectations

<h1 data-start="181" data-end="261">GTM Hiring: What the Data Tells Us &mdash; And Why Certus Outperforms Internal Teams</h1>
Hiring exceptional go-to-market (GTM) talent &mdash; in Sales, Marketing, Customer Success, and Revenue Operations &mdash; is critical to business growth. But it&rsquo;s not just about adding headcount; it&rsquo;s about building competitive advantage.
Too often, companies rely solely on internal talent acquisition (TA) teams. Yet, as the data shows, this can lead to slower hiring, missed opportunities, and lower retention. Specialist agencies like Certus Recruitment Group consistently deliver better results &mdash; faster and with more impact.
Here&rsquo;s what the data tells us.
<hr data-start="817" data-end="820">
<h2 data-start="822" data-end="893">🚨 Internal Teams Take Longer to Hire &mdash; And It&rsquo;s Costing You Revenue</h2>
According to LinkedIn&rsquo;s 2024 Global Talent Trends Report:
<ul data-start="955" data-end="1262">
<li data-start="955" data-end="1041">
The average time-to-hire for mid-level GTM roles is 46 days via internal TA.
</li>
<li data-start="1042" data-end="1099">
Specialist agencies reduce this to 28 days or less.
</li>
<li data-start="1100" data-end="1262">
At Certus, we go further: ✅ 5&ndash;10 days to deliver a qualified shortlist ✅ 16&ndash;28 days to offer acceptance (on average, across the UK, US, and ANZ)
</li>
</ul>
That&rsquo;s a 40&ndash;50% faster time-to-fill, translating to weeks of extra pipeline generation, outbound activity, and marketing execution.
<hr data-start="1401" data-end="1404">
<h2 data-start="1406" data-end="1460">🧲 We Reach Passive Candidates Internal Teams Can&rsquo;t</h2>
A 2023 Talent Board study revealed:
<ul data-start="1500" data-end="1634">
<li data-start="1500" data-end="1562">
Just 30% of top GTM performers are actively job-hunting.
</li>
<li data-start="1563" data-end="1634">
But 80% are open to the right opportunity if approached properly.
</li>
</ul>
Internal TA teams often only reach that active 30%. At Certus, we engage the untapped 70% &mdash; the high-impact performers who aren&rsquo;t looking but will move for the right opportunity. It&rsquo;s how our clients gain access to game-changing talent their competitors never even see.
<hr data-start="1909" data-end="1912">
<h2 data-start="1914" data-end="1961">🔁 Better Retention Starts With Better Hires</h2>
Hiring fast is one thing &mdash; retaining top performers is another.
Data from Bullhorn&rsquo;s 2023 Global Recruitment Insights Report shows:
<ul data-start="2098" data-end="2165">
<li data-start="2098" data-end="2165">
Agency hires are 15&ndash;25% more likely to stay beyond 12 months.
</li>
</ul>
At Certus, our GTM placements consistently outperform internal hires on:
<ul data-start="2240" data-end="2403">
<li data-start="2240" data-end="2280">
Tenure: especially in AE/BDR roles
</li>
<li data-start="2281" data-end="2332">
Ramp speed: critical in B2B SaaS environments
</li>
<li data-start="2333" data-end="2403">
Culture fit: validated by post-placement hiring manager feedback
</li>
</ul>
<hr data-start="2405" data-end="2408">
<h2 data-start="2410" data-end="2464">💰 Vacancies Are Expensive &mdash; Mis-Hires Even More So</h2>
Agency hiring isn&rsquo;t just about speed &mdash; it&rsquo;s about cost efficiency, too.
Hidden costs of slow internal processes include:
<ul data-start="2588" data-end="2738">
<li data-start="2588" data-end="2660">
$25,000&ndash;$50,000 in lost revenue per 30-day vacancy (HubSpot, 2023)
</li>
<li data-start="2661" data-end="2738">
Up to 30% of annual salary lost on bad hires (U.S. Department of Labor)
</li>
</ul>
Certus reduces both the time roles are vacant and the risk of poor fit, improving hiring ROI across the board.
<hr data-start="2852" data-end="2855">
<h2 data-start="2857" data-end="2917">📈 We&rsquo;re More Than Recruiters &mdash; We&rsquo;re GTM Hiring Partners</h2>
Internal TA teams often focus on filling roles. We help shape your hiring strategy.
Working with Certus gives you access to:
<ul data-start="3045" data-end="3186">
<li data-start="3045" data-end="3078">
Live market salary benchmarking
</li>
<li data-start="3079" data-end="3107">
Competitor hiring insights
</li>
<li data-start="3108" data-end="3152">
Real-time candidate feedback on your brand
</li>
<li data-start="3153" data-end="3186">
Strategic GTM org design advice
</li>
</ul>
We&rsquo;re not just delivering CVs &mdash; we&rsquo;re driving better decisions.
<hr data-start="3253" data-end="3256">
<h2 data-start="3258" data-end="3314">In Summary: Certus = Speed, Reach, Retention, Insight</h2>
If you're scaling GTM teams in London, Austin, Sydney or beyond, Certus Recruitment Group is the strategic partner to help you do it faster, better, and smarter.
We deliver: ✅ Shortlists in under 10 days ✅ Access to top-tier passive candidates ✅ Higher retention outcomes ✅ Strategic market insight
Don&rsquo;t let internal bottlenecks hold back your revenue engine. Let&rsquo;s talk about how we can help you scale your GTM function &mdash; with speed, quality, and lasting impact.

GTM Hiring: What the Data Tells Us — And Why Certus Outperforms Internal Teams

<h2 data-start="177" data-end="231">Thriving vs. Surviving: Is Your Team Really All-In?</h2>
There&rsquo;s a big difference between doing well and simply getting by. An even bigger one between being engaged and just being present.
So here&rsquo;s the question: Is your team thriving&hellip; or just surviving?
And no, we&rsquo;re not talking about sales figures or P&amp;L reports. We mean: Are your people fully engaged, bringing their best selves to work, and&mdash;most importantly&mdash;loving what they do?
To thrive literally means &ldquo;to prosper; to flourish.&rdquo; In the workplace, that&rsquo;s more than just hitting target (although that&rsquo;s often the result). A thriving team is:
<ul data-start="815" data-end="919">
<li data-start="815" data-end="849">
Aligned with company goals
</li>
<li data-start="850" data-end="881">
Motivated and energised
</li>
<li data-start="882" data-end="919">
Excited to be there every day
</li>
</ul>
A team that&rsquo;s merely surviving? They might still be turning up&mdash;but they&rsquo;re not bringing their full potential to the table.
<hr data-start="1047" data-end="1050">
<h3 data-start="1052" data-end="1103">3 Signs Your People Might Be in &ldquo;Survival Mode&rdquo;</h3>
1. Energy (or the lack of it). Watch the little things: tone of voice, posture, willingness to get involved. Energy fuels performance&mdash;and when enthusiasm fades, morale usually follows.
2. Relationships. Disengagement often shows up in how people interact. Are there unusual tensions, withdrawn behaviours, or strained collaborations? These can be subtle early-warning signs worth addressing quickly.
3. Performance. A thriving employee will push to achieve; a surviving one may do the bare minimum. If someone&rsquo;s output dips, ask yourself&mdash;is it that they can&rsquo;t, or that they currently don&rsquo;t want to? The answer shapes the solution.
<hr data-start="1763" data-end="1766">
<h3 data-start="1768" data-end="1805">3 Ways to Help Your People Thrive</h3>
1. Encourage Creativity. Invite ideas from everyone&mdash;no matter their role or seniority&mdash;and make sure they&rsquo;re heard. Thriving cultures are inclusive, collaborative, and always evolving.
2. Strengthen Identity. Help each person see the unique impact they have. When employees feel valued as individuals, they&rsquo;re more invested in outcomes and take greater ownership of their work.
3. Invest in Learning. Growth fuels engagement. Whether it&rsquo;s structured training, mentorship, or support for external courses, continuous development keeps people challenged, motivated, and connected to their careers.
<hr data-start="2427" data-end="2430">
<h3 data-start="2432" data-end="2472">At Certus, We Build Thriving Teams</h3>
We go beyond filling vacancies. We work closely with our clients to understand their business inside out&mdash;helping them not only find top talent, but also retain and develop the talent they already have.
If you&rsquo;re ready to turn a surviving team into a thriving one, let&rsquo;s talk.
Certus Recruitment Group &ndash; Your partner in growth.

Thriving vs. Surviving: Is Your Team Really All-In?

So, you think you&rsquo;re a good listener I hear? See what I did there? Funny. Listening skills &ndash; in my humble opinion, the most imperative skill to success in the corporate world. Think about the lines of work/professions out there to which they apply; the obvious ones like sales, marketing, customer service. Even the techy world, to a degree &ndash; I&rsquo;m by no means an expert but, I think it&rsquo;s safe to say that in order to build or develop the program your employer is after, you need to listen to their goals and requirements. As a specialist sales recruiter, I&rsquo;m constantly exploring my candidates&rsquo; listening capabilities, given that they&rsquo;re paramount to my clients&rsquo; success. The sales profession aside, being a good listener will bring you success across many aspects of life; you&rsquo;ll be able to build stronger relationships both personal and professional, learn faster and generally understand more. Listening: the universal skill. But did you know that there are many different types of listening? Different ways in which we approach what we&rsquo;re hearing. Such as&hellip; Biased listening Yes, there really is such a thing as hearing what you want to hear. When we&rsquo;re &lsquo;biased listening&rsquo;, we&rsquo;re solely picking out the pieces of information which confirm our own opinion, feeling, point of view. We purely hear the bits which confirm our own bias. Appreciative listening Probably the most widely-utilised type of listening &ndash; think music, or waking up to the sound of birds, or anything narrated by David Attenborough. Appreciative listening is, like it says on the tin, listening for the simple enjoyment of it; listening for pleasure. Critical listening Contrary to how it sounds, critical listening doesn&rsquo;t necessarily pertain to something negative &ndash; it simply means thinking about what you&rsquo;re listening to and cutting through the pieces you don&rsquo;t need to get to the heart of the matter. Critical listening is what we&rsquo;re doing when we understand something, and it&rsquo;s this type of listening which is crucial for success in the business world. There are so many circumstances in a day-to-day job where simply listening to and understanding a colleague, customer or otherwise makes a big difference. We humans are also somehow equipped with the innate ability to pick up on when a person is NOT listening &ndash; something those of us in relationships will have probably understand, having been called out by the significant other a few times&hellip; Anyway, moving swiftly on. Here are my most important 3 ways to be a better listener: Pay attention And I mean full attention. To the best of your ability, remove any and all distractions. If it&rsquo;s an important phone call, go somewhere quiet, where you won&rsquo;t have to contend with outside noise or be bothered by anyone. If you&rsquo;re having a meeting with a client or new customer, having your phone out on the table (yes, even face down) is definitely a distraction &ndash; some tiny part of your mind is still wondering if and when the phone will ring, and readying itself to respond or react when it does. Or, perhaps you&rsquo;re a manager &ndash; if an employee comes to you with a question, concern or otherwise, making sure you pay rapt attention to their coming is a great way to build employee relations and engagement. Oh, and it&rsquo;s just polite, too. Ask questions How do you know when someone&rsquo;s really understood what you&rsquo;re saying? When they start asking intelligent questions about it. Use questions to clarify points you want to ensure you &lsquo;got&rsquo;, or to garner more information on a certain part. Repeat things using your own words in order to qualify them as correct. Ask questions based on what they&rsquo;re saying, rather than your own immediate response. This can be applied to any and all business settings &ndash; a client meeting. Discussing a technical problem with your service provider. In a job interview. Questions show that you&rsquo;ve really taken notice, formed an understanding and can now engage in a two-way discussion. Let them finish Pretty self-explanatory. Don&rsquo;t interrupt someone when they&rsquo;re speaking &ndash; for all you know, they could be about to explain whatever it is you&rsquo;re going to comment on. And again &ndash; manners, right? My team specialise in sales recruitment; sales is a profession whose success could almost be said to hinge on listening skills so, as you can imagine, we spend a lot of time trying to identify this very skill at interview stage. When we meet each candidate, we use various techniques to gauge their listening ability &ndash; and the fact is, those who possess them have a higher success rate when it comes to job hunting. How would you go about identifying listening skills, and do you consider them to be particularly useful in your own line of work?

Listen Up: 3 ways to improve your listening skills in the business world

​Driven to Distraction: Why Your Team Might Be Underperforming
Are you easily distracted?
Since the beginning of time, leaders have sought ways to keep their teams focused, productive, and engaged. In today&rsquo;s world, where hybrid and remote work are now part of everyday life, distraction has taken on a new meaning.
&ldquo;I get more done without office noise.&rdquo; &ldquo;I can&rsquo;t concentrate at home&mdash;too many distractions.&rdquo;
Sound familiar?
So, what&rsquo;s really pulling your team&rsquo;s attention away? Is it their phone? Email? A barking dog?
Probably all of the above.
With our team now back in the office&mdash;and, truthfully, more motivated than ever&mdash;it got me thinking: why is distraction less of a problem when people feel focused and driven?
Why do external distractions carry less weight when motivation is high?
That&rsquo;s when it hit me: the phone, the dog, the social media scrolling&mdash;they&rsquo;re not the distraction. They&rsquo;re the escape from it.
Distraction isn&rsquo;t the notification. It&rsquo;s the discomfort that drives someone to pick up the phone in the first place. The real cause is deeper&mdash;more internal.
Here are three common, underlying causes of distraction that might be affecting your team&rsquo;s performance:
<hr class="" data-start="1390" data-end="1393">
<h3 class="" data-start="1395" data-end="1437">1. Uncertainty Around Role or Task</h3>
When someone isn&rsquo;t 100% sure what they should be doing&mdash;or how to do it&mdash;they&rsquo;re more likely to avoid the task altogether. Instead of asking for clarity, they turn to something easier and more familiar, like their phone or inbox.
The fix? Clear direction helps, of course&mdash;but the real solution lies in open communication. Create a culture where asking questions is encouraged, not frowned upon. Check in regularly and make sure your team feels supported.
<hr class="" data-start="1898" data-end="1901">
<h3 class="" data-start="1903" data-end="1938">2. Disconnection from Goals</h3>
When people lose sight of the bigger picture&mdash;whether that&rsquo;s personal career growth or company-wide objectives&mdash;they&rsquo;re more likely to drift. Without a goal in mind, the daily grind can feel aimless. And when something feels meaningless, it&rsquo;s easy to turn your attention elsewhere.
You can prevent this with regular catch-ups. Not formal performance reviews&mdash;just genuine check-ins. Ask your team how they&rsquo;re feeling about their progress. Remind them of the impact their work has and reconnect them with both their personal goals and the company&rsquo;s vision.
<hr class="" data-start="2495" data-end="2498">
<h3 class="" data-start="2500" data-end="2542">3. Lack of Challenge (aka Boredom)</h3>
Let&rsquo;s be honest: boredom is a productivity killer. If the work feels too easy or monotonous, the brain naturally looks for something more stimulating. And distraction happily fills that void.
To avoid this, ensure your team is being challenged and engaged. Provide opportunities to grow, solve problems, and learn. A mix of enjoyment and challenge keeps the mind active&mdash;and less likely to wander.
<hr class="" data-start="2947" data-end="2950">
We all get distracted from time to time. That&rsquo;s human. And yes, taking regular breaks is healthy and necessary.
But there&rsquo;s a difference between a break and an escape.
As a leader, it&rsquo;s worth reflecting: are distractions in your workplace a sign of something deeper? If your team is disengaging, it&rsquo;s likely not about Instagram or email&mdash;it&rsquo;s about uncertainty, disconnection, or boredom.
Tackle those root causes, and you&rsquo;ll see performance improve.
So&mdash;when are you most distractible? Awareness is the first step to overcoming it. Whether your team is in the office, remote, or hybrid, staying focused takes intention.
Want more leadership insights? Take a look at my other posts on LinkedIn&mdash;or drop a comment below to join the conversation. And if you&rsquo;d like to talk recruitment, the Certus team is always here to help.

Driven to Distraction – Why Your Staff May Be Underperforming

In the ever-evolving landscape of technology, securing top-tier talent is the linchpin to sustained success. Today, I'd like to shed light on the transformative benefits of engaging a recruitment agency on a retained basis, a strategic move that not only enhances your hiring process but also amplifies your company's competitive edge.
🌟 Improved Candidate Experience:
A retained recruitment partnership provides an unparalleled commitment to sourcing the best-fit candidates. By cultivating a long-term relationship with a recruitment agency, your organisation benefits from a dedicated team of experts who invest the time to truly understand your company culture, values, and unique hiring needs.
This depth of understanding translates into a refined and singularly positive candidate experience. Prospective hires encounter a seamless journey, from initial outreach to the final stages of the interview process. This not only strengthens your employer brand but also fosters a positive perception among potential candidates, setting the stage for lasting relationships.
💼 Single Candidate Experience Advantage:
Imagine a recruitment process where each candidate feels like the most important person in the room and where each candidate is measured in a consistent manner. In a retained recruitment model, the recruitment methodology is not different for each candidate as they've been sourced by different people; it's consistent for all involved and laser-focused on your organisation's needs. This leads to a personalised and cohesive candidate experience, ensuring that every interaction reflects your commitment to excellence. It also increases dramatically the likelihood of your hiring the best candidate!
Candidates engaged through a retained recruitment agency benefit from a streamlined process, with clear communication and a tailored approach. This single candidate experience not only reinforces your employer brand as one that values individuals but also contributes to a more positive and efficient hiring journey.
💰 Financial Return and Reduced Likelihood of Failure:
Beyond the qualitative benefits, a retained recruitment strategy translates to a quantifiable advantage for your bottom line. The thorough understanding of your company's needs, coupled with a targeted approach, reduces the likelihood of hiring missteps. This, in turn, mitigates the financial impact associated with failed hires, saving both time and resources.
The investment in a retained recruitment agency is an investment in risk mitigation. By ensuring that each candidate is not only technically proficient but also culturally aligned, you're enhancing the probability of long-term success and minimizing the potential costs associated with turnover.
🚀 Faster Time to Hire:
Time is of the essence in the tech industry, where innovation happens at breakneck speed. A retained service provided by a trusted partner should be seen as an accelerator, significantly reducing time-to-hire metrics. With a committed team working exclusively on your mandates, the search and selection process becomes streamlined and efficient.
By accessing an established network of top-tier talent, a retained recruitment service swiftly identifies candidates who align with your organization's goals. This proactive approach ensures that you not only secure the best talent faster but also gain a crucial competitive advantage in the talent market.
In summary, choosing a retained recruitment model is an investment in precision, commitment, and accelerated success. By optimising the candidate experience, reducing the likelihood of failure, and expediting time-to-hire, your organisation is better positioned to navigate the dynamic challenges of the technology landscape.
Let's embark on this journey together, ensuring that your team is composed of the brightest minds ready to propel your company to new heights.
Feel free to connect if you'd like to explore how a partnership with Certus Recruitment Group can be tailored to elevate your talent acquisition strategy.
#TechLeadership #TalentAcquisition #RecruitmentStrategy #Innovation #Leadership #HiringExcellence 🚀✨

Elevating Your Talent Acquisition Strategy: The Power of Retained Recruitment

​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

​As managers, we have to be conscious of what we say and how we say it. Effective communication is arguably the most fundamental key to a high-performing team, one which achieves their goals and drives business forward. But there are two sides to communication: let&rsquo;s call them speaking and listening for now. Speaking covers everything you as a manager choose to say, how you say it, when it&rsquo;s delivered, and how you respond to others. Listening is how everything you say is interpreted by your team. How they perceive the communication you&rsquo;re offering. And, importantly, how they feel about it. Which is where the question of intent vs impact comes in. You know what you&rsquo;re trying to achieve &ndash; but were you able to deliver it in such a way that made your intentions clear? To ensure the same impact is felt across the team &ndash; as in, every person is now feeling the same way (engaged, motivated, etc) and driven toward that same goal? Take the following sentence: &ldquo;These results aren&rsquo;t good enough. What went wrong?&rdquo; It&rsquo;s bold, it&rsquo;s blunt; the intention is to problem solve and understand where the improvement needs to be made, sharpish. It&rsquo;s a sentence which, when said aloud, is hopefully going to prompt action of some sort. But what impact did this sentence have on the team? Some may take it in their stride and want to review things with you, taking time to analyse, understand, and create a plan to improve. On the other hand, another employee has immediately switched off, presuming that you as manager are taking no accountability; the blame is on the team. Your intention was to share ideas, work together to solve a problem &ndash; but the impact on some, maybe many individuals, could be demotivation and disengagement. Communication in management is a funny one, because we&rsquo;re often bound to doing everything at once. Manage each work style differently, pay attention to the individual; equally, find a way to communicate with the team at large which doesn&rsquo;t alienate any one person, a cover-all, if you like. No one said it would be easy. So, how could we word the sentence above for a more inclusive overall feel, one which delivers your intentions AND has the desired impact? How about, &ldquo;We know we can do better than this &ndash; where can we improve next time?&rdquo; Or, &ldquo;Here&rsquo;s what I think about how we can improve &ndash; what other ideas can we come up with?&rdquo; These both denote accountability, inclusivity and ownership &ndash; as both an individual and a team. The intention is clear, and the impact should in most cases be a positive one &ndash; one which gets everyone working towards what you&rsquo;re trying to achieve. You&rsquo;ve communicated now that this is our problem &ndash; and we&rsquo;ll solve it like the team we are. All of this is particularly important when we&rsquo;re managing new teams, or those with new hires amongst them. In high-trust relationships, where each party knows the other well, we learn to read between the lines of what&rsquo;s actually being said or meant by comments or questions to find the real meaning. But, for the newer relationships, this can&rsquo;t always be done. Directions, questions or otherwise may be misconstrued, and this alone is where the onboarding of new employees often falls down. So, as a manager of people, how can you turn your intentions into the impact you&rsquo;re after? &bull; Communicate clearly and openly, without pointing fingers or placing blame (or even hinting towards doing so). &bull; Cultivate a team-feel, rather than an &ldquo;us and them&rdquo;, manager vs employees atmosphere &ndash; get rid of those hierarchical barriers. &bull; Ask for feedback and encourage employees to speak up for clarification if they&rsquo;re unsure on something, and to voice their opinions candidly, without fear of repercussions for doing so. &bull; Make sure that you fully understand your own intentions before heading into any communication with the team &ndash; if you&rsquo;re unsure of what you&rsquo;re after, they undoubtedly will be too. Over time, as you build trust, communication across your team becomes easier. With that being said, you&rsquo;ll want to know that your team is receptive to your management and communication style before you even make the hire &ndash; which is where we come in. To talk workforce solutions and learn more about how we pre-qualify all this and more at interview stage, get in touch.

Intentions vs Impact – How Communication Can Make or Break Your Management Success

Periods of self-reflection have encouraged people worldwide to rethink the role of work in their lives.
Recent months have seen a significant increase in job transitions, with many seeking greater fulfillment and a chance to explore new career paths by leveraging their transferable skills.
Transferable skills are those abilities that remain valuable across different roles and industries. They can be technical, such as data analysis, or interpersonal, such as relationship building. These skills are essential in helping individuals land new roles, even in areas where their experience may not appear directly aligned.
<h3>Why Are Employers Hiring for Transferable Skills?</h3>
<ul>
<li>
Improved Efficiency and Productivity Transferable skills foster collaboration and adaptability in the workplace.
</li>
<li>
Strengthened Working Relationships Employees with strong interpersonal skills can better engage with colleagues and clients.
</li>
<li>
Skillset Potential Employers value candidates who can grow into new responsibilities, recognizing that transferable skills often signal potential.
</li>
</ul>
Employees with transferable skills often bring unique perspectives and can exceed the traditional boundaries of their roles. As a result, more organizations are moving away from rigid recruitment criteria to hire individuals with strong potential and diverse skill sets. This approach adds fresh perspectives, fosters innovation, and can bring immense value to teams.
<hr>
<h3>Think Outside the Box</h3>
Some skills are job-specific, but transferable skills apply across industries. Understanding your values and abilities is key to creating a more fulfilling professional life.
Transferable skills evolve throughout your career. By identifying and developing them, you can position yourself for growth and new opportunities, whether within your current role or in a different field entirely.
<hr>
<h3>Key Transferable Skills in Demand</h3>
When applying for roles, showcasing transferable skills effectively on your CV is essential. These skills span categories such as research, planning, interpersonal abilities, and technical expertise.
Some examples include:
<ul>
<li>Problem-solving</li>
<li>Data analysis</li>
<li>Critical thinking</li>
<li>Leadership</li>
<li>Teamwork</li>
<li>Adaptability</li>
<li>Decision-making</li>
<li>Communication</li>
<li>Empathy</li>
<li>Project management</li>
<li>Creativity</li>
<li>Technical proficiency</li>
</ul>
Transferable skills enhance your adaptability and help you stand out during the job application process.
<hr>
<h3>The Takeaways</h3>
<ul>
<li>Transferable skills are valuable across all industries and roles.</li>
<li>They include both hard skills (e.g., technical abilities) and soft skills (e.g., relationship-building).</li>
<li>Investing in your transferable skills strengthens your career prospects and flexibility.</li>
</ul>
The best part? Transferable skills are yours to keep. They grow with you, enabling you to adapt, innovate, and excel in your professional journey.
If you're exploring new opportunities or seeking to grow your team, reach out to find the right match for your needs.

The Time For Transferable Skills

<article class="blog__content">
Starting Fresh in 2025: Embracing Change for a Stronger Year Ahead
With the dawn of a new year less than 2 months away, many of us feel inspired to reflect on past achievements, assess what worked well, identify areas for improvement, and lay out our goals for the year ahead.
At Certus, we live by the ethos, "If you always do what you&rsquo;ve always done, you&rsquo;ll always get what you&rsquo;ve always got." Embracing change isn&rsquo;t just an option; it&rsquo;s a necessity for growth. This year, we&rsquo;re not only accepting change but actively championing it. We know the path to improvement isn&rsquo;t always smooth, but it&rsquo;s essential. Here are some key behaviours that business leaders should embrace in 2025 to foster growth and transformation:
<h3>1. Seeking Out What&rsquo;s Working &ndash; and What Isn&rsquo;t</h3>
Embracing change means being willing to face difficult truths and deepening self-awareness. This year, business leaders should actively seek feedback and identify areas for improvement, not just by relying on internal perceptions but by reaching out to external voices as well. In today&rsquo;s feedback-driven world, customer input can be a powerful catalyst for positive change. Rather than merely collecting testimonials, engage customers through surveys and ask what can be improved&mdash;whether in product, service, communication, or beyond.
Recognizing and amplifying what works is crucial, but where there&rsquo;s room for change, there&rsquo;s room for growth.
<h3>2. Understanding the Why &ndash; and Then the When</h3>
When implementing changes, it&rsquo;s vital to convey the reasoning behind them to your team. As a business leader, you should be able to clearly articulate the benefits and purpose behind every change, inspiring confidence and enthusiasm. Change for change&rsquo;s sake can disengage people&mdash;help them understand why each decision matters.
At the same time, knowing when to let things progress naturally is key. Effective change management is about balancing timing with intent. Lead your team with a solid &lsquo;why&rsquo; for each initiative, guiding them through transformations with clarity and purpose.
<h3>3. Promoting Goals and Vision Amidst Change</h3>
One of the most important qualities to maintain during times of change is a consistent commitment to your company&rsquo;s vision and values. When the pace of change accelerates, people can feel uncertain or uneasy; clear communication and consistent messaging are vital to keep employees grounded in the organization&rsquo;s mission.
While navigating through transformation, remember that the values that define your company should remain visible and steady. Change may be inevitable, but a strong and authentic culture offers stability and assurance, allowing teams to embrace new directions with trust and confidence.
<hr>
<h3>A New Year&rsquo;s Challenge: Change as a Path to Growth</h3>
As humans, we often resist change; as business leaders, we must embrace it to propel our companies forward. Even in seemingly straightforward tasks, like broadening your hiring profile or rethinking talent strategies, openness to change can make a real difference. It&rsquo;s not always easy, but it can yield incredible rewards.
What plans do you have for 2025 to drive your business forward? What other qualities do you see as essential to fostering a culture that embraces change?
</article>

Three Behaviours of Leaders Who Are Embracing Change In 2025

As business leaders, there&rsquo;s a challenge many of us encounter throughout our careers, though it&rsquo;s not often openly discussed: workplace friction, especially between managers and new employees. What happens when you bring someone new onto your team, only to realise that aligning on goals and expectations might be more difficult than anticipated?
The key question here is: are you and your new hire working towards the same objectives? Are your priorities aligned? Do you both have a shared understanding of the business direction and how to achieve success?
When you expand your team &ndash; whether it&rsquo;s in a small, one-on-one start-up environment or within a large-scale operation &ndash; several factors can create friction, frustration, and ultimately a dip in productivity. It&rsquo;s no wonder that &ldquo;managing up&rdquo; has become a prominent trend in corporate culture over the past few years.
Oftentimes, tension arises from differences in work styles. Some people thrive in a more spontaneous, flexible environment, while others prefer structure and clear processes. When these differing approaches meet &ndash; especially when one is managing the other &ndash; it can lead to confusion, miscommunication, and a lack of clarity around expectations. This is when employees may start feeling unsure about their role or how to move forward.
This is where the concept of "managing up" comes in.
The idea is simple: no matter your level within an organisation, your manager&rsquo;s success is tied to yours. So, it&rsquo;s in your best interest to understand how they work best and what will help both of you thrive. Managing up is about proactively fostering communication and clarity, empowering your team to get what they need from you in order to do their best work.
One effective way to encourage managing up is to hold regular one-on-one meetings led by the employee. This gives them a safe, private space to ask questions, seek feedback, and discuss challenges they may not feel comfortable addressing in a larger team setting. By letting the employee set the agenda, you not only gain insights into their needs, but also into how they think and work &ndash; which can help you manage them more effectively.
Another approach is to engage in collaborative goal-setting exercises. Taking the team out of the office for a more relaxed strategy session can foster open dialogue, idea-sharing, and the development of shared goals. It&rsquo;s important to create alignment between the company&rsquo;s goals and your employees&rsquo; personal objectives, ensuring everyone feels motivated and invested in the long-term success of the team.
Workplace tension doesn&rsquo;t always stem from personality clashes. Sometimes, it&rsquo;s simply a matter of different working styles creating roadblocks to effective communication. By fostering a culture that supports managing up, you&rsquo;re likely to see not only greater employee engagement but also improved motivation and stronger overall relationships within the team.
Whether you&rsquo;re managing a team of one or one hundred, our expert consultants are here to help. We specialize in building and retaining top talent, and our commitment doesn&rsquo;t end once a placement is made. Our exceptional after-care services set us apart as a leader in the recruitment space. Reach out to us today to discuss your goals and hiring strategies &ndash; we&rsquo;re here to support your success.

Why Managing Up Needs to Be Part of Your Strategy

As we navigate the remainder of 2024, the Australian technology sector continues to evolve, bringing with it significant shifts in salary trends across sales, marketing, and IT roles. Understanding these changes is crucial for both employers and professionals as they navigate the competitive landscape. This year's salary survey highlights key insights into compensation across various roles, regions, and company sizes, offering a roadmap for strategic decision-making.
<h3>Regional Salary Variations: A Snapshot</h3>
Australia's diverse cities continue to display varying salary ranges, with Sydney and Melbourne leading in compensation due to their higher cost of living and dense concentration of tech companies. These cities remain hotspots for top talent, driving competitive salaries, especially in senior roles. However, Brisbane is emerging as a strong contender, with salaries increasingly on par with the eastern giants, fueled by the ongoing "move north" phenomenon that gained momentum post-COVID-19.
Meanwhile, cities like Adelaide, Perth, and Hobart offer more affordable living conditions, which is reflected in slightly lower salary bands. Yet, these locations are becoming attractive for talent seeking a balanced lifestyle without sacrificing career growth. Remote work has further blurred these regional differences, enabling companies to tap into a broader talent pool while offering flexible working arrangements.
<h3>Impact of Company Size on Salaries</h3>
Company size plays a significant role in determining salary structures. Small companies, often less recognized brands, may offer higher base salaries to compensate for a less extensive benefits package. Sales roles, in particular, see a higher proportion of variable compensation in these organizations, with equity and share schemes being common incentives.
Medium-sized companies tend to strike a balance, providing competitive salaries supported by robust benefits. In contrast, large companies offer strong overall packages with extensive perks, although top-end earnings might be capped. This differentiation in salary strategies reflects the varying resources and recruitment challenges faced by companies of different scales.
<h3>The Australian Job Market: Current Trends and Future Predictions</h3>
Economic conditions in Australia have significantly impacted the job market over the past 18 months. The post-pandemic recovery period saw rapid salary growth, which has now stabilized amidst economic uncertainty and inflation. Companies are more cautious, focusing on retention by adjusting salary offerings and enhancing benefits to keep their top talent.
Remote work remains a pivotal factor, influencing salary structures and job offerings. Although many companies are encouraging a return to office environments, remote work still offers an attractive option for both employers and employees, balancing compensation with the flexibility of home working.
Looking ahead, the demand for tech professionals is expected to remain robust. High-demand roles in software development, AI, cybersecurity, and cloud computing will likely see continued salary growth. Additionally, the influence of remote work may reduce salary variations across regions, further leveling the playing field.
<h3>Strategic Recommendations for Employers</h3>
To stay competitive in this dynamic market, employers should consider the following strategies:
<ol>
<li>
Align Compensation with Market Rates: Regularly review and adjust salary bands to remain competitive, particularly in high-demand roles.
</li>
<li>
Leverage Remote Work: Expand the talent pool by embracing flexible remote work policies.
</li>
<li>
Enhance Benefits and Perks: Offer comprehensive wellness programs and flexible working conditions to attract and retain talent.
</li>
<li>
Invest in Professional Development: Continuous training and career development programs can help keep employees motivated and engaged.
</li>
<li>
Monitor Market Trends: Stay informed about salary trends and market conditions to make data-driven decisions.
</li>
</ol>
By implementing these strategies, companies can effectively navigate the evolving landscape, ensuring they attract, retain, and motivate the best talent in 2024 and beyond.
<hr>
Download the full 2024 AUS Salary Survey Report <a title="AUS Salary Survet" href="https://www.certusrecruitment.com/annual-global-salary-survey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>, or contact us.
Paul Dimond Regional Director - APAC <a rel="noopener">paul.dimond@certusrecruitment.com</a> +61 480 034 557

2024 Salary Trends in Australia's Technology Sector

Our2024 Salary Survey Report provides an in-depth analysis of salary trends within the UK technology sector, focusing on sales, marketing, and IT roles. This report is an essential resource for HR leaders, finance managers, and anyone involved in talent acquisition or compensation planning. It highlights not just the current salary benchmarks, but also the evolving dynamics of the UK job market and offers actionable recommendations for businesses aiming to attract and retain top talent.
<h3>Key Salary Insights</h3>
<h4>Sales Roles</h4>
Sales positions within the UK technology sector show significant variation depending on location and experience. For instance:
<ul>
<li>Sales Directors in Greater London command salaries ranging from &pound;100,000 to &pound;160,000, while the UK average is slightly lower, between &pound;90,000 and &pound;150,000.</li>
<li>Business Development Managers can expect salaries from &pound;40,000 to &pound;55,000 in Greater London, compared to &pound;35,000 to &pound;50,000 across the UK.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Marketing Roles</h4>
Marketing roles also reflect a considerable disparity between London-based roles and those across the UK:
<ul>
<li>Chief Marketing Officers in Greater London earn between &pound;120,000 and &pound;200,000, whereas the UK average ranges from &pound;100,000 to &pound;180,000.</li>
<li>Digital Marketing Managers can expect to earn &pound;45,000 to &pound;65,000 in Greater London, compared to &pound;30,000 to &pound;50,000 elsewhere in the UK.</li>
</ul>
<h4>IT Roles</h4>
The IT sector continues to see robust demand, especially for specialist roles:
<ul>
<li>Software Developers in London earn between &pound;55,000 and &pound;80,000, while the UK average for experienced professionals is &pound;45,000 to &pound;70,000.</li>
<li>AI Consultants have a salary range of &pound;65,000 to &pound;100,000 in London, with the UK average ranging from &pound;60,000 to &pound;90,000.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Impact of Company Size</h3>
Company size significantly influences compensation structures:
<ul>
<li>Small Companies (1-200 employees) may offer higher base salaries to compensate for less comprehensive benefits packages. Equity and share schemes are often used as additional incentives.</li>
<li>Medium Companies (200-1,000 employees) typically offer competitive salaries balanced with solid benefits packages.</li>
<li>Large Companies (1,000+ employees) provide comprehensive benefits but may cap top-end earnings.</li>
</ul>
<h3>UK Job Market Overview</h3>
The UK job market has seen significant shifts post-COVID-19, with a softening observed in 2023 after the initial boom. This has resulted in stagnation in salary growth and a reduction in job volumes across most functions. The tech industry, in particular, has shifted focus from growth to profitability, leading to targeted hiring for specific skills rather than mass recruitment.
<h3>Short-Term Predictions</h3>
Looking ahead, the demand for experienced tech professionals is expected to continue, particularly in software development, cybersecurity, and cloud computing. As more businesses return to the office, there may be friction as the balance of power shifts back to employers, potentially reducing flexible work opportunities.
<h3>Recommendations for Employers</h3>
To navigate these trends, businesses are encouraged to:
<ul>
<li>Align compensation packages with market rates, especially in London.</li>
<li>Offer flexible working options to attract and retain talent.</li>
<li>Invest in continuous training and professional development to upskill employees and create clear career progression paths.</li>
<li>Enhance employer branding to stand out in a competitive market.</li>
</ul>
By staying informed of these salary trends and adapting to the changing job market, companies can better position themselves to attract and retain top talent in 2024 and beyond.
Obtain a copy of the full report <a title="UK Salary Survey" href="https://www.certusrecruitment.com/annual-global-salary-survey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>...

2024 UK Salary Trends: Insights for Sales, Marketing, and IT Professionals

As we navigate through 2024, understanding salary trends within the US technology sector is crucial for companies aiming to attract and retain top talent. The latest Salary Survey Report offers a comprehensive look at how compensation varies across different states and roles, providing valuable insights for HR leaders, finance managers, and hiring professionals. Here&rsquo;s a breakdown of what you need to know.
<h3>Salary Trends by Role and Location</h3>
<h4>Sales Roles</h4>
Sales roles within the US technology sector show significant geographic variation:
<ul>
<li>Sales Development Representatives (SDRs): In California, SDRs earn between $60,000 and $85,000, whereas in Florida, the range is $50,000 to $70,000.</li>
<li>Sales Directors: Compensation is highest in California, with salaries ranging from $150,000 to $250,000, while in Illinois and Texas, salaries are slightly lower, ranging from $130,000 to $220,000.</li>
</ul>
<h4>Marketing Roles</h4>
Marketing professionals also see salary differences across states:
<ul>
<li>Digital Marketing Managers in California can earn between $95,000 and $130,000, while in Florida, salaries range from $75,000 to $110,000.</li>
<li>Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs): In New York, CMOs earn between $190,000 and $280,000, slightly less than their California counterparts who earn $200,000 to $300,000.</li>
</ul>
<h4>IT Roles</h4>
IT roles continue to command competitive salaries, particularly in tech-heavy regions:
<ul>
<li>Software Developers in California earn between $80,000 and $160,000, while those in Florida earn between $65,000 and $130,000.</li>
<li>Network/Cloud Engineers in California are compensated between $80,000 and $140,000, with lower ranges in Florida ($65,000 to $110,000).</li>
</ul>
<h3>Impact of Company Size on Salaries</h3>
The size of a company plays a significant role in determining salary packages:
<ul>
<li>Small Companies (1-200 employees): May offer higher base salaries to make up for less comprehensive benefits packages or offer equity as an incentive.</li>
<li>Medium Companies (200-1,000 employees): Typically offer balanced salaries with solid benefits packages.</li>
<li>Large Companies (1,000+ employees): Often provide robust overall packages but might cap top-end salaries.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Economic and Market Influences</h3>
Several factors are influencing salary trends in 2024:
<ul>
<li>Economic Rebound: The post-pandemic recovery has increased demand for sales professionals, particularly in competitive markets like New York and California.</li>
<li>Inflation: Rising inflation has led to higher salaries, especially in states with a high cost of living, such as California and New York.</li>
<li>Remote Work: The shift towards remote work has led to more standardized salaries across regions, reducing the disparity between tech hubs and other areas.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Short-Term Predictions</h3>
As we move forward in 2024, several trends are likely to shape the salary landscape:
<ul>
<li>Continued Demand for Tech Professionals: The tech sector will maintain high demand for roles in software development, cybersecurity, and cloud computing, driving salaries upward.</li>
<li>Retention Strategies: Companies are expected to enhance benefits and bonuses to retain top talent, particularly for senior IT roles.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Recommendations for Employers</h3>
To stay competitive in the current job market, companies should:
<ul>
<li>Align compensation packages with market rates and offer attractive variable compensation.</li>
<li>Leverage remote work policies to broaden the recruitment pool.</li>
<li>Invest in professional development to advance employees' skills and careers.</li>
<li>Monitor market trends to make data-driven decisions about salary offers and recruitment strategies.</li>
</ul>
Click <a title="US Salary Survey" href="https://www.certusrecruitment.com/annual-global-salary-survey/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> for a full copy of our 2024 US Salary Survey.

2024 US Salary Trends: Key Insights for Sales, Marketing, and IT Professionals

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 &pound;100,000 in revenue each month, so each individual&rsquo;s target is &pound;10,000. Currently, each person is achieving &pound;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 &pound;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&nbsp;should&nbsp;be doing &ndash; base them on what you&nbsp;are&nbsp;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?

KPI's or Core Activities? Love them either way!

Any business leader will know that sometimes, although all lights were green at interview stage, an employee just doesn&rsquo;t perform as well as you&rsquo;d expected. Whilst your first instinct is, quite rightly, to get to the bottom of understanding&nbsp;why&nbsp;they&rsquo;re underperforming (is it a capability issue? Time management perhaps?), it&rsquo;s our job as managers to be equally accountable. Try turning the question inwards: instead of managing underperformance, should we instead be trying to drive for overperformance? Ask yourself these questions: Have I set proper expectations, and does this person know that they&rsquo;re underperforming?&nbsp;As a leader, it&rsquo;s your job to let employees know where the goal posts stand and give them something to aim for. In setting out the expectations clearly, succinctly and without question, you&rsquo;re driving that person towards that goal &ndash; so make sure you&rsquo;ve done your bit. An employee who doesn&rsquo;t know exactly what&rsquo;s expected of them can often become unsure in their actions, leading to underperformance. Worse yet, if they&rsquo;re unaware that they are in fact underperforming, they may be blindsided when you eventually bring it up. Is this individual motivated to complete their work as best they can?&nbsp;Whether your employee is intrinsically or extrinsically motivated, it&rsquo;s your job to understand their drivers and work them in a way which keeps them engaged. If, for instance, you know that someone is driven by the prospect of being promoted rather than financially, don&rsquo;t offer them a cash bonus for overperforming. If one individual is simply driven by the prospect of earning more money, don&rsquo;t ply them with offers for paid training and education as an incentive. Your job as manager is to achieve results by ensuring each member of staff is getting what they need &ndash; it takes time and care to truly understand, but the performance of your team could depend on it. Have I provided them with the tools and resources to be successful in this role?&nbsp;We&rsquo;re talking about the right tech systems and whatnot, sure, but also training, education and coaching, too. There are pieces of software on the market which automate certain processes and can save an unbelievable amount of time; also, there are tricks of the trade which only you know, and imparting these might be the key to that overperformance we&rsquo;re aiming for. Tools and resources &ndash; both tangible and intangible &ndash; fall on you, so take stock. Could they be doing more if there was less to do; essentially, is this workload manageable for one person alone? Sometimes underperformance can be a result of simply too large a workload. Ask yourself whether you&rsquo;ve set them up for success or failure, based on how much work they are personally responsible for. Could an external investment &ndash; be it into one of the time-saving tools we mentioned above, or even a member of support staff for example &ndash; drive this individual to absolutely smash their goals? Overall, let&rsquo;s stop talking about managing underperformance for a while &ndash; let&rsquo;s talk about driving overperformance instead. Consider it a matter of proactivity; taking the bull by the horns and taking accountability. Instead of asking yourself why this person is not performing, ask yourself the question: what could I as a leader be doing more of, better or differently to drive overperformance? Here at Certus, we go further than just finding you the perfect candidate and managing the recruitment process for you. Our service offering has been diversifying over a number of years now to include genuine consultation with regards to everything people-related &ndash; be it management help, onboarding, succession planning and more. We don&rsquo;t just make hires &ndash; we build teams. Teams which overperform. We&rsquo;d love to talk about how. Get in touch today on 0204 538 8222.

Managing Under-Performance or Driving Over-Performance?

​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

​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.&nbsp;
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.&nbsp;
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"?

​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 lieswithintrying 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 questionbeingopen 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 ahigh performanceculture. 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, forexamplethere 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 andentry levelvacancies 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 severelyoff putting.
However, hiring solely for attitude is not always the best route if the candidate does notpossesthe ability to learn technical skills required for a role. Plus teaching said skills to a proficient level is an expensive andtime consumingprocess 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;scompetiveness.

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

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)

​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 2024: 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

​What does &ldquo;decision making&rdquo; mean to you? It sounds simple, I know. But as one of the most important indicators of a future leader, and certainly an attribute to seek in current management, it&rsquo;s something which doesn&rsquo;t always get the investigation it needs at interview stage. When you&rsquo;re looking to make a hire into a position of responsibility, you need to know that this person is not only able but also willing to make key decisions well; and simply saying they&rsquo;re able to isn&rsquo;t going to cut it. Just because their current job requires it, doesn&rsquo;t mean they&rsquo;re doing it well. So, what attributes should you look for at interview stage which spell real decision making capabilities? Initiative Whilst you want somebody to refer to the chain of command when necessary and seek advice when necessary, initiative is a hugely beneficial attribute in someone who&rsquo;s going to be responsible for many moving parts &ndash; the whole operation can&rsquo;t fall down based on one task pending. A decision maker utilises the tools and knowledge at their disposal to define and take the best course of action known to them at that moment. Whilst they&rsquo;re able to hold their hands up and ask for help when they need it, equally they know how and when to make the call themselves. Further to this, a decision maker will stand by that decision and see it through, despite any fall out or consequences. They&rsquo;re able how they got there and why; their decisions, right or wrong, will be well thought out and rational &ndash; even if not the right one. Hey, nobody&rsquo;s perfect. Selflessness A decision maker should be able to put their own ego, interests and gains aside to make the decision which most benefits the company and team &ndash; end of. Call it what you like &ndash; altruistic, magnanimous, or other; to make a decision is one thing, but to make it for the right reasons another entirely. You want to hire the people who truly place the company&rsquo;s best interests at heart and base their thinking on that line, rather than simply progressing their own career, earnings, status or otherwise. A great decision maker is one who considers ALL angles, not just those that benefit themselves. Problem solving Thankfully, this one is a trait we can pretty well test and probe for at interview. Decisions should be made with a view to solving a problem, or moving things forward, rather than just masking over issues or achieving empty goals &ndash; ever heard the phrase &ldquo;busy doing nothing&rdquo;? A decision maker is also a problem solver &ndash; someone who sees through the tasks which need completing, all the way to the ultimate resolution and achievement of the job in hand. They&rsquo;re able to problem solve and make calculated, well thought out choices based on what they know. ---- Pushing or hiring someone into a position which requires them to make business-critical decisions on a daily basis isn&rsquo;t something to be taken lightly; you need to be sure that they&rsquo;re not only capable, but that they share your business&rsquo; goals and motivations, too. We all make decisions, both conscious and subconscious, hundreds of times every day &ndash; from what&rsquo;s for lunch to how much effort we&rsquo;re putting in, how we communicate to the attitude we turn up to work with &ndash; but when it comes to your organisation, ensuring you have somebody who&rsquo;s equipped to take your business to the next level, whether now or in future, couldn&rsquo;t be more vital. As recruiters, we make decisions day in, day out on the people we interview &ndash; and you can rest assured that if decision making skills are what you need, we won&rsquo;t make the call until we&rsquo;re certain they&rsquo;ve got them. Certus specialises in building sales, marketing and IT teams from the ground up, with each of our teams possessing their own &lsquo;sweet spot&rsquo; in terms of what and who they know best. If you&rsquo;d like to talk through the benefits of having a dedicated team aiding in your middle or senior management hiring plans, get in touch today. We love a chat, and we certainly know a thing or two about sniffing out a great decision maker!

How to Hire a True Leader

​One of the main reasons companies choose to employ the services of a recruitment partner such as us is the pre-qualification process which candidates experience; it&rsquo;s our job to get to know your potential employees, to get to the bottom of any gaps on their CV, really assess their skills and experience, and ultimately ensure that their goals and aspirations level with those of your business. And a big part of what we do involves defining just why they&rsquo;re looking to leave their current position &ndash; it&rsquo;s an absolutely imperative part of the recruitment process regardless of level, sector, job title and role. From the weird, to the understandable, to the downright wonderfully random, we hear every manner of &lsquo;reason for leaving&rsquo; in this job. But, here&rsquo;s a little secret: you, the employer, may not get the full story. No one wants to burn bridges, but unfortunately sometimes your place of work just isn&rsquo;t the ticket for them. Here are a few common reasons people leave their jobs &ndash; and it might not be why you think. Lack of recognition In sales or marketing based jobs, for instance &ndash; jobs where the work &lsquo;Employee A&rsquo; puts in can be clearly turned into numbers and figures on a spreadsheet &ndash; it&rsquo;s easy to recognise and reward positive results and a job well done. However, in what we might call &lsquo;back office&rsquo; jobs, it&rsquo;s not necessarily the case. For &lsquo;Employee B&rsquo;, who works in a job role undoubtedly as important as those at the forefront albeit not necessarily under a performance-based system, it&rsquo;s easy to feel somewhat &lsquo;left behind&rsquo;. Whilst their job impacts the business wholly, it&rsquo;s not uncommon for businesses to forget that these employees too need to be incentivised, recognised and rewarded for the hard work they put in. Otherwise, you risk losing them to a competitor or somewhere which promises to do exactly those things. Progression &ndash; or a lack thereof Whatever the size and function of your organisation, it&rsquo;s important for employees to be able to find something to be reaching for &ndash; and if they don&rsquo;t, they may leave, period. If you&rsquo;re a small organisation looking to grow, it&rsquo;s important to instil your staff with the company&rsquo;s vision for the future; mostly, they want to know how they can be a part of that, and what it means for their career progression. As a larger business, you walk the edge of a knife &ndash; wanting to ensure employees know that the potential to progress is there, but imparting confidence that whilst there&rsquo;s healthy competition for that promotion, everyone&rsquo;s in for a shot at progressing in some way, shape or form. Those unable to understand the route to further their career within their current organisation are oftentimes those who come through our doors; as a manager/decision maker within the business who&rsquo;s likely experienced internal progression first-hand, it&rsquo;s all well and good that you yourself know the progression is in fact there. Illustrating that to your employees is another matter entirely. Their next move is horizontal, not vertical A graduate secures their first role out of university; it&rsquo;s a graduate sales scheme, and they do really well. Everyone&rsquo;s happy &ndash; they with their job, and their manager with their performance. A year in, and that same graduate has been talking to their friend in the accounting team; they&rsquo;ve realised that they share a lot of skills, and that the career path offers a lot of what they&rsquo;re after long-term. However, when they approach their boss about a potential move, they&rsquo;re discouraged; they&rsquo;re doing so well in sales! Why would they want to change job roles entirely? If it ain&rsquo;t broke, don&rsquo;t fix it, right? It&rsquo;s not unusual for people to want, at some point, to make a horizontal career move &ndash; that is, changing job roles altogether, taking a side or sometimes even a backwards step in order to diversify their experience and try something new. If an employee has been with a business for a while or has only worked within one division, it can lead to them feeling pigeonholed and limited to doing only that; they feel as though they&rsquo;ll always be &lsquo;that sales guy/gal&rsquo; whilst working here. And from here, it&rsquo;s just a short hop, skip and jump onto the job market. ---- There&rsquo;s no right or wrong reason for someone to wish to seek pastures new &ndash; and there&rsquo;s only so much we as employers can do to retain staff beyond staying competitive and creating a positive, rewarding workspace. Being aware of the reasoning behind their seeking opportunities elsewhere can not only provide well-needed feedback for your organisation, but in some situations could allow you to divert those thinking about leaving and improve company turnover. In such a competitive employment marketplace, these are just a few of many reasons candidates choose to leave their current employers. Rest assured, each candidate you interview from us at Certus will have been fully pre-qualified to determine everything you need to know; we&rsquo;ll know it&rsquo;s a good fit before you do. Get in touch to hear more about the in-depth recruitment model we operate here at Certus Recruitment Group.

Why employees leave - it's not money!

​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

​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

​Congratulations! We&rsquo;ve guided you through what was probably an arduous and at the very least time-consuming interview process, to find ourselves with a job offer on the table at the end of it &ndash; this is the end goal, in everything that we do. So, what now? You&rsquo;ve done the hard part and made it to the pot of gold, but there&rsquo;s work to be done still. As a recruitment partner, our success essentially depends entirely on yours; as such, we want you to be sure that this move is the right one. What should you be asking at this stage? Questions to ask yourself What are my non-negotiables? It&rsquo;s important to keep your head in the game here and not get swept away in the flattery of having been offered a job. What are the things which you wrote down, mentally or physically, as must-haves at the beginning of this process? And have they been included? Whilst I&rsquo;m by no means saying that you shouldn&rsquo;t celebrate getting the offer, stay focused on what you need to see within it. Salary is the obvious one, but think about flexibility, budget, benefits, etc&hellip; For instance &ndash; if you&rsquo;ve worked out a plan of action for your first year in the new role, have agreed said plan with the employer you&rsquo;re joining, but the budget set out for you in writing doesn&rsquo;t quite cut the mustard, talk about it &ndash; you need to know you&rsquo;re going to be helped and supported, not handed obstacles on day one. Or, if your work-from-home Fridays are absolutely imperative, make sure it&rsquo;s in writing. Have I met everyone I need to, to be sure I can do this job? It&rsquo;s important, especially at a more senior level, to meet as many people within the company you&rsquo;ll be joining as possible &ndash; not just the other board members or senior leaders, but perhaps the team you&rsquo;ll be inheriting too, those you&rsquo;ll be managing, the colleagues you&rsquo;ll have day-to-day dealings with. Particularly when we&rsquo;re interviewing at an executive level, this is a given; but, still, make a list in your mind of those whose own jobs you&rsquo;ll be impacting with your acceptance of the offer, and decide if there&rsquo;s anyone else you had ought to meet. This can also help mitigate any teething problems when you start, and ultimately make you feel more at home on day one. Do I know everything I need to about the company? Not just what they do, but their future, their past and what&rsquo;s coming next. Go beyond just hearing what your interviewers have told you &ndash; check news articles, financial reports, share prices. Do your due diligence on LinkedIn to raise any red flags on staff longevity and turnover; make sure you understand where the business is headed. Particularly at a senior level, you should be looking at this as a long-term opportunity &ndash; any nasty surprises when it comes to company instability or market volatility need to factor into your decision making when considering any offer. Research, research, research. Questions to ask your new employer What are your expectations of me? You&rsquo;ve taken this job on the basis of &lsquo;taking the company to the next level&rsquo; or &lsquo;seeing us through this period of explosive growth&rsquo;. But, what does that actually look like? This question can be left as wide or narrow as you need it to be, but one thing is for sure &ndash; you need to know what your new company is expecting you to achieve, how they&rsquo;re expecting you to operate and what you&rsquo;re expected to do, day to day. From simple, logistical expectations such as, &ldquo;When do you expect me to be physically in the office?&rdquo; to actual targets like, &ldquo;What are our year-one measurables?&rdquo;, it couldn&rsquo;t be more important to know, before accepting this offer, that you&rsquo;re on the same level from a practicality/operational perspective. And what they want you to achieve &ndash; short, medium and long term &ndash; should be agreed upon before the first day on the job. What does my full compensation package entail? Salary is one thing, compensation another entirely. Is everything you discussed throughout the interview process detailed in writing in your offer of employment? Share options, car allowances and any other manner of compensation matter in a different way when we&rsquo;re working at a senior level, period. Make sure that all of these things are ironed out and clearly outlined, in writing, before accepting any job offer. It&rsquo;s much easier to negotiate beforehand than once everyone&rsquo;s hand has been shaken. If you&rsquo;re hoping to retire here &ndash; which, at an executive or board level, wouldn&rsquo;t be unusual &ndash; you need to know that the package you&rsquo;re receiving can get you there. What other questions do you find key to confidently and happily accepting an offer of employment? We operate differently here at Certus Recruitment Group; when you truly put your candidates&rsquo; best interests first, the results speak for themselves. That&rsquo;s why so many of our candidates are now clients for whom we happily recruit. We&rsquo;re consultants, not salespeople; get in touch to hear more about our senior and executive level positions across London and the UK.

5 Questions to Ask Before Accepting an Executive Job Offer

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.

​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)

​Ah, job titles. In today&rsquo;s world of LinkedIn profiles, connection invites and online networking, your job title says a lot about you&hellip; Or does it? It&rsquo;s no secret that with the advent of social media, us professional folk have sometimes been known to&hellip; Well, inflate certain aspects of our positions, especially when it comes to that all-important job title. As recruiters we spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, which means we sometimes share a giggle at job titles from the weird to the wonderful; from the Director of A Very Vague Department to the Manager of Insignificant Office Materials and everything in between, it&rsquo;s safe to say one thing: You can&rsquo;t judge a job by its title. On a serious note, it&rsquo;s something we really have to reiterate as recruiters &ndash; basing your feelings about a potential new role on its job title alone can be a dangerous game, one which may leave you in the lurch long-term. Let&rsquo;s put this in real terms. I&rsquo;m the Sales Director here at Certus Recruitment Group &ndash; what that means is, I hold managerial responsibilities from hiring, conducting one-to-ones and performance reviews, disciplinaries; I carry a personal revenue target along with overall responsibility for the P&amp;L of the business here in London; my day is spent training, managing and of course staying &lsquo;hands on&rsquo; &ndash; selling. I&rsquo;m involved in devising our business strategy, goal setting, client relations, account management&hellip; Essentially, I touch upon all aspects of managing this business, inside and out, and report directly to our CEO. That&rsquo;s why my job title is Sales Director. Conversely, I once recruited for an events software business who were looking to hire a &lsquo;Sales Director&rsquo;&hellip; Whose sole job it was to cold call, visit clients and sell a SaaS platform. The role carried a solid mid-level salary with great benefits and commission, but it certainly couldn&rsquo;t be called what most of us would a classic &lsquo;Sales Director&rsquo; position. With different roles carrying the same job title but a huge difference in level and responsibility, it&rsquo;s so important as a job seeker not to write any positions off based on that title alone. With the classic org chart for many industries diversifying, it&rsquo;s not as simple as it used to be to identify a &lsquo;step up&rsquo; in role by its name alone; put simply, different job titles mean entirely different things, for different companies. Job adverts online are notorious for often being badly written, brief or simply unhelpful; it&rsquo;s never been more important to really delve into the details. If the salary is thereabouts, the duties match your current role or, better yet, look to be somewhat of a step up and ultimately you like the sound of the role &ndash; but the job title sounds too junior? Reserve judgement and get the proper details. Whether applying through a recruiter like us or to the employer directly, ask as many questions as you can when it comes to the nitty-gritty of each job. A ton of factors are in play when it comes to officially choosing a job title &ndash; from the size and scope of the company itself to internal politics and everything that happens up to a position becoming live, there&rsquo;s lots going on behind the scenes. I&rsquo;ve met Business Development Managers who carry the weight of the company on their shoulders; I&rsquo;ve met Sales Managers who conduct their business solely over the phone, from self-generated leads. I&rsquo;ve met Marketing Execs with more widespread experience than some Marketing Directors who earn three times their salary, and I&rsquo;ve met company Directors who hold absolutely zero authority over company goings-on, financials or otherwise. As a job seeker you should be judging each job based on what it is you&rsquo;re looking for &ndash; more responsibility, or different ones? A larger financial target? More budget to play with, a bigger team to manage, more territory to look after? Or does the move come down to reasons which don&rsquo;t denote a step forward in your career &ndash; remember, a sideways step isn&rsquo;t a bad thing to take, if the company itself offer opportunity to progress in the future. Part of our job as a specialist recruitment company is to understand the ins and outs of every role we try to fill, not to mention the clients we represent; it&rsquo;s why I&rsquo;m confident that when one of my consultants talk to you about a role, they won&rsquo;t do so unless they know it&rsquo;s a good fit &ndash; regardless of what it might be called. Whatever it is you&rsquo;re looking for, it could go by many names. Like I said &ndash; don&rsquo;t judge a job by its title.

Don’t judge a role by its job title

​​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?

When I first started working in recruitment, we received our applicants via fax machine. There you go &ndash; I&rsquo;ve said it and I&rsquo;m not ashamed. To say we&rsquo;ve moved on since &lsquo;those days&rsquo; would be an understatement &ndash; not only us as a people, but the way we communicate, do business and recruit. And, as 2019 draws to an end, we&rsquo;re readying ourselves for an exciting but somewhat intimidating influx to the job-seeking marketplace: Generation Z. Let&rsquo;s go through the basics here: Gen Y aka &lsquo;Millennials&rsquo;: grew up with technology, developing as they did; wasn&rsquo;t attached to a mobile phone until the age of perhaps 12 or 13; raised by hands-on &lsquo;Boomers&rsquo;; born (roughly) between 1981 and 1996. Gen Z aka &lsquo;Digital Natives&rsquo;: unthinkably connected to technology and social media (think Instagram and Snapchat); grew up with iPad in hand; largely considered to be the most educated generation yet; born between the years of 1996 and 2010, or thereabouts. As with anything, knowing your target is crucial to success. The need-to-knows for recruiting Gen Z. They&rsquo;re known as &lsquo;digital natives&rsquo; for a reason; this contingent of the population is particularly linked to technology, but not as you may know it. Studies show that, unlike Gen Y before them, Gen Z don&rsquo;t take as much notice of LinkedIn and Facebook &ndash; if any at all. These guys are all about the apps, so connecting with them on &lsquo;their level&rsquo; is key; according to some, even emails are outdated. It&rsquo;s also important remember that this generation has essentially lived their whole lives with a mobile phone &ndash; quick and constant communication is vital to gaining and moreover keeping their attention. As a business, you need to ensure that tech is at the forefront of your hiring strategy &ndash; whether that be utilizing instant messaging services for prompt responses, implementing AI/&rsquo;chat bots&rsquo; to garner that initial contact or simply ensuring your business demonstrates cutting-edge tech tools and resources for their employees. We also know that Gen Z are very visual; that bland, black-and-white, text-only advert on a job board (which, apparently, they won&rsquo;t be using anyway) won&rsquo;t cut it with these guys. Use videos to market your business and give them true insight into who they&rsquo;d be working for; curate exciting, eye-catching marketing materials to showcase the kind of business they&rsquo;ll be joining. Compared to the purported 12-second attention span of Millennials, the &lsquo;iGeneration&rsquo; top out at just 8 seconds &ndash; so you&rsquo;ll need to be quick, and persistent. And what do they value above all else? Unlike Millennials, who were brought up by us Baby Boomers seemingly reveling in our economic fortune (hmm), Gen Z have lived through some of the toughest recessions to date &ndash; so, it&rsquo;s no wonder that every study we could find shows that above all they&rsquo;re after job security and stability. Generation Z may have experienced their parents, loved ones, close friends or otherwise losing their jobs and the subsequent struggles which came from it; at the very least, those entering the job market now have learned about it throughout their extensive education. It follows that they want to join businesses who offer them real security &ndash; unlike Gen Y who, as we very well know, are more likely to throw caution to the wind, set up for themselves and go about &lsquo;disrupting&rsquo; their chosen market. Gen Z seem to value authenticity and integrity most of all; it&rsquo;s no secret that in procuring new clients we all rely more and more on word of mouth, referrals and business won on the back of great reviews. When it comes to shopping (which, interestingly, they don&rsquo;t do a lot of online) this up and coming generation put more stock in reviews, testimonials and genuine feedback from real people (read: &lsquo;influencers&rsquo;) than they do price or value for money. It makes sense that the same would be said about who they want to work for. Utilising platforms like Glassdoor to build your company&rsquo;s brand and voice from the outside-in will give Gen Z some real food for thought when it comes to choosing to work for you. Allow your employees to create their own personal brand too &ndash; within your business, let people &lsquo;be themselves&rsquo; and project that to any potential hires, whether online via social media or throughout the interview process. Let Gen Z see &lsquo;the real you&rsquo;, and you might just secure their engagement and efforts long term.
To recap:
<ul>
<li>
Engage on their level &ndash; using instant messaging rather than email, apps rather than websites.
</li>
<li>
Campaign visual &ndash; use videos and images over text to grab their attention.
</li>
<li>
Keep it snappy &ndash; you&rsquo;ve got 8 seconds to make your point.
</li>
<li>
Keep it real &ndash; don&rsquo;t try to hire a Digital Native on a false promise. Generation Z are all about honesty, integrity and authenticity.
</li>
</ul>
How do you feel about the incoming flood of fresh faces we&rsquo;re going to be interviewing over the coming years? Has your business adapted its processes to include this ambitious generation and, if so, how?

Are you ready to hire Gen Z?

​We all know how important brand advocacy can be to the growth of a business, especially in the early stages. Brand advocates build your reputation through word of mouth marketing and ultimately win you new customers; word of mouth often being cited as the best kind of marketing, given that it&rsquo;s free! So instead, what is employee advocacy &ndash; and what benefit can it play in terms of growing not your revenues, but the team itself? Employee advocacy is effectively the same process, but pertaining to your current workforce telling those around them how great it is to do so &ndash; and elevating your desirability as an employer as a result. In today&rsquo;s world, employee advocacy is largely done online; your current team should be sharing what it&rsquo;s like to work for you, talking about how you&rsquo;re doing things differently, and ultimately promoting the company culture as a benefit to working for you via social media. Any candidate worth their salt will look into all of these things upon entering your recruitment process &ndash; and it might just make the difference when it comes to capturing the attention of the market&rsquo;s top talent. Activating your current employees as advocates could be the key tool to elevating your talent pipeline this year. Here are some of the benefits you can expect from having done so. Increased staff retention When a new hire has been enticed to come on board via employee advocacy, they already have a more sound understanding of what it&rsquo;s like to work for your business and have likely made a more informed decision than otherwise; having a visual of your company culture beforehand will leave them more excited to join. Seeing what their future team is up to before joining gives new hires a better idea of where they can make an impact from the off, helping them to set goals and envision their path toward achieving them. All of these aspects of employee advocacy throughout the hiring process combined mean that new hires are more purpose-driven, and more likely to build a longstanding career within your company. Increased organic applicants Do your employees love working for you? Then let them shout about it! When those your employees are connected with online begin seeing the enthusiasm your workforce hold in talking about their role, the company they work for and the company culture they embody, people are going to take notice. This will increase the number of people who add YOUR business to their &ldquo;target companies&rdquo; list, meaning that if and when their job search begins, your name will be on their lips. Organic applicants could mean direct approaches from individuals who want to work for you without a specific opportunity in mind, or even those who ask an agency like us to approach you on their behalf! Improved company culture Jobseekers want to join a company who have something about them; who promote great culture from within and take doing so seriously. Whilst you really have to live it to learn it, visible employee advocacy on social media can give a great insight to potential hires. And, as an added bonus for you &ndash; it means that in order to share it, your employees will have to be living it! Promoting a strong company culture externally means embodying it internally. So, make sure yours is well-defined and encourage your employees to let the world know what it&rsquo;s like to work here. Remember: company culture doesn&rsquo;t just mean posting pics of virtual lunch clubs or Zoom beers; it&rsquo;s about who your employees are, the ups and downs of their roles. The successes, the challenges, and how they overcame them. A final great thing about employee advocacy? Aside from being a great recruitment tool, it&rsquo;ll naturally help boost your business&rsquo; online presence, exposure and reach on social media. The business benefits that using employee advocacy to attract talent are numerous and vast in their advantage. When we work onsite with clients in a managed serviced capacity, this is all something which comes under what we do. We&rsquo;re here to find your next quality hires, but also to improve your overall recruitment strategy as an overarching service led by us. To learn more about how, get in touch today.

How Employee Advocacy Can Benefit Your Business

​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

Recruitment, Simplified...

Staff turnover is a concept all leaders, HR teams and business owners have to contend with. It&rsquo;s a term often used interchangeably with employee attrition, churn, and many others, all of which effectively pose the same question: how many people are leaving your business, and how often do they come and go? Hiring costs money, so it follows that having an overview of the things which affect how long people stick around for is crucial to long-term, sustainable growth. As business leaders, when we hire a person, we&rsquo;re investing in them &ndash; be that time spent throughout the hiring process, costs associated with training, equipment and the like, and even the emotional investment which comes with making a key hire, one you believe could make a real difference to your company. Whilst attrition happens naturally in a lot of cases &ndash; retirements, redundancies, a friendly parting of ways even &ndash; there are things we can do to help. And the key is to first understand what might be causing people to leave. Here are some key areas which may be contributing to a high staff turnover in your business, along with what you can do to improve them. Hiring Process A huge aspect of employee turnover comes down to simply hiring the right people! If you&rsquo;re having employees come on board and leave before their time, or certainly sooner than you&rsquo;d expected or hoped, it&rsquo;s time to look at your recruitment process and ask questions as to where the disconnect is happening. Are you taking the time to find out all you need to know about each individual, from experience and suitability to cultural fit? Are you giving a true representation of what it&rsquo;s like to work for you? Are you staying true to the job you&rsquo;ve outlined for this person and the responsibilities it entails? Hire the right people to begin with, and your turnover rate will naturally reduce. Onboarding Issues with onboarding usually happen when an unrealistic expectation is set for the role during the interview process, and/or a lack of preparation on the business&rsquo; part for that all-important start date. Whilst this alone may not affect whether your employees stay or go as it were, what it does do is set a precedent &ndash; so it&rsquo;s important to get right. Have your onboarding process nailed down, including goals set, timelines built and expectations managed, then keep in constant contact for feedback throughout. This way, you&rsquo;ll be able to potentially see and then mitigate any issues before they lead to an employee leaving the company prematurely. Simply put: start as you mean to go on. Workplace Factors There are occasions when you&rsquo;re going to hire someone and they just won&rsquo;t be a fit &ndash; it&rsquo;s unfortunate, but inevitable, given that company culture is tricky to both identify and portray at interview. That being said, there are definite workplace factors you do have control over, and they can affect turnover massively. Such things include work-life balance; it&rsquo;s becoming evermore important, as is championing mental health. Showing you care about your employees&rsquo; wellbeing will go a long way to garnering their loyalty. On top of this, pay attention to employee relations internally, and make sure there&rsquo;s no toxicity growing amongst individuals or teams. Cultivate a positive, healthy workplace, and don&rsquo;t be surprised when employees stick around as a result. Overall, staff turnover is inevitable &ndash; but keeping in mind these key areas could go a long way to improving it at the very least. We help companies build workforce strategies which start from the initial hire, reaching through the onboarding process and beyond, to reduce turnover and make your business an employer of choice. To talk more about how, get in touch.

Staff Turnover: Areas for Improvement

​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

​Being a marketer a few decades ago was a very different path from that of today. The explosive growth of the MarTech industry is not something to ignore.
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Although businesses had already been making use of digital strategies, the global pandemic caused an accelerated shift towards the digital revolution.
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The Marketing and Technology sectors have blended, MarTech is born - it&rsquo;s expanding at a rapid rate and now might be the most exciting time to upskill and make that career switch.
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What is MarTech?
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Marketing technology refers to the systems and tools that help marketers better engage with their audiences. These tools streamline and automate processes, saving marketing professionals heaps of time while enabling them to analyse the success of their efforts.
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Why MarTech?
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Modern marketing simply doesn&rsquo;t exist without MarTech. Digital transformation is as much about the development of people as it is technology. Today&rsquo;s marketing teams need a mix of creativity and technology to thrive.
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Businesses are seeking people with traditional marketing skills to blend with the next generation of technical tools. Balancing branding, communications and creative-based roles, with automation, analytics and data.
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Remote opportunities
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The pandemic accelerated existing trends in remote work. More than ever, people are looking to move past decades of 9-5 office-centric work, seeking new ways to operate, be it flexibly, remotely or part-time.
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Marketing was one of the leading sectors that thrived with flexibility and remote-working. The future of work is dispersed &ndash; with better work-life balance, less commuting stress and location freedom - working from home / wherever you fancy is more important than ever.
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The MarTech sector has put remote working at the forefront, with progressive businesses building remote teams.
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Lets you market smarter
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The innovation of MarTech tools enables you to be a better marketer, it&rsquo;s that simple. If you use Google Analytics to track performance on your website, or send emails through MailChimp, you're already using MarTech.
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Examples include:
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●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Email marketing
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Content management systems
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Optimisation platforms
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Data analytics
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Customer data platforms
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Social media platforms
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Technologies like these save marketers time, making them more efficient and in turn able to deliver and measure results better.
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Accelerating salary
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Ambitious organisations are on the lookout for people to bridge the gap between marketing and tech. The synergy between the sectors has created a new profession and in turn, has elevated salaries and day rates.
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A recent LinkedIn study suggests that despite the pandemic and its economic consequences, opportunities in the marketing sector are only expanding, with roles in digital leading the charge.
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This is an exciting time to move into MarTech, particularly due to salary benefits. The Marketing Technology industry has consistently grown over the last five years. The revenue of this sector is expected to grow at an annual rate of 5.6% through 2021-22 and reach &pound;4.6 billion. With revenue on the rise, the average MarTech salary in the UK is &pound;50,000 per year, with entry positions starting at &pound;40,000 and more experienced candidates receiving &pound;78,000 a year.
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Self-service mindset
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The movement towards the remote work model has given people more control over how they work. Now, there are ample opportunities to enhance your existing skills in order to develop within modern marketing roles, like:
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●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Program manager
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Martech project manager
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Marketing technology product owner
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Marketing technologist
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Digital marketing operations
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Marketing automation
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Marketing database, architect and integration
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Marketing analytics, insights and science
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Marketing tech business analyst
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Scrum master
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Growth hacker
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Marketing Operations
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Account Executive SaaS
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Investment in MarTech
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Before the pandemic, investment in MarTech was on the rise. On average, brands in the UK and North America are spending 26% of their overall marketing budgets on MarTech, which includes automation software, analytics tools and artificial intelligence.
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MarTech isn&rsquo;t going anywhere, and it only plans to get bigger. While the world pieces itself back together, companies are investing in marketing platforms at rapid rates. Many are also hiring people with varied, broad marketing backgrounds and skill sets.
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Tips for the emerging Marketing Technologist
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Choosing to develop your knowledge with in-demand, transferable digital marketing skills will keep you on the path to professional success.
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●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Get involved in online MarTech communities
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Read leading insights
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Check out courses like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.marketing-technology.academy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The MarTech Academy</a>
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Listen to&nbsp;<a href="https://martechpod.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The MarTech Podcast</a>
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Connect with people in the industry (networking events, LinkedIn)
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Upskill with platforms like&nbsp;<a href="https://skillshop.withgoogle.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Google Skillshop</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.googleadservices.com/pagead/aclk?sa=L&amp;ai=DChcSEwixwqG0-efzAhWV6-0KHaQlCjkYABAAGgJkZw&amp;ae=2&amp;ohost=www.google.com&amp;cid=CAESQeD2dR9dNiyCXQtsf5L0S3CF5WNXc0CWRNCuuH2StTIz_kBXB_Qt9H1SKkwoS-b55izwqbq3h1j_9cbiCN8e_-7P&amp;sig=AOD64_2-DrY8vnfDDolY8nlBWdCHfHUdew&amp;q&amp;adurl&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjS1Jq0-efzAhVIgVwKHVDnAVoQ0Qx6BAgCEAE" target="_blank" rel="noopener">HubSpot Academy</a>
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The digital revolution has not only had a dramatic impact on how we recruit for talented candidates, but it&rsquo;s also introduced a whole new world of roles on the market.
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Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Are you ready to take the leap?
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At Certus, we embrace all things digital, adapting and refining our offering as the space evolves.
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We&rsquo;re always looking out for fresh talent to match with innovative and exciting organisations. If you&rsquo;re looking for advice or your next opportunity,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.certusrecruitment.com/company/contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener">get in touch.</a>

There’s Never Been A Better Time To Switch To MarTech

​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)

Sustainable Hiring Practices (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)

Taking recruitment solutions to another level!​ What does a Managed Service offering form Certus look like?
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Managed Services - Recruitment (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

Its job application time - here's some fundamental advice: Be selective! ​First impression count! Read the job description! Tailor your cover letter / CV! Attention to detail! ...
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Job Applications - No Spamming (Video)

​Training, mentoring, coaching and managing &ndash; so many verbs, so little time. As a business leader or manager, there are many ways we go about trying to improve the skills and performance of our teams, largely through proactive training and coaching &ndash; but what defines these two activities from one another, and in what ratio should we be doing them? First, understanding the difference. Training: by definition, it means &lsquo;the action of teaching a person (or animal) a particular skill or behaviour&rsquo;. The aim is to increase an individual&rsquo;s productivity, capability and performance through learning something new. Training is essentially the act of&nbsp;transferring knowledge&nbsp;&ndash; knowledge which you possess, and the individual being trained does not, yet. Coaching: whilst certainly considered a form of training, coaching is about&nbsp;enhancing an existing skill or skills, rather than teaching a new one. Coaching is to be carried out by someone who&rsquo;s experienced in the matter, helping another individual understand how to better conduct the skill in question; demonstrating, leading by example and mentoring to improve on what they know already. Is it important to do both? Training your staff not only grows the tool set they use to do their job, but keeps them challenged and engaged; that it can naturally lead to promotion and progression makes training one of the main keys to improving retention and reducing turnover. Coaching is just as important &ndash; as humans, particularly those working in the corporate world, we&rsquo;re always looking for self-improvement, higher performance; ways to do things &lsquo;better&rsquo;. Coaching your employees on an ongoing basis and showing them, from your own or someone else&rsquo;s experience, a better way to do things is going to allow them to remain creative, motivated and fulfilled in their role. To answer the question, yes, it&rsquo;s crucial to do both; take a well-rounded approach to learning, whether it&rsquo;s been specified as something the employee must learn to carry out their duties (e.g. learning a new piece of software), or it&rsquo;s simply something which would benefit all parties were it done better (for instance, sales coaching to increase conversion rates). So, which should I be doing with my staff? Once you have the above definitions in mind, it becomes easier to know whether you should be coaching your staff or training them.
<ul>
<li>
Training&nbsp;is something which can be done in a group setting; imparting knowledge to more than one person at the same time
</li>
<li>
Training&nbsp;usually takes a very structured approach; it will follow a set path which needs to be done in a certain order for it to be understood
</li>
<li>
Training&nbsp;is frequently held off-site, online or otherwise; it&rsquo;s not something which is usually done fully &lsquo;on the job&rsquo;
</li>
<li>
Coaching&nbsp;will usually be conducted in a one-on-one setting; it requires attention as to where the person&rsquo;s skill level sits currently (compared to training, where the idea is that everyone begins at zero)
</li>
<li>
More often than not,&nbsp;coaching&nbsp;will be unstructured; it involves ongoing communication and change to be effective
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Coaching&nbsp;usually takes place &lsquo;on the job&rsquo; &ndash; it requires input from the activity being coached itself in order to achieve real results
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</ul>
One thing is for sure, training without coaching rarely works. Picking up an employee or team and dropping them into a classroom for a day (or more!) then sending back to their day job with no follow-up or ongoing reflection is pretty close to a waste of time and money. But a piece of great and relevant training that is supported by ongoing and regular coaching is likely to lead to significant and clear returns. And, finally, how does knowing all of this positively impact my staff turnover rate? It&rsquo;s really important that business leaders understand the difference between coaching and training; knowing what your employees want and need with regards to their development within the company fundamentally comes down to learning. Should they be aiming to learn a new skill? Is this what will push their career forward and land them a promotion into the role they&rsquo;re hoping for? Or, will simply honing one of the skills they use already be the thing which helps them reach their goal? Of course, there&rsquo;s a huge cross over between the two &ndash; training and coaching can often be done at the same time. And understanding which of them is going to help your employees progress will go a long way to ensuring they&rsquo;re satisfied, engaged and motivated to stay with your organisation. The definition between training and coaching goes further than your management style and business leadership; it touches upon the ongoing development of each and every staff member, the structure of your company, and the longevity your employees see within it as a result. With 20 years of working in recruitment and headhunting, I&rsquo;ve seen the insides of many companies and it&rsquo;s those with a balance of both that have typically demonstrated consistent growth. I&rsquo;m proud of running a business which truly helps others to define, execute and improve their human capital strategy and the right mix of training and coaching must form a part of it. Certus are more than just a recruitment company; get in touch to hear more about partnering with a Certus Recruitment Group company and what we can do to help your business grow, today.

Coaching Vs Training and How To Improve Staff Retention

​​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)

​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

​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?

​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?

​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

​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.
​
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.
​
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.
​
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.
​
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?

​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.

​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”?

​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.

<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

​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.
​
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.
​
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.
​
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.
​
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;
​
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.
​
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.
​
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

The working landscape has shifted massively in the last year, particularly for those who work in offices. We are emerging from a period of workplace disruption, it&rsquo;s time for businesses to refresh workplace culture and get people excited about working together again.
&nbsp;
The pandemic caused a number of unique challenges for employers and has overturned the working experience. Forward-thinking leaders are adjusting to ensure they can attract top talent while retaining their existing employees.
&nbsp;
As we prepare for working life away from lockdowns, it&rsquo;s critical for business leaders to consider how they will shift their recruitment and retainment strategies.
&nbsp;
So, what are candidates mainly seeking from employment post-COVID and how can you apply this to your recruitment strategy?
&nbsp;
Prioritise wellness
&nbsp;
People are the spark of a business and have a direct impact on its success, growth and reputation. Poor employee wellbeing and lack of care naturally leads to poor business outcomes.
&nbsp;
The pandemic has led to important mental health conversations and has shifted how people think about work and what they want out of life. For many, the chance to reflect led them to consider what truly matters, this is why wellbeing infrastructures have expanded across multiple industries.
&nbsp;
When it comes to attracting and retaining staff, people are looking to join innovative businesses that place the health and wellness of their people at the forefront. This shows that you genuinely care by going beyond the typical perks.
&nbsp;
When considering an effective wellbeing strategy, remember to consider the following:
&nbsp;
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Identify areas of focus for wellbeing by seeking ideas from employees
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Engage employees in all stages of the development of the plan
&nbsp;
Communicate openly
&nbsp;
Transparency has never been more attractive to job-seekers. More than ever, people are seeking environments with open communication and trust at the centre.
&nbsp;
Prospective candidates want to see that your business creates efficient communication channels where they can express themselves and be heard.
&nbsp;
Developing an environment with nurturing and supportive leadership will create an environment where people feel seen, heard and recognised and ultimately want to be and stay.
&nbsp;
Communicating transparently builds trust with employees current and new, which leads to happier, more engaged workers.
&nbsp;
Optimise your employer brand
&nbsp;
With skill shortages and organisations competing for talent, employer branding plays a major role.
&nbsp;
The communications of your business, i.e. your company website, social media platforms and brand tone of voice should ideally come together in an employer brand story, that separates you from competitors.
&nbsp;
Candidates tend to look for businesses that stand out from the crowd in terms of storytelling, they want to visualise themselves in a company, which you can solve by fine-tuning your employer brand.
&nbsp;
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Define your message and values
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Nurture your culture
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Understand brand perception
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Embrace technology
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Treat candidates like customers
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Use storytelling
&nbsp;
Rethink talent needs
&nbsp;
Differentiate your company so employees want to work for you rather than your competition.
&nbsp;
Outline the talent gaps in your business and refocus your strategies to attract the people who will drive future success. Analyse your most significant challenges and what kind of people could help you overcome them. By identifying the types of candidates you want to attract, you can build on boosting your employer brand to attract them.
&nbsp;
Getting this right will encourage fresh talent to join your business.
&nbsp;
Get employee feedback
&nbsp;
Give your employees a voice by gathering feedback through one-on-one conversations and surveys. In today&rsquo;s post-pandemic world, it&rsquo;s crucial to understand employee wellbeing, work relationships, and support structure. By gathering this data, you can work on addressing feedback, before eyes wander and employees leave.
&nbsp;
Making your employees feel heard shows that you want to listen to them and that their thoughts and feelings are valid.
&nbsp;
Promote flexibility
&nbsp;
A flexible or remote working schedule is one of the most in-demand perks, especially since the start of the pandemic.
&nbsp;
One of the main benefits people have seen from home-working is the ability for more autonomy when it comes to individual work/life balance.
&nbsp;
Additionally, commuting time is saved and can be spent working on business progression, as well as taking care of personal matters, which ultimately reduces employee stress and boosts morale.
&nbsp;
Give recognition
&nbsp;
Employees want to feel that they are important to your success. It&rsquo;s important to show your appreciation for what they do and how they contribute to your business growth. This is particularly key when organisations grow and develop. It helps teams build a sense of security, motivating them to continue great work.
&nbsp;
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Give shout-outs
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Offer fun projects or development opportunities
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Encourage peer-to-peer recognition
●&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Just say thank you!
&nbsp;
-
&nbsp;
The post-pandemic world of employment is disruptive and exciting, and business growth is dependent on your ability to think and lead differently.
&nbsp;
If you&rsquo;re looking to build your team, Certus takes the time to understand your company&rsquo;s position within its market.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.certusrecruitment.com/company/contact" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Get in touch today to find out how we can support your growth plans.</a>

Attracting and retaining staff as we exit the pandemic

​Recruitment, like many industries, is constantly having to adapt and change. We&rsquo;re affected by so many factors &ndash; technological, economic, political even &ndash; and keeping up is both challenging and, often, quite a lot of fun. Lately it&rsquo;s been nothing short of inspiring to see how the recruitment community has come together, in more ways than one. First off, we&rsquo;ve seen many recruiters unfortunately lose their jobs due to the pandemic &ndash; and a resulting massive uplift in open referrals to colleagues, clients, old friends even, to help them secure a new role. Next, there&rsquo;s the jobseekers: I for one have observed, on multiple occasions, recruiters sharing profiles of amazing candidates they&rsquo;ve worked with at some point, with no expectation of a fee of any kind; simply trying to help the many people who&rsquo;ve been made redundant here in the UK. But more than just banding together, the recruitment industry as a whole seems to be changing, almost certainly for the better &ndash; and I&rsquo;d love to hear what my fellow recruiters and recruitment are experiencing. Here&rsquo;s how things are looking from our end. We're doing even more retained work. Retained projects are somewhat of a holy grail for recruiters. Simply the commitment from a business who&rsquo;s saying, &ldquo;We&rsquo;re putting our trust in you to fill this role,&rdquo; is quite something when it comes to motivation. It means taking the utmost pride in our work, every step of the way. These days, we&rsquo;re finding clients are actually out to find the&nbsp;right&nbsp;partner to fill roles for them, resulting in us picking up retained work every week. Frankly, it feels&nbsp;great&nbsp;to finally be able to demonstrate why retained search is simply more effective. This shift is something we&rsquo;ve known to be inevitable for a while, as people begin to realise the value in guaranteed-outcome recruitment; you wouldn&rsquo;t work with an IT service provider who told you their service works some of the time, would you? Which leads us on to&hellip; Employers are finally learning the benefits of exclusivity. We might have been singing this song for years now, but there&rsquo;s a reason: working with one agency is simply more productive (provided we do our job properly, of course). From an employer&rsquo;s perspective, conducting a recruitment campaign with just one source of talent (minus your own direct/internal applicants) is undoubtedly going to save time, hassle and admin. Outsourcing a process to two, three, five suppliers ultimately means receiving as much work in return as a result, from arranging terms of business to corresponding with multiple parties at every stage through to, quite simply, having to work out which candidate came from where, and so on and so forth. Furthermore, again, motivation is a real thing and the opportunity to prove ourselves is a strong way to achieve it. Much like retained search, giving a partner like us exclusivity means you simply know that we&rsquo;re putting every foot forward to find you the absolute best candidates we can. And with that in mind&hellip; We're being held accountable at every stage. Recruitment has a bad name &ndash; there, I said it. This is because there are too many outs for &lsquo;bad&rsquo; recruiters; too many gaps for quality control to slip through, along with best practices which aren&rsquo;t regulated. Now, with the advent of more retained work and exclusive projects to work on, guess what? It&rsquo;s on us. Accountability makes us work&nbsp;harder, aim&nbsp;higher, be&nbsp;better&nbsp;&ndash; and we&rsquo;re not ashamed to say so. This is an industry-wide thing; we&rsquo;re seeing our peers up their level of service, and less and less &rsquo;recruiter bashing&rsquo; happening as a result. There&rsquo;s no longer a place to hide in recruitment: this time, the industry&rsquo;s doing things right. Covid has affected many things and, whilst we know the Certus name has already been built on exceptional service, we think that perhaps this pandemic was the push into that next level the industry as a whole needed. What say you?

How Recruitment is Changing – For the Better

Does your company stand out from the crowd? Benefits go way beyond financial incentives and say more about your organisation than you think. Secure top talent and elevate your hiring strategy now! <a href="https://www.certusrecruitment.com">www.certusrecruitment.com</a>
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Cultural Benefits (Video)

​Is your business ready to expand into the UK or Europe? 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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Expanding Internationally (Video)

​Recruitment - It's who we are - It's what we do!
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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.

Recruiters (Video)

​A robust and speedy recruitment process always pays dividends... A speedy recruitment process also says more about your business than you may think!
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A Speedy Recruitment Process (Video)

​Are you ready for IR35? Reach out now for a free IR35 Assessment and find how we can assist you, moving forward...
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IR35 - Are You Ready (Video)

As an employer, do you know the difference between a Job Advert and a Job Description? Reach out to our experienced team and let us help you prepare both.
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Is it a Job Advert or a Job Description? (Video)

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.

<article class="blog__content">
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.
</article>

3 Key Points to Your Post-Covid People Strategy

​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

In today&rsquo;s world, successfully building a diverse workforce is like wearing a badge of honour &ndash; but doing so doesn&rsquo;t automatically mean that your workplace itself actually practices inclusivity. So what&rsquo;s the difference? Simply put, diversity refers to the bringing together of people from all backgrounds, genders, different ethnicities, religions and more. Inclusivity on the other hand means making sure that each and every one of those people has an equal opportunity to be heard, respected and valued by that same business. Making the right choices in hiring will bring you the diversity of workforce you want and need, but it&rsquo;s embodying inclusivity as a leader which will ensure equilibrium, balance and, as a result, satisfaction across the team. An inclusive leader is fair. The number one way to be an inclusive leader is to treat each employee equally according to their ability, not their background. You should be looking beyond gender, race or otherwise in order to understand each individual&rsquo;s skills and how they can bring benefit to your organisation, the team around them and the workplace as a whole. When it comes to promotion and recognition in the workplace, this still stands; whether someone&rsquo;s been doing the job for 10 years or 10 days, their attitude, effort and performance should dictate their success &ndash; not their background. An inclusive leader is aware of, and draws attention to, unconscious bias. Unconscious bias is what happens when our mind makes a decision based on a pre-programmed response, which we likely had no conscious part in or control over building. Our unconscious biases are formulated based on our own background and experiences and, as the term would suggest, we&rsquo;re not always aware they&rsquo;re even there. An inclusive leader dissects their own decisions to ensure they&rsquo;re acting (or reacting) to the situation at hand, rather than subconscious pathways which develop without thinking &ndash; working by fact, rather than making rash or impulsive decisions. Understanding your own unconscious biases and encouraging your employees to do the same will promote an inclusive environment, where everyone possesses the same chance at success. An inclusive leader appreciates that a diverse workforce means new ways of thinking. And isn&rsquo;t afraid of change! Having a diverse workforce means diverse ways of thinking, doing and ideas &ndash; which are worth nothing if each isn&rsquo;t listened to, evaluated and then acted upon based on merit, rather than who it came from. Inclusive leaders give everyone a voice, regardless of who or what they are. These days there&rsquo;s little more important than embracing individuality and the successes which can be borne of a diverse, inclusive and collaborative workplace. The human race is, thanks to technology, more connected than ever, which allows businesses the opportunity to differentiate their offering; sourcing talent from all corners of the world is now commonplace with the advent of remote working, relocation and online platforms. As a business leader, if you&rsquo;re not taking advantage of that: you should be. Inclusive leaders are people-focused individuals &ndash; they look for the who, not the what. They take an interest in people who share their values, but boast different talents, skills or beliefs to their own. An inclusive leader will demonstrate rather than command, and dig deep into each individual staff member to find and appreciate what it is they bring to the table. Promoting an inclusive workplace doesn&rsquo;t mean just ticking boxes &ndash; it&rsquo;s about doing the best by your people and driving business success as such.

How to be an Inclusive Leader

Marketing: such a broad term, yet one which so many people want to work within. In fact, according to a 2019 survey conducted by Glassdoor, it&rsquo;s the third most desirable job sector here in the UK. As a recruiter, I often interview entry-level/graduate candidates who say they want to work &lsquo;in marketing&rsquo; but, when you delve a little deeper, they have little understanding of what exactly that means. Marketing is a huge system of myriad channels &ndash; many of which are impossible to understand until you&rsquo;re in the midst of them. Which is why, when you&rsquo;re building your marketing team, it&rsquo;s important to consider what you actually need: in such a creative, ever-changing profession, the meeting of minds often breeds better, faster results than training might. Which is why marketing mentorship is so very key. Marketing is, technically, something many people could do &ndash; with so many online courses, qualifications and ways to self-learn or self-educate, there are few real obstacles for somebody who wants to learn the movements, the basics. But what about the psychology, the science behind it all? Marketing encompasses tech skills, design, writing, working with numbers and so much more &ndash; all skills which we either possess or would be able to hone by ourselves. But the meeting of minds in a profession such as marketing is what breeds ideas, understanding and overall success. This is where a mentor comes in. A marketing mentor is much more than a teacher or trainer. They&rsquo;re also a: 1) Sounding board for ideas &ndash; good and bad &ndash; offering the opportunity to deconstruct, evaluate and rethink things to the betterment of your/your clients&rsquo; goals 2) Challenger &ndash; to help an individual understand why they think A is a better strategy than B, or to ask different questions and create different thought patterns 3) Motivator &ndash; in an industry where opinions differ and creativity can as quickly be stifled as encouraged, your mentor ensures that you&rsquo;re able to persevere and stay driven throughout the good times, and the bad A mentor helps draw out ideas which exist, but aren&rsquo;t going to come to the surface without some prodding and poking. A mentor speaks from experience &ndash; what has worked historically and what hasn&rsquo;t, or even why what works for one won&rsquo;t for another. A mentor is able to draw upon numbers and statistics, things they&rsquo;ve learned along the way, rather than basing decisions on common sense. Furthermore, they&rsquo;ll still ensure that your junior marketer learns by trial and error themselves, so that one day they can speak of the same experience. Working in marketing, there&rsquo;s near-unlimited online resources for learning the &lsquo;how&rsquo; &ndash; simply reading blogs or utilising classroom-based learning (whether online or IRL) can teach you a lot. But the role of a marketing mentor is to help a person understand what they&rsquo;re doing and, most crucially,&nbsp;why. Show me any successful athlete, business owner, author or otherwise, and you&rsquo;ll find a mentor to whom they attribute much of their success not far behind. In an industry as fast-paced, diverse and often ambiguous as marketing, real-life skills and experience are invaluable. You&rsquo;re planning to hire someone who can come into your team and look after the company&rsquo;s [social media, print, digital marketing] capabilities&hellip; But, should you be considering developing your current team and instead hiring a mentor with which to do so? It could be a best-of-both-worlds situation. Please share your experience with us, whether you work in marketing or another sector altogether &ndash; do you have a business mentor and, if so, is it something you&rsquo;d recommend to those just starting out or hoping to develop their career in any given sector? Whether you&rsquo;re looking to add to your marketing team, or looking for general advice on the strategy in development for the future of it, we&rsquo;re here to help. Get in touch with myself or one of my marketing-specialist recruiters covering the UK today.

Marketing: Mentor or Manager?

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 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

​Now, I must let you know &ndash; this article has been in the works for a little while. That it now happens to be so very relevant, given the current &lsquo;situation&rsquo; worldwide (cough, coronavirus), is pure happenstance. Absenteeism: &ldquo;the practice of regularly staying away from work or school without good reason.&rdquo; As a manager, it&rsquo;s something which (hopefully) doesn&rsquo;t come up often, but is an issue that we all have to face at one point in our career or another. It&rsquo;s also something which isn&rsquo;t widely or openly spoken about &ndash; many consider it somewhat &lsquo;taboo&rsquo; &ndash; however as a leader it can have a significant negative effect on the day to day running of your business. How so? Well, aside from the potential drop in productivity when a member of staff is off work unwell, it can have a knock-on effect on team morale in general. Let&rsquo;s explore the reasons your staff may be feigning a fever to get a day off. They&rsquo;re testing the limits This is realistically the worst case scenario; you&rsquo;ve made a hire who is undermining themselves and the decision you made to bring them on board. But give them the benefit of the doubt and make sure you document their behaviour, look out for the tell-tale signs that you might soon recognise are leading to an early morning text&hellip; And don&rsquo;t leave it too long to approach them about it, lest you leave the rest of the team getting, frankly, annoyed about it too. Lack of motivation If a person is demotivated at work, it shows &ndash; and eventually could lead to continued absenteeism. As a manager it&rsquo;s your job to monitor, identify and understand those who aren&rsquo;t feeling motivated; it&rsquo;ll show in their attitude day-to-day, the speed with which they work, the effort they put into their job. Is someone procrastinating while they are in the office, then failing to show up altogether from time to time? It&rsquo;s your job as a manager to motivate and drive your team &ndash; if that&rsquo;s not happening, you need to get to the bottom of why. If you can see the signs whilst they&rsquo;re in the office, it&rsquo;s crucial to address them quickly and see what changes could be made to get them back on top of their game &ndash; and not feeling as though they just &ldquo;can&rsquo;t be bothered&rdquo; to show up. Mental health The plain truth is that in a lot of instances, if your employee is taking extended periods off work or regularly skipping a day here and there, there&rsquo;s probably an underlying issue which needs to be addressed &ndash; in the correct way. Sometimes, the stress just gets too much. Sometimes we all wake up unable to crawl out of the right side of the bed, get dressed and head into another day of work. Sometimes, it&rsquo;s even worse than that. In general, throughout 2020 (and beyond for that matter), ensuring that your workplace is trying to break all stigma attached to mental health couldn&rsquo;t be more important. As for individual staff, the matter calls for the utmost in sensitivity; bear in mind that, even when approached directly, it&rsquo;s not necessarily something your employee will want to talk to you about. Promote transparency and openness, and a non-judgemental culture overall. All you can do as a good manager is make sure they know that the door is open, if and when they need you for support. ---- The truth is, there will never be a way to entirely wipe out those cheeky &ldquo;sick days&rdquo; which are really dedicated to nursing a killer hangover, or the Fridays off which happen to coincide with the hottest day of the year so far&hellip; But, it is prudent to understand when the reasons behind them are deeper than wanting a &ldquo;personal day&rdquo; spent down the pub. If this is what&rsquo;s happening, don&rsquo;t condone it by pleading ignorance; but you need to identify the patterns of behaviour and address them with each employee individually. Like many issues, talking about it is a good place to start &ndash; so let&rsquo;s share our funniest stories, worst sick day excuses and top tips here. As a business leader, how do you approach employee absenteeism?

Employee Absenteeism: what could be causing it, and how to combat it

To say that the marketing industry is a competitive one might just be the heaviest understatement I can think of, off the top of my head. Coming from a recruiter &ndash; one of the most saturated markets in the United Kingdom &ndash; that&rsquo;s saying something; but with over 250,000 marketing agencies in this country, from tiny boutiques to conglomerate businesses, the new IR35 legislation coming in to play soon has left many of us scrambling to get a hold of understanding and preparing for it as such. Contract recruitment for the marketing industry is a large part of what we do here at Certus, so with questions now coming up almost daily (from clients and candidates alike), we thought it couldn&rsquo;t hurt to put out some answers to the most common questions we&rsquo;re getting and shed some light on this decidedly grey-area pesky piece of work. What is IR35? Put simply, IR35 is legislation which has been written to combat tax and national insurance avoidance. It&rsquo;s an off-payroll rule which applies to &lsquo;workers&rsquo; &ndash; read: contractors and freelancers &ndash; who supply their services via a &lsquo;third party&rsquo; &ndash; read: limited company &ndash; who would otherwise be classed as an employee. Sound confusing? It sort of is, hence the chatter surrounding it. But, rest assured, it only applies to medium and large businesses &ndash; those under 50 employees need not worry. When is it happening? The changes to the original legislation will be enforced from April 2020. Unbeknownst to some, the original IR35 legislation was actually put in place in the year 2000 &ndash; and has had its fair share of criticism ever since. Taking its name from the then Inland Revenue, the IR35 has even been deemed &lsquo;unenforceable&rsquo; by HMRC itself &ndash; catalysing the changes we&rsquo;re now seeing. And, of course, the all-important question: What does it actually mean for UK marketing agencies? In a nutshell? It could mean a significant commercial impact to your business, with few opportunities to circumnavigate it. The conversations I&rsquo;m having on the daily with my clients go something like this: -If your current contractors/freelancers do appear to fall inside the IR35, could there be a way to have them fall outside of the law by tweaking their working hours or arrangements (offering they work remotely, or reducing their hours, for example)? -Could there be an opportunity for them to become a bonafide employee who belongs on the payroll? Is this something the business has considered/could make room for? -Start your research now &ndash; with so much info online, there&rsquo;s no excuse to wait the next couple of months out before beginning to compile your knowledge on what really could be a hugely impactful change to the way your business and its workforce operates. Remember, like most things, there&rsquo;s a lot of grey area with the IR35 (ironically, the resolving of which being the reason for its changing this year); who does and does not fall under the IR35 umbrella comes down to &lsquo;tests of employment&rsquo;, basically the government&rsquo;s way of determining what is and isn&rsquo;t &lsquo;deemed employment&rsquo;. If there&rsquo;s one thing for sure, it&rsquo;s that the marketing world is an exciting place to be &ndash; and, really, if any industry is equipped to deal with change surely it&rsquo;s this one? The innovators, creatives, thinkers of the corporate world &ndash; the adaptable businesses who embrace change like an old friend, with a smile on their face and a coffee to hand. Whilst we&rsquo;re sure it hasn&rsquo;t been designed to make anyone suffer, just the worm hole of legislative terms and jargon alone can send one off into a spin &ndash; which is why we do what we do. The fact is, you might need to re-strategise and revise the internal hiring plans you had &ndash; and we&rsquo;re here every step of the way. You might need to learn more about IR35, before realising that actually everything can continue as is &ndash; in which case, we&rsquo;re loving the work we do and can&rsquo;t wait to continue doing so. As recruitment consultants here at Certus &ndash; consultant being the operative word &ndash; we&rsquo;re more than someone who sends the odd CV your way and manages interviews around your hectic diary. We&rsquo;re sounding boards to many, the voice of reason for some &ndash; and a friendly face to have a moan to, usually about things like the IR35, for more than a few. We do things differently. To talk through any of the above or otherwise, our specialist marketing team is all ears &ndash; get in touch with our London office on 0203 758 7890.

IR35: What does it mean for UK marketing agencies?

​burn out phrasal verb of burn 1.be completely consumed and thus no longer aflame. Sound like anyone you know? Worse yet &ndash; does it hit even closer to home? The official definition of &lsquo;burn out&rsquo; is one which many of us can relate to. It&rsquo;s certainly a phrase which is becoming more commonplace and widely accepted as a legitimate occurrence in the corporate world &ndash; despite its beginnings in the world of rock and roll &ndash; affecting almost 600,000 Brits each year. Burning out is effectively the climax of a period of chronic workplace stress, resulting in physical and emotional exhaustion. To be frank, it&rsquo;s not good for anyone involved. And, with mental health at the forefront of everyone&rsquo;s mind in 2020, it needs to be addressed within your business before it happens. Prevention is the best way of mitigating the negative effect burning out has on your employees, so here are our top tips for keeping the team happy, healthy and moreover engaged with their jobs. Avoid pointless pressures This is a safe place &ndash; we can be honest here. I&rsquo;m talking about cutting out: -Meetings about meetings -Over-regular catch up calls (which could easily be done via email) -Micromanagement tactics, constant reporting etc In this modern world, there&rsquo;s no excuse to be under-utilising the many communication tools at your disposal as a business. Efficiency and productivity aside, these tight but essentially unhelpful and unnecessary deadlines to meet, places to be and time spent away from fulfilling more critical aspects of their jobs can leave employees feeling panicked and anxious when it comes to time-management. Could you ease some of that pressure by communicating more effectively throughout the day/week, to save the need for many of the above circumstances? Encourage breaks &ndash; think little but often It could be as simple as a walk to grab coffee, ten minutes spent in the kitchen listening to a podcast or just stretching the legs for a lap around the office; stepping away from the task at hand allows staff time to breathe &ndash; physically AND mentally. Taking time to reflect on what&rsquo;s happening at work, where they&rsquo;re at against their to-do list for the day and what they&rsquo;ve achieved so far is key to managing time and prioritising effectively. Those few minutes away from their desk will pay dividends in the long term &ndash; for them and you. Set solid expectations Simply put, when staff are unsure of what they&rsquo;re supposed to be doing, should have done or have left to do, it can cause stress, anxiety and even panic in some situations. Making sure that as a manager you&rsquo;ve effectively communicated everyone&rsquo;s role and responsibilities will leave no room for ambiguity and the (albeit, sometimes self-inflicted, but unavoidable none the less) pressure which comes along with it. Take time to communicate and feedback with staff, always making sure that they can approach you with questions about their responsibilities and where they stand. Talk about it If we&rsquo;re ever going to break the taboo about mental health, it&rsquo;s going to happen this year. Talk about it. Speak with your team on an ongoing and regular basis to make sure they&rsquo;re doing okay. And, if they&rsquo;re not, you&rsquo;ll at least be pre-warned and hopefully able to help in some way. Talking helps in so many ways &ndash; and, believe it or not, just knowing that they&rsquo;re able to talk about it if they need to in itself can help relieve the stresses and pressures which often lead to burn out. And while we&rsquo;ve got you&hellip; Let it be known, and always bear in mind, that you, business leaders, managers, owners and entrepreneurs &ndash; you&rsquo;re as susceptible, if not more so, to the perils of burn out, and all that follows in its wake. When you&rsquo;re on a plane, they tell you to secure your own oxygen mask before helping your neighbour; think of your business in this way too. If you&rsquo;re not in the right space mentally and aren&rsquo;t looking after yourself, how will you be able to do the same for your team? Share with us your top tips for avoiding or preventing burn out &ndash; is it something you&rsquo;ve experienced personally, or with a team member? Certus are proud to relieve at least one, sometimes fairly significant, part of workplace for our clients &ndash; our recruitment solutions are tailored to fit around you, your business and what you need. Get in touch today.

Burnout is a real thing – and you need to avoid it at all costs

​As the owner of a successful, London-based recruitment company, it might not surprise you to hear that I&rsquo;ve made a few hires over the past 19 years. And as the owner of a successful, London-based recruitment company who is currently growing, it&rsquo;s also no wonder that questions like the one above are front-and-centre in my mind at the moment; it truly is an age-old debate, and one which I don&rsquo;t believe there will ever be a definitive answer for. Should I hire graduates fresh out of university and make them my own, or look for those with experience to bring with them? Here at Certus we&rsquo;ve made successes of the weirdest to the most wonderful backgrounds; equally &ndash; cards on the table &ndash; we&rsquo;ve had some of the most promising simply not work as well as we&rsquo;d hoped. As a business leader, I&rsquo;m very much a believer in taking a chance on someone who impresses at interview and demonstrates the right drive (assuming it makes sense to do so*). Over the years I can honestly say we&rsquo;ve hired a real mix of the two &ndash; that is, grads without experience but with great educational backgrounds, and individuals who perhaps didn&rsquo;t go down the academic route but honed their skills in the workplace. Here are my honest, open thoughts about the pros of each &ndash; and remember that they&rsquo;re my opinions only. I&rsquo;d love to hear if you agree. Education: they know how to learn They might not know how to do the job yet but, I&rsquo;ve certainly found, in hiring someone with little-to-no work experience but a stellar education in hand, you&rsquo;ll find yourself with someone who knows how to pick things up quickly. Classroom learning can definitely transfer to the working world; university teaches strong research skills and the ability to listen, understand and then implement information. Sometimes it&rsquo;s not about whether someone has the capacity to learn, but if they know how to &ndash; education wins on this point, in my books (no pun intended). Experience: they have the basics down When you hire someone who&rsquo;s been working &ndash; whether in an office, as a personal trainer or even in retail &ndash; they have some fantastic skills already upon which to build. Those with working experience already possess the ability to communicate in a workplace setting &ndash; in a professional manner &ndash; and have more of an understanding of &lsquo;business language&rsquo;, shall we say. Their experience means they&rsquo;re less likely to need hand-holding from the off, and could prove them to be an asset to your business more quickly than someone who&rsquo;s had no &lsquo;real world&rsquo; experience (yet). A fast start is a good start. Education: they&rsquo;re used to reaching for targets If you&rsquo;ve been to uni yourself or ever hired at a graduate level, you&rsquo;ll know the pressure placed on students to achieve; just get this many more marks and you&rsquo;ll up your percentage by X, or complete this extra credit to bump up your grade to Y. In the competitive world of education, students are constantly working towards a goal &ndash; which is incredibly valuable in the corporate world. Throughout their education, students are taught the concept of work for reward &ndash; which in turn teaches them how to properly manage time and how they operate best. How hard did I work to get to this point? How much more could I achieve if I worked even harder? And who wouldn&rsquo;t want to hire someone with this exact mindset? Experience: they just know what it means to work Simply put? Hire someone who&rsquo;s already had a job, and they&rsquo;ll understand what it means to get up and get their ass to work, whatever the weather. I am by no means saying that attaining a degree is easy, nor am I suggesting that those who choose to continue their education rather than join the world of work are lazy; it&rsquo;s just a different way of life, a different scale. Hiring experience over education means that this person understands: I have a responsibility to this company. I have a responsibility to do this job, come hell or high water, on their time and not my own. It&rsquo;s just different. Of course, there&rsquo;s so much more to it than what&rsquo;s on a CV, and every single person is different regardless &ndash; refer to my earlier comment about who turns up for the interview and pulls it off, where others just don&rsquo;t. Hiring for experience over education or vice versa isn&rsquo;t a science &ndash; it&rsquo;s about finding the right person for your business, someone who will come to embody your values and take your business&rsquo; goals as their own. So, tell me &ndash; what do you look for? Is there a definitive answer to the education vs experience debate? What are your personal experiences? *This obviously only applies if no specialised skills are needed &ndash; but then again, training&hellip;?

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Insights

Motivating Your Team By Finding Meaningfulness

At what level should you be hiring?

Mind Blanking – why it happens, and how to manage it

Niche roles? Don’t hesitate to hire

Is Imposter Syndrome affecting your career?

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

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