How to make your job offer irresistible

By / Behavioral Assessment, Recruitment/Hire, Talent Assessments, Talent Optimization / Leave a Comment

How you offer the job to your new recruit is vitally important. But why?

Surely, finding the right person for the job is key, I hear you say. And it is, but think about it this way: while you might not hesitate to reach for white chocolate as your favourite treat, to someone else a bar of dark chocolate is irresistible. Picture the scenario.

A new survey of over 5000 UK workers, has discovered that an astounding 84% of those currently in employment are planning to apply for new roles this year. Many might still be biding their time and are waiting for the right opportunity. Many companies are struggling to fill their vacancies, and competition for those quality candidates is high.

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Remote working

Confessions of a Remote Worker

By / Behavioral Assessment, HR Management, Leadership, People Management, Talent Management / Leave a Comment

You’re trapped and rooted to your kitchen chair with a new worry line adorning your brow, courtesy of your new line manager. But where did the day go so horribly wrong?

It’s Monday morning. The dog has hidden your mobile phone again, so you’ve missed your alarm. Thank goodness for remote working!

Your rush downstairs. After wearily turning on your laptop in the kitchen at twenty-five past eight, you find a notification waiting for you. Over the weekend, your new line manager has quietly slipped in an eight-thirty team strategy meeting.

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Running late

Running late – straight into early redundancy

By / Behavioral Assessment, Predictive Index, Talent Management / Leave a Comment

The world of Covid, the new normal, with its Zoom meetings, social distancing, and travel avoidance must be a godsend for people who are always late.

Instead of having to struggle with cars, bicycles or public transport, all they have to do now is to shuffle the few steps over to their sofa. They don’t even have to get dressed properly. Throwing some kind of jacket over their pyjamas is enough for them to be good to ‘go’ to the business meeting.

They have no more excuses for being late. Or do they?

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I can't do wright for doing wrong

Can I give you some feedback?

By / Employee Development, Leadership, People Management, Talent Management / Leave a Comment

Is there really anyone out there who hears those word and thinks “oh goody, yes please”?

If there is, you’re a much better person than me!

Take this example, it was a long time ago – but I still remember it like it was yesterday.

I’d given a sales presentation to a prospective client with Helen, a new Associate who I was mentoring. Despite not being a traditionally qualified ‘sales professional’, I was actually quite good at what I did. I believed passionately in the product that I was selling, and I had my own sales ‘muscle’ that I used to be effective.

Helen, on the other hand, was very much a qualified sales person. She had worked in sales for one market-leading multinational company for the fifteen years since her graduation. She had been on every sales course suggested – and undoubtedly knew her stuff.

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Of squinting cats and great leadership

By / Behavioral Assessment, Leadership, People Management, Talent Assessments, Team Perfomance / Leave a Comment

It’s that tired old question: Can a chubby moggy with a befuddling squint and an inflated ego actually become a great leader?

Working from home during lockdown has provided the perfect opportunity to really observe the behaviours of my three crazy cats – two sisters and their brother. They look and behave so differently. Pablo, the largest of the three, is the one with the squint.

On the surface, their day looks very much like a business operation where targets are set, and tasks need to be accomplished. Team cooperation has to be negotiated carefully.

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Are you a risk-taker?

Risk: your public speech is my 2000 metre drop

By / Behavioral Assessment, People Management, Predictive Index, Recruitment/Hire, Talent Assessments / Leave a Comment

We all perceive risk differently. When you hear the words ‘bungee jumping’, what’s your immediate reaction? Do your fingertips and the soles of your feet start tingling with fear, or do you shout “hold my beer” and rush to the nearest 2000 metre drop?

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Bee - finding solutions through team performance

Should businesses be more honeybee in the face of adversity?

By / Change Management, Leadership, People Management, Talent Assessments, Talent Management, Talent Optimization, Team Perfomance / Leave a Comment

I was listening to a news programme on the radio. One of the stories piqued my interest. Why indeed would honeybees resort to using animal dung to protect their hives? I was reminded of all the businesses that had to pivot their strategies in recent times. How could they ensure that their teams continued to perform at their best throughout periods of profound change? Please bear with me on this one!

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Death of a Sales Manager

By / Employee Development, HR Management, Leadership, People Management, Talent Assessments, Talent Management / Leave a Comment

My father gave his life to one company, a well-known white goods manufacturer. Trained as an electrical engineer, he started out tightening screws on appliances. But soon he was travelling up and down the country as a salesman and customer service provider selling household goods to shops.

The job suited my suave and humorous father to the core, and he did very well. So well, in fact, that the company made him Sales Manager, a promotion that saw him catapulted … into an office, where he spent his days managing a sales team.

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How to mitigate the detrimental effects of imposter syndrome in the workplace

By / People Management, Personality Psychology, Predictive Index, Talent Assessments, Talent Management, Talent Optimization / Leave a Comment

According to a review article published in the International Journal of Behavioral Science, 70 percent of people experience imposter syndrome at some point in their lives.

As a Manager, you are tasked with safeguarding both your employees’ wellbeing and your company’s productivity. It is therefore important to be aware that the effects of imposter syndrome can be crippling for both your employees and your business.

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Are you playing the recruitment lottery?

By / People Management, Recruitment/Hire, Talent Assessments / Leave a Comment

Wouldn’t you like to know exactly who you are employing?

Using reliable people data can help you take the guesswork out of your recruitment process and enable you to:

  • Recruit faster, more efficiently and with greater predictability
  • Attract top talent
  • Safeguard the company against hiring mistakes
  • Reduce staff turnover
  • Hire with confidence and integrity

If you are working as a Recruiter or in HR, your company will most likely rely on you to attract top talent, and to then onboard the new hires swiftly and smoothly.

Do you sometimes wish you had a crystal ball?

Building talent assessments into the candidate pre-screening, interviewing and reviewing phase of your recruitment process comes close.

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