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I attended the really valuable APSCo HR and LD Forum about mental health, and how to keep recruitment staff healthy during this time of Covid and beyond. Here are some working from home tips for marketers and recruiters.
This dovetailed really well with last month's forum which I wrote about Returning to Work After Covid (but, oh, the irony of this week's "stay at home" message is not lost on me.)
Julie Bowen kicked of the meeting with some great points:
We are witnessing a slow and staggered return to work. And there are pockets of recruiters (and their clients and cands) working from home. The boundaries between home and work are blurred. This is causing angst, stress, confusion.
Some WFH (Working from Home) Stats to Warm You Up
(These WFH stats are from my own research and are pre-Covid)
40% of people feel the greatest benefit is the flexible schedule.
Companies allowing remote work have 25% lower employee turnover
People who work remotely at least once a month are 24% more happy / productive
74% are less distracted / 86% are less stressed
21% would give up holiday allowance to have flexi-working (69% of millennials would give up other benefits)
WFH saves at least 11 days per year travelling
How Can We Support Recruiters and Marketers With Mental and Physical Health and Well Being?
Rob Stephenson gave a fantastic presentation on mental health and working from home, and some great tips of how to improve “form” for recruiters, their leaders, marketers and teams.
Sleep / nutrition / exercise – don’t underestimate how you can ensure your teams are aware of what they need to do to care for themselves. How can you engage them to be effective in these areas?
Financial wellbeing – can you invite financial experts to run webinars / sessions for your team to educate them and alleviate any stress in this area?
I loved his comments on “creating of purpose” – as its likely that working remotely has eroded our sense of purpose, and we need that back to help us stay engaged
Connections – We are disconnected, from our staff, our bosses, peers, clients and candidates.
Stress management – WFH creates a different type of stress. Recruitment is known to be a “positive” stress job, but there are new stresses that you and I have not planned or trained for.
Helping others – Working at home may feel like a disabler when you’re used to helping other people.
You can read more about Rob’s thoughts here – there are some great insight and ideas.
My Suggestions for Helping Your Recruiters, Marketers, and Their Teams With Mental Health Whilst Working from Home
Exercise is something that I was lucky enough to continue throughout lockdown, but others may be limited due to health or situation. How can you get your teams motivated and those endorphins going? Could you have a “power hour”. Any of you up for a bit of lycra and Zoom HIIT? Could you nominate a personal trainer in your team?
Reconnecting – Your 3Cs (candidates, clients, colleagues) need help staying connected. Half daily video scrums (09:30/12:45) with the team to keep them focussed and engaged is what we do at Barclay Jones. More regular video calls with clients and candidates are key for recruiters. What can you do to reconnect your staff and teams? Waiting to go back to work is not a solution. This is the new normal. Keep your staff connected through tech. Can you leave Teams (Zoom) “on”, and not just use it for meetings. Be present as leaders. Communicate with the team throughout the day, like you would in the office.
To help you all move forward positively, stay focussed and engaged, set goals – and don’t be afraid to reset them if they are genuinely not viable. My team used to have 90 Day Rocks (a Traction term) where we smash issues and implement ideas. We have reset these Rocks to 30 days, to help us be more agile and react positively to the change around us.
Praise – It’s easy to say thanks when you’re in the office. If you use Teams, try the Praise App and call out some great behaviours – perhaps even focus on Values-led behaviours?
And talking of Teams – what are you doing to really “get” Teams (or Zoom) as these are crucial tools, as crucial (if not more so) as your phone. We’re building out a Trail on our Recruitment HIIT on demand training platform to help recruiters learn how to use the channel not simply to communicate but to help them run their desks. Bullhorn, Adapt, Job Adverts are live, and we're about to go live with HIIT+ where you can add your own training. A great way to connect your teams.
And talking of training. Leaders need to admit that perhaps their staff were not as effective as they’d like before Covid. Now WFH creates even more risk of low productivity and unchecked poor quality. And these team members are unlikely to stick their hand up and admit their weaknesses. There has never been a better, or more important time, to train your recruiters, resourcers, marketers. (Grab a free trial of our on demand training Recruitment HIIT)
And plan for Covid - I've had a stressful week for me awaiting Covid test results for my 8 year old. All of us in isolation, not able to leave the house. The school websites were not geared up for isolation learning, and we didn't necessarily have the right food etc... My work diary was choca! It was super-stressful. Create a plan, so that you know if you need to isolate, you will be ready.
Good luck, recruiters, leaders and marketers. It's going to be a challenging few months. Let's go into it with our eyes open, a plan, and at least the hint of a smile.
Now is the Time to Save Time, for Your Mental Health
Could you save an hour a day, and make an extra £18,750 a year (or £187,500 if there are 10 of you?)
Or indeed save 1 hour a day to stay mentally healthy?
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Lisa Jones
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How Can Recruiters Improve Performance? Get on the Phone!
Recruiters can always improve their performance, whether it be marginal gains or drastically improving failing pipelines. Right now is the time to dig deep and ask:Where can I improve my recruiter performance? AndWhat part of my recruitment workflow can I improve?Take a speedy 30mins and listen / watch my latest Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast. Take a few notes and grab a few takeaways for your recruitment business and your recruitment desk.Recruitment Research: Phone Calls Are a DownerI spent time with Josh Symons from Hinterview. Hinterview has completed some interesting recruitment research to help recruitment leaders and their recruiters focus on where and when they need to get mean and lean in their recruitment workflow!We chatted about how and where recruiters can improve their recruiter performance.Recruiters, Get On the Phone!Josh and I have both been in recruitment for a while and the tried and tested recruitment mantra “get on the phone” has never been more relevant…BUTOnly 10% of calls get answeredCall volume is up 200% - your candidates and clients are saturated with callsBut only 5% of voicemails get listened to.So “get on the phone and hope” isn’t the way to go.But what is? What do recruiters need to do to improve their recruiter performance? And how can we keep phone calls front and centre?How Can the Phone Still Be “The Way” to Recruit and Sell? Josh and I talked about:With all of the recruitment technology available, how can you keep the recruitment process human?Where in the recruitment life cycle can recruiters improve their performance?How can video improve recruiter performance?Phone calls work IF you want and mean them to – but how?How can a recruiter generate heat?What’s Daley Thompson’s decathlon got to do with recruitment?Why does recruitment technology often not work in recruitment (hint – it’s got the word “training” in the answer)What are 85% of male recruiters also doing when they are most engaged with their mobile phones?Recruitment leaders and recruiters – you want your phone calls to work! Listening / watching this recruitment podcast episode will help you use your mobile to improve your phone calls, candidates and clients, and sales.Get at least one takeaway to help you improve recruiter performance and nail those phone calls.Make Your Phone Calls Work! Listen and WatchLISTEN TO THE RECRUITMENT PODCAST EPISODEThanks, Josh, for being such a great sport. You have such passion and purpose, and have so many valuable ideas around best practice and recruiter productivity and performance.Listen and subscribe to the rest of Barclay Jones’ Recruitment Leaders’ Podcast Series on SoundCloud or find us on iTunes and subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch our vodcast series too!… Talking of Recruiter Performance, Phone Calls, Productivity…Improving recruiter performance and recruitment tech ROI comes from recruiter training. Our recruitment training platform, Recruitment HIIT is focussed on those 2 things.Recruitment HIIT helps onboard new recruiters, and refresh experienced recruiters so they can improve their performance.It contains a wealth of recruitment best practice tips, as well as “how to” for recruitment technology such as Bullhorn, SourceBreaker, Hinterview, Daxtra, Broadbean, idibu, and LinkedIn.TRY RECRUITMENT HIIT FOR FREE
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3 Ways to be a Jedi Recruiter
Recruiters! Did you know it takes over 25 hours to watch all of the Star Wars movies? I personally think that's a great use of time, of course, once you've attracted, engaged, converted, and placed the best candidates in the galaxy! Every day is a Kessel Run for the recruiters we work with! Being a Jedi is crucial!To celebrate the annual upcoming Star Wars Day I spoke with a fellow Star Wars geek (and recruitment trainer), Phil, Head of Talent at First Point Group, about what he feels are the top 3 skills that Jedi and Recruiters share.Defence – Recruiters Need to DefendThe ability to objection handle, be prepared, prevent drop outs, and to expect the unexpected – that’s part of recruitment. It’s about reading the Jedi path in front of you and being ready to defend. It’s about defending your candidates, whether they be scruffy-looking nerf herders or teachers. It's about managing and preventing counteroffers. 57% of candidates accept counteroffers that are made to them. This shows the odds are not in your favour, so you need to be prepared.Luckily, our Recruiter Circuits workout on Recruitment HIIT has a course dedicated to helping you manage the offer stage of your recruitment process with your candidates so you can prevent counteroffers and secure your pipeline.Knowledge – Be a Knowledgeable RecruiterKnow your market! Whether it be Ewoks, or IT Developers, Millennium Falcon flight skills, or how to down a Dreadnaught, you need to be knowledgeable. What’s old, new, emerging in your sector…? Knowing the market, client, job, candidate, (and who your sister is) is key. Without this knowledge who knows who you’ll end up kissing!Continuous training is key to enhancing your recruiter skills and can increase sales by 50%. From reducing admin to improving sourcing, BD and beyond, Recruitment HIIT has speedy recruiter training videos to help you continuously improve your recruiter skills and fees.Training – Recruitment Training in The ForceLike Jedi, recruiters continuously training is a must. As Yoda says - “There is no try, only do!” Just like the Rebel Alliance fights against the evil Empire, as recruiters, we are in a battle - a battle for top candidates and clients! You need to be continuously upskilling to stay ahead in the competitive recruitment market - your commission depends on it. Just like The Force is a weapon for success, the best recruiters use their key rec tech, their CRM first for sourcing, engaging, nurturing, and placing candidates.As much as Jedi have the gene (midi-chlorian) they need to constantly train to battle dark forces, whether they be dirty data, drop outs, back door placements, or challenging clients (siths?). Our Bullhorn and Adapt training on Recruitment HIIT will ensure you use your CRM first to save time, improve your candidates and client relationships and placements.Become a Jedi RecruiterJedi, like recruiters, need to follow “the way”, whilst changing lives. They need to know when to lead, when to fight, and when to kiss! Never let it be said that recruitment is just a job – it’s a Way! Someone (Mando) once said… “This is the way!” How can you follow the "the way" as a recruiter? Our recruiter training courses on Recruitment HIIT will help you follow the recruitment 'way'. Our Recruiter Circuits course, especially, has "the way" with 5-minute training videos to ensure qualify your jobs, source, advertise, screen and nail your CV to Interview ratios.Thanks Phil– The Force is strong in you!Speaking of Recruiters Improving Through TrainingOur recruiter training courses on Recruitment HIIT helps recruiters and resourcers source, convert quicker, and develop healthy pipelines. Bullhorn CRM training, job qualification, screening, candidate sourcing, job advertising and management, and reducing counteroffers, are just some of the 5-minute topics recruiters love.We're saving recruiters and resourcers at least 1 hour per day (6 working weeks a year) - more billing time, more fees!TRY RECRUITMENT HIIT FOR FREE
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