Indeed and Glassdoor recently released their very first joint Hiring and Workplace Trends Report, which explores the projected areas talent acquisition and HR teams will need to focus on in 2023 – including the value of company culture; an increased demand from candidates to see DE&I initiatives; and working with team members to enact feedback and change in the workplace.

In line with these three key trends, Recruitment Marketing Magazine Editor, Susie Mather, gives her thoughts on how organisations can leverage these insights to see growth in the new year. With over 20 years of experience in business and recruitment, Susie’s reflections are informed by the strategies and successes she has seen in the organisation she co-founded, Scout Talent.

Key insight 1: Company culture is valuable in both attracting and retaining team members

Susie: Commercial reality, authenticity and good old common sense are key when it comes to building a robust company culture. Firstly, culture needs to be totally authentic in order to have value; and secondly, businesses have to make commercial sense. The good news is that it’s a straightforward formula: without one of these things, a culture can often be lacking. 

The bad news is: organisations can’t simply “incorporate things” they think would appeal into their culture in the same way they might add Lego bricks to a Lego castle. Think of organisational culture like an individual’s personality – a mixture of DNA and ‘nurture over time’ that is somewhat set and not terribly easy to simply “add things to” in order to appeal to candidates. 

The “adding of things” can definitely be done, but it definitely puts authenticity (at the very least) at risk. For example, you can’t just add trust and integrity as items to your company culture if you haven’t taken the steps to ensure there is transparency within your teams or facilitated situations where team members have to rely on each other. In order to make something a part of your culture, you need to get buy-in from your team members and ensure that adding it aligns with your business goals.

Similarly, “cultural bricks” that contribute to a viable business can’t simply be easily removed later on like a Lego brick is, if the organisation feels they’re no longer ‘needed’. If your team members have operated on a system of transparency to maintain trust within the team, you can’t suddenly decide that information should be siloed – doing so would cause your team members and perhaps even external stakeholders to question the authenticity of your culture.

All the above is why employer branding often goes disappointingly (and expensively) wrong. If an employer branding company offers, even very obliquely, to “add things to your culture” that will help you attract more or better talent – please, run a mile. In fact, just call me and I’ll shout you an Uber. 

Why? Because employer branding is all about identifying, articulating and amplifying an organisation’s actual employer brand, not adding things to enhance it. And the identification phase should involve workshops with key stakeholders, and in-depth talks with at least 40 current employees across the full range of roles and tenures, just for a start.

I’m not saying an organisation can’t improve its culture. Not for a second. But it’s nothing to do with employer branding team or company. Changing culture requires the careful and focussed attention of a group of existing stakeholders in an organisation, and buy-in and ownership at all levels including executive and board. 

If you’re looking to elevate your organisational culture in 2023, remember that it’s never quick. It’s never painless. It can be done well. And don’t let any employer branding consultants tell you about adding Lego bricks.

Key insight 2: Diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives – and employers’ progress on them – matter to employees

Susie: This topic is dear to my heart. At Scout Talent, we’ve made a particular focus this year on DEI&B, with the B standing for Belonging – which is an important facet because you can create all the diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the world, but if your team members don’t feel like they belong in your workplace, then what are you doing it for?

One of my favourite memories, when I think about DEI&B at Scout Talent, is the International Foods Potluck hosted by one of our content marketing specialists and resident DEI&B champion, Kyra Kirrane. I asked her to share more about the Potluck for Recruitment Marketing Magazine, as well as her thoughts on the importance of DEI&B and how employers can do better in 2023. Here’s what she said:

DEI&B seems like a huge undertaking, but it really can start with a conversation and a light-hearted internal event. We have a real passion for food at Scout Talent, so the idea to host an International Foods Potluck came very naturally. As our first DEI&B initiative, it was something that many people could get excited about, everyone could participate in, and there was no cost required of the business to host this really engaging event. 

I put together some collateral, which included a few colourful posters and some carefully crafted Slack messages, and started “marketing” the campaign internally about three weeks out from the date. I recruited some champions to organise the same event in our other offices around the globe, which really helped to make the event feel more impactful. 

Finally, I prepared a little “speech” for the start of the event to set the scene. I explained why we’d gathered: to celebrate our multiculturalism through food. I emphasised that because food is embedded in culture, it’s also deeply connected to identity, and an event like this allows us to preserve and celebrate our diverse cultures in a multicultural society. This is particularly true for people whose culture is not the dominant culture i.e. Australian. As an immigrant myself, and with many, many colleagues who are immigrants to Australia, it was important for me to make space for the myriad cultures that we have the privilege of experiencing every day at Scout Talent. 

I also took a moment to acknowledge that food practices are influenced by access and that we should reflect with gratitude on our access to the delicious food we’d prepared and keep this in mind as we tucked in. 

The event was a great success: we got a really good amount of participation from people bringing in homemade snacks, and I encouraged everyone to come to try them out even if they were unable to bring something along themselves. Our various offices around the world participated and our Slack channels were flooded with pictures of everyone taking part. In particular, some of our team members who are typically more reserved came out with amazing spreads and loads of engagement – a great sign when you’re trying to nurture a culture of inclusion and visibility! 

Upon reflection, I think the following takeaways were key to making this initiative happen, and can be valuable points for organisations looking to improve their DEI&B or start similar initiatives in the new year:

• Empowering your teams: Key to my ability to host this internal event and create a business-wide project team that includes an executive team member, was truly feeling empowered to pursue something I cared about during work hours. 
• Engaged and forward-thinking leaders: Identify strengths in your team members and encourage them to explore them, and flourish.
• A level of independence and autonomy: Once I was empowered to take this project on and turn it into something real, my leader supported me and always gave me her best advice, but let me drive the initiative independently, which reinforced my own communication and leadership skills. 
• A culture of learning and development: Not only was this my most direct pathway into DEI&B (we have dedicated weekly learning hours, which I used to prepare for the potluck) but it is key to creating an inclusive culture because by its nature, becoming more diverse and inclusive asks people to HEAL: harmonise, empathise, accept, and learn (a concept from motivational psychologist and speaker, Eve Ash). Humbling yourself in the face of learning new ways of thinking about the world and its people can be challenging – the more positive, safe, and collaborative your culture, the easier it will be to implement new and exciting initiatives.

Key insight 3: Workers have more leverage to demand change in the workplace

As mentioned in the Indeed and Glassdoor Hiring and Workplace Trends Report, a demographic shift towards an aging population means hiring will continue to be a challenge for years to come. This is translating to workers having more power to demand change in the workplace. 

This isn’t a bad thing at all – in fact, employers should view this as an opportunity to start 2023 strong and ask their team directly for feedback on how they can improve, so team members are shown that their opinions are valued.

One way to ask for feedback is to simply listen. Make the time to really listen to employees’ comments and requests when they come in, with your only intention in that moment being to understand them – the response can come later, after you’ve heard all they’ve had to say.

While you are listening, stay measured and calm. When it is time to respond, protect the organisation fiscally (after all, it does support all these people) by not making reactive decisions. If you don’t have an immediate answer, tell your team member(s) that you will come back to them, and take the time to formulate a well thought-out response, as well as a plan for how you will communicate it.  

Another way you can collect feedback on a wider scale and regular cadence is through a Employee Engagement Survey (EES). At Scout Talent, we conduct an EES within the entire organisation every year to check in with our team – we ask them what they’re happy with, what we could do better, and give them an opportunity to give specific feedback. The most valuable part of doing this is that afterwards, we review the results and discuss feedback as a wider group, then within our divisional teams to implement change. 

In between EES and tidbits of feedback, it’s absolutely essential to constantly show your team members they are valued. Tracey Mathers gives great tips here on how to do exactly that – so that when your team comes to you with requests for change, they’ll feel more comfortable and empowered to do so, and the request itself will feel like exactly that, and not a demand.

A key thing to remember is that any changes that come from employee requests need to be authentic and aligned with the business’ goals both now and into the foreseeable future. Why? Because circumstances will continue to change, and any changes you promise need to be viewed in the whole picture of the company’s culture. After all, cultural bricks aren’t like Lego bricks that can be added and taken away again.

The post From the editor: How you can set your organisation up for talent acquisition success in 2023 appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Let me just say something at the outset of “the most important thing we do” series. Obviously, there are FAR more “important things we do” than what this series is going to be about. Relationships, self-care, children, family and friends, the planet, world peace, and good old “just not being a tosser” are more important. High also on my personal list is maximising joy in our lives and in the lives of others, and that applies both at work and outside it.

But in this series, I’m talking about what is, quite possibly, the single most important thing we do in our organisations, as business owners, managers, leaders, entrepreneurs, or members of talent acquisition teams.

Mark Benioff, CEO of the madly successful company Salesforce, believes that talent acquisition is the most important thing we in this cohort, do, as part of growing our organisations. According to Mark, “Acquiring the right talent is the most important key to growth. Hiring was – and still is – the most important thing we do”. I for one, agree. 

(I also happen to hold a strong opinion on the second most important thing, but that’s for another time…)

Anyway, Mark’s right. And it’s a big topic, talent acquisition. So today I’m kicking off the series, and 2022, with one easy thing we can all do right now that has huge potential to find your organisation the best talent during this calendar year. It’s something that my 20+ years as a business leader has proven time and time again to be one of the most effective methods for attracting the employees that arrive for the right reasons and are likely to stay. 

I’m talking about the good old Employee Referral Programme (ERP). Hey, it’s nothing new, but some of the best ideas are the old chestnuts. You probably already have an ERP. We do. We’ve had one for decades and we blooming well love it. But we’re in the process of taking ours out, polishing it up, and marketing it internally (again!) to make sure new people are aware and long-term people are excited. 

The “how” behind our employee referral scheme is simple. If an existing employee recommends someone they know to apply for a role with us, and that person applies, goes through our recruitment process and gets hired, then the employee that recommended them gets $500 when their contact starts work with us. Then another $500 once the hired contact has been on board for 6 months. Simple! Not at all original. Most organisations do something similar. If you don’t, then you’re really missing out.

But that takes me back to the “take it off the shelf and give it a polish” part because even if you do have an ERP, you might still be missing out. 

I’ll tell you a story. It’s a bit embarrassing. On Friday at end of work office drinks, I was sharing a beverage with two fabulous new hires, and I was feeling smugly self-congratulatory about getting them on board. During said drink, it emerged that the slightly longer-term fab hire had referred the brand-new fab hire to our organisation and had no idea they were owed the referral fee. Now, I know the good deed happened anyway. But how many more referrals might we have gotten if we had kept the ERP front of mind with all our people? It’s not about the money. It’s about the excitement of it all and it’s linked to recognition and reward. It’s gamification, and what’s not to love about that?

Having dropped the ball on our own Employee Referral Programme, I consider myself amply qualified to give you all some hints and tips on how to do it properly. Ahem. Here are a few ideas:

• Have a recurring calendar event to re-market your ERP quarterly to existing employees, to keep it exciting and front of mind.
• Make the ERP part of induction information for all new starters and make sure they know they can refer people they know, straight away.
• Build excitement around your ERP. Gamify it, publicise it and celebrate the wins internally.
• Ask referees why they referred their contact to the organisation and listen carefully to their answer.
• In your regular Employee Engagement Surveys, ask your people how likely they are to recommend a contact to work with your organisation. Ask why or why not. Listen carefully to the (anonymous) answers.
• Use any stories of successful employee referrals as wonderful ‘people stories’ for the careers section of your website and embed them in your recruitment advertising, if the people involved are keen.
• Make sure your existing employees have the information they need about your organisation—its values, vision, goals, playbook and so on, to provide this to any contacts that might be interested in joining. An Employer Branding project is a massive ‘great to have’ to help with this, but if you can’t do one right now, don’t let that be a bottleneck to making sure your current employees are well-informed.
• Don’t inadvertently drop the ball (ahem) on the admin around actually paying the money when a referral has been hired (and/or stays on board for the prescribed time). Have a system for this (obviously administered by people more organised than I am).

Finally, get joy out of your Employee Referral Programme. Feel pride that people working in your organisation like it enough to recommend contacts to work there too. It’s a big thing! Nobody knows better than a current employee, who is most likely to enjoy and thrive in their organisation. Share the joy with the leader/s of the referring employee. They’re clearly doing something very, very right. Crack the champagne and take the opportunity to do some storytelling, either in words, on video (an iPhone video is totally fine) or both. Share the story internally and into your talent database. 

Most importantly of all, say a huge, sincere, heartfelt thank you to the employee that thought enough of your organisation to recommend it as a great place to work! Because that means the world.

The post The most important thing we do: episode 1 appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

As Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine roll-out strategy ramps up across the nation, 70% of casual workers have indicated that they would be more likely to receive the vaccine if it was recommended by their employer.

The research by workforce management solutions provider Humanforce also revealed that the vast majority of casual workers – 71% – think that employers have a right to ask their workers to be vaccinated.

However, only 30% of these casual staff worked for employers who had said being vaccinated for COVID-19 would be a requirement to secure shifts in the future.

“Given the scale of disruption the pandemic has caused for so many workplaces across Australia, there was a lot of talk even prior to the vaccine arriving in Australia and being rolled out, about whether workplaces would make it mandatory for staff to be vaccinated,” said  Clayton Pyne, founder and managing director of Humanforce. “Many employer groups have publicly advocated for businesses to be able to direct staff towards being vaccinated to help avoid future outbreaks and workplace disruptions, and most casual workers are clearly supportive of this, which is a positive finding for safe workplaces and business continuity in 2021.”

More than two-thirds of casual workers said they had been concerned about their health in the workplace throughout the COVID-19 period. These concerns were likely the reason the same number of workers said they would get the vaccine when it was available to them, while 24% were still undecided and 12% said they did not intend to get the vaccine.

Interestingly, 79% of casual workers indicated that they would prefer it if their colleagues were vaccinated, which was higher than the number who said they would get the COVID-19 vaccine themselves. Two-thirds of casual workers were also supportive of their employers requiring customers and visitors to the workplace to show they had been vaccinated.

“It’s very apparent that casual workers are concerned about COVID-19 and their health at work, and that they expect their employers to step in and take charge of protecting them and others while in the workplace,” added Pyne. “That’s why employers must now ensure they are prioritising the fine-tuning of their organisation’s position on COVID-19 vaccines. Engaging casual workers early on is vital in clearly communicating with them your organisation’s position, as well as expectations of them and others when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine. It’s also important to have the right systems in place to effectively communicate with staff and track staff vaccination information, should it be required by your organisation.”

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Students in metro areas and overseas students are feeling the job squeeze the most. Graduates in regional areas are the least concerned, but many still predict a tough job market.

In addition to believing the job market has worsened compared to pre-COVID levels, two-thirds of graduates expect that remuneration in their field of study will be lower. Graduates in metro areas are significantly more likely to think salaries in their field of study will be highly impacted. Students resigned to challenges ahead and adapting careers and lifestyles.

How graduates are adapting to changed marketplace conditions 

Despite reduced employment prospects, many tertiary graduates are taking an ‘accept and adapt’ approach. Nearly three-quarters are considering either extending their studies to include postgraduate qualifications, starting a new course from scratch or ‘switching streams’ as a result of lowered expectations
regarding employment prospects.

In fact, a third of graduates say they won’t bother looking for a graduate job in 2021, with another third opting to go straight into a non-graduate position. Eighty-two per cent have either found a non-graduate job or expect to have to get one until they find a graduate position.

Maintaining financial security is a priority for many graduates in the current climate, with three quarters looking to either spend less on going out and/or planning to direct additional money into savings. And more than one in three are planning to spend less on holidays, take a second job, buy second-hand items rather than new, or live at home with their parents for longer. High performers have the opportunity to thrive in the current, more competitive environment.

Graduate employer priorities

Despite a tense job market, 39% of graduating students see an opportunity to accelerate their careers. Graduate employers agree. More than half see the opportunity for ‘the cream to rise to the top’ faster.

Graduate employers look for high-value personal attributes in the recruitment process (above high academic marks or work experience), including:

• a positive attitude
• a strong work ethic
• good soft interpersonal skills
• adaptability
• resilience.

Smaller organisations may have greater access to top talent than previously. Businesses with less than 20 employees were more likely to continue to hire at the same rate, while larger organisations are the most likely to cut back their graduate intake in 2021. This could create opportunities for graduates to find a role within SMEs and for these businesses to hire some of the nation’s brightest talent.

Despite current challenges, there is cause for cautious optimism among 2020 graduates. The majority of employers will hire as many or more graduates in 2021 as they hired in either 2020 or 2019, indicating while the graduate job market has been squeezed, it’s unlikely to be as tough as many graduates might fear.

In fact, hiring prospects for graduates are anticipated to bounce back towards pre-COVID levels by the end of 2021. The smaller portion of organisations opting not to recruit as many graduates in 2021 stated this was related to COVID-19 or overall economic conditions.

Jay Munro, Head of Career Insights at Indeed, says, “While COVID-19 has undoubtedly had an impact on the number of graduate roles available, I think there’s been an assumption that the longer-term outlook is grimmer than what the data shows. With 75% of employers expecting to hire the same number of graduates as pre-COVID levels this year, it’s understandable that graduates are feeling the pinch, however, there are some signs that the market will recover over the next 12 months.

“There is definitely a silver lining for high performing graduates in this climate as this group are likely going to be able to accelerate their careers once they land a role. Meanwhile, SMEs hiring graduates are more well-positioned than usual to seize upon top talent.

“Flexibility remains key during this period of uncertainty and many graduates are proving themselves adaptable and resilient by seeking alternate paths to employment or venturing into extended study. The research shows that these are qualities many employers are seeking and therefore the actions we know them to be taking will put them in good stead bigger picture.”

The post Tips to attract top graduate talent in 2021 appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Kendra Banks, Managing Director, SEEK ANZ, states: “It’s close to 12 months since COVID-19 severely impacted the employment market, and we are pleased to observe continued improvement with the healthiest year-on-year job ad growth since the pandemic began. In February, there was year-on-year growth of 12.4% and month-on-month growth of 4.1%.

“For the first time since before the pandemic, all states and territories saw year-on-year growth in job ads posted on seek.com.au. New South Wales and ACT were the only two states, before last month, not to have returned to pre-COVID levels. In February, NSW saw an increase of 3.6% y/y, and ACT was 5.0% higher.”

Banks continues: “Professional Services is the only sector to still be showing a y/y decline, however, 10.1% is the smallest gap we have seen and is being more than made up for by the other sectors. Professional Services roles tend to be the more office-based corporate roles that are based in a CBD.”

“Australia’s speedy closing of borders, national and state lockdowns in response to outbreaks, large-scale government financial assistance and the general willingness of Australians to play their own role in bringing COVID-19 under control have all played a major role in the fact that the country emerged from 2020 in better shape than could have been imagined nine months earlier,” said Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine.

However, even as the Australian economy appears to be “firing on most cylinders,” the large hole in the federal budget – resulting from increased fiscal spending – shows the economic toll of the crisis. “Having forecast a $6.1bn surplus for 2020-21, the federal government revised its position to an expected $213.7bn deficit,” Levine said.

“On an individual level, it is a tale told in two parts,” the CEO said. Millions of households that received government aid purportedly began the year “better off” than they were before the pandemic. However, 1.93 million people remained out of work in February, with the 18-24 age group the most heavily affected.

The post Optimism reshaping the recruitment landscape  appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

“Listen, I support diversity, but I gotta get this sales position filled asap — it’s killing me to have this territory uncovered.” — Sales Hiring Manager

 

“I appreciate the value of diversity, really, but we’ve had years of success hiring against this profile. We know that people from [brand company, pedigreed school] do better here — they’re predictably good hires, and ramp up quickly.” — Engineering Hiring Manager

If you’re a recruiter, you’ve probably heard hiring managers share some version of these two statements before. Your team members understand the value of diversity and inclusiveness, but they “still have a department to run and/or products to sell.” Therefore, diversity is not their number one priority.

“We’ve worked with thousands of hiring managers and corporate recruiters and during focus groups for our hiring manager, talent advisor, or diversity training, we hear this kind of feedback. Good people, who want to help, but also feel incredible pressure to hire quickly. Which means, we — as Talent Advisors — must do all the right things to ensure we’re:

1. Widening the aperture early, and not going after ideal candidate profiles
2. Improving access and casting a wide net so that our sourcing efforts include more people from underrepresented groups
3. Mitigating bias via effective interviewing (maybe even requiring all hiring managers to get a license to hire)

And not only that — we must also look for opportunities to shift our internal culture, which can be a major barrier to diversity ROI, away from its 90%+ focus on speed and predictability.”

Vlastelica emphasises there are internal factors – i.e. within organisation’s control. They largely stem from the cultural norms that reinforce certain expectations and behaviours.

A culture centred on speed can impact diversity ROI

For many organisations, hiring speed is a priority. In reviewing metrics, time to fill is regularly viewed as the primary focus, weighted most heavily by hiring managers.

“But if speed is the primary focus of both recruiters and hiring managers, then anything that’s perceived to slow us down will be met with resistance. Even with good intentions, a lot of diversity efforts can fail because of the underlying pressure to fill roles quickly. And I get it — I’ve been a hiring manager, and by the time my [requisition] is approved, I’m probably already feeling incredible urgency to hire. Maybe the person I’m backfilling resigned three weeks ago, and this requisition took another three weeks to get approved — I may feel six weeks “behind” before I even meet with my recruiter to start the recruiting process.”

In an interview with a CHRO at a well-known tech company, Vlastelica gained a new insight to reflect on this as a cultural issue.

“If a people manager in my company is leading a team that is so fragile that they can’t wait an extra 2, 3, 4 weeks to support something that is so critical to our company’s short and long term success — diversity and inclusion — then maybe they shouldn’t be a hiring manager at all.  But I don’t blame them — we run lean, and so we have some cultural and resourcing issues to deal with, internally, before we expect our managers to accept a slightly slower time to fill as a tradeoff worth making.

“This really spoke to me — it highlighted how much of the root issue stems from deeper issues related to the pain of running so lean, of putting so much pressure on our teams to fill roles quickly.”

So, what’s the solution?

More frank conversations are needed with executive leadership teams about resourcing, and the issue of reinforcing speed over quality or diversity. Organisations must also communicate their commitment to diversity in a way that allows requisitions teams to experience longer times to fill in the short-term.

Vlastelica reflects on a panel with diversity leaders, who shared: “when they moved to requiring diverse candidate slates, they did in fact experience a longer time to fill (TTF). They significantly improved representation in key categories, but TTF worsened by nine days. That was the short-term investment and trade-off that they made to address a much bigger inequity. So, did average TTF stay nine days longer forever? Nope. Just six months later, it returned to the pre-diverse slate requirement stage — those nine days disappeared. They just needed to develop some new muscles.”

Hiring predictability cubs diversity efforts

Hiring cultures that rely on predictability hold back diversity efforts. Relying too heavily on predictable hiring may seem like the easiest and fasts way to fill requisitions. Many hiring managers trust the record they’ve had successfully sourcing and filling roles. When recruiters suggest alternative candidate profiles, it feels like a risk and can receive pushback. Middle managers are heavily motivated to minimise risk, not to take advantage of opportunity.  Differences are perceived as risky.

“Now, no one — especially me — is suggesting that hiring a [black engineering manager, latinx sales person, or female investment banker] is risky, or should take longer BECAUSE they are [black, latinx, a woman]. BUT, if the culture reinforces a norm of avoiding risk and walking familiar paths, and some people from underrepresented groups aren’t commonly found in those trusted companies and schools, then of course some hiring managers will go to the profiles that feel predictable, to the profiles that have worked out in the past, to ‘sameness.’”

Organisations often have to reinforce through role-modelling to shift the mindset of management and hiring teams when scaling up.

For example, a co-founder of a fin-tech company consciously targeted women for roles that had been traditionally filled by men. She wanted diversity on her team at all levels. And she recognised that to get her hiring managers hiring more women, she needed to lead by example.

“So, she’d bring in candidates that didn’t all graduate with the same degrees from the same schools, who didn’t work at the same companies that all banking firms usually hired from (which were almost all men).  She diversified her sources and profiles, and then when the risks were called out in the interviewing debrief meeting by her traditionally-pedigreed interviewers, she talked about how she’d mitigate those risks, and ultimately took solid bets on people who were very capable (hard and soft skills matched, motivation to learn was strong).

“In fact, she consciously moved away from a consensus-oriented hiring decision making model to one where she made the final call. This was a cultural shift for her and her team — consensus, up to this point, was how most decisions were made. But, she moved away from consensus to both widen the aperture to get talent that had been regularly overlooked AND to role model the kind of bets she wanted her leadership team to make. In the end, she shifted culture by pointing to successful hires her team had made that fit outside the “sameness” of past target candidate profiles. She made it culturally “safe” to hire differences.”

What can you do to shift the focus away from speed and predictability?

Many organisational challenges, even in talent acquisition, are internal.

“Many of the biggest barriers to diversity success are systemic — they exist across our company and are embedded in our culture. They’re not caused by just one hiring manager, or a lack of a sourcing tool, or lack of budget to recruit from different schools. So when we’re operating as talent advisors, and are coaching our top business leaders on the barriers to success in diversity, it’s critical we bring up our culture’s hyper-focus on speed and predictability in hiring.”

If your organisation and executive leaders are genuinely committed to effect systemic change, it’s time for some honest, frank conversations about short-term trade-offs vs. long term gains to improve diversity and inclusion.

“I’d start by looking at five things that will demonstratively shift your underlying culture:

Lead an honest conversation with your HR leadership team about how lean your teams are, how much pressure your leaders are under to fill roles quickly, and how we can partner to create some slack in the system so that the hiring manager’s focus goes beyond just speed.

Don’t wait to talk with your hiring managers about diversity for the first time until they have a req open. You missed the window — by the time the requistion is opened, the urgency is already present and dominating the hiring need. We need to talk to hiring managers about diversity pre-funnel.”

• Emphasise quality and diversity metrics over time-to-fill metrics – identify metrics to measure progress with your business leaders inclusive of diversity goals.
• Move away from requiring consensus in hiring decisions – consensus requirements are generally bad for diversity if you’re trying to hire new profiles, as consensus decisions are often the safe decisions.
• Get your diversity champions to role model the behaviour you want represented in your culture – culture is largely the behaviours you reward and punish, and it comes from stories, not posters on the wall. Help your executives to make hiring decisions that weight “culture add” over “culture fit” and, when their “different” new hires are a wild success, capture that as an example story to reinforce with their peers.

Speed and predictability are connected. It can be tough to challenge the “muscles” we’ve developed to source and select candidates quickly.

Vlastelica summarises, “Developing new muscles to source, engage, and interview talent that doesn’t fit our sameness profiles takes time. But the ROI is there — and it’ll become our new-normal (and “fast”) if we identify and act on the cultural shifts that need to take place, so that we all develop these underdeveloped hiring muscles. Will those cultural shifts take months or years? Yep, sorry — nothing this challenging is quick to fix. But it very well could be the most strategic, long term, highest ROI work we do.”

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The video features a voiceover and CommBank team members – targeting top tech talent by sharing the engaging tech stack their people get to work with and other attractive benefits.

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You asked, Jonathan answers. Thank you to readers who submitted their questions. In this instalment, Jonathan provides his answers, sharing information about leave entitlements, employer’s work-from-home obligations, JobMaker and more. 

Q1) Hi, if employees have exhausted all sick/annual leave entitlements after the holidays, should we allow them to go into negative leave balance? If so, how much negative leave balance should we allow?

There are two parts to this question, the first is the personal leave component (sick leave) the second is annual leave.

Personal Leave

With respect to personal leave, we recommend it only be allowed where an employee is entitled to personal leave under the National Employment Standards (for example a personal injury or illness).  An employer should not allow a person to use their personal leave to supplement annual leave (unless there is a genuine entitlement to personal leave).  By doing so you may create an expectation among employees that they are entitled to use annual leave and personal leave interchangeably.

There is also the option of allowing unpaid personal leave if the leave entitlements have been utilised.

Allowing employees to go into negative personal leave balance is not recommended  because employers will likely encounter difficulties in recovering outstanding personal leave from final termination pay.  There are strict limits on when amounts can be deducted from employees pay and without proper documentation, an employer may be left with no recourse to recover personal leave paid in advance.

Of course there are exceptions and if you have a policy allowing negative leave balances then you will need to follow those policies.

Annual Leave

Annual leave operates differently.  Under all Modern Awards there is ability for an employer to enter into an agreement with an employee to take annual leave in advance.  Such an agreement may be necessary where there is an office closedown over the Christmas break.

In these circumstances an employer should enter into a written agreement setting out:

• The amount of leave to be taken in advance; and
• The date on which leave is to commence;

The agreement must also be signed by the employer and employee.

This agreement must also be retained as an employee record.  If an employer enters into an agreement to take annual leave in advance, they are entitled to deduct any outstanding leave in advance from the employee’s final termination pay.  This is supported under Section 324 of the Fair Work Act.

Despite there being a broader scope to allow annual leave to be taken in advance, the amount of leave taken in advance should be minimised (e.g. no more than 1-2 weeks).  Unlike personal leave, there is scope for an employer to refuse a request for annual leave provided the refusal is reasonable.  As such, if an employee makes a request for annual leave in advance it can be refused on reasonable grounds.

Got a question for Jonathan? Send it to editor@www.rmm.onenazmul.dev. Mamaril and his team of employment lawyers at NB Lawyers will answer as many as they can and share these answers in Recruitment Marketing Magazine*. 

Q2) Can any age discrimination charges against employers be made if you can only hire employees under 35? (For the JobMaker hiring credit)

In its current form, the JobMaker Hiring Credits are intended to support employees within the 16 to 35 year age bracket, who have been very disadvantaged by COVID-19. In practical terms, this is a welfare measure intended for their benefit. As to whether allegations of age discrimination can be made, we need to look at the position at the State and Federal level.

At the Commonwealth Level, section 33 of the Age Discrimination Act 2004 (Cth) permits ‘positive discrimination’ if there is a bona fide benefit to persons of a particular age, intended to meet a need that arises because of the age or intended to reduce a disadvantage experienced by person of a particular age. The JobMaker scheme arguably fits within this exemption. It is intended to reduce the unemployment rate of persons aged 16 – 35, who have been impacted by COVID-19.

As an example of state laws, in Queensland, there is no ‘positive discrimination’ provision under the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (QLD). Employers have had to specifically seek exemptions when they wished to benefit a particular group of people. As an example, in Re: Protech Personnel Pty Ltd [2019] QIRC 175, Protech Personnel applied to the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission to be able to specifically advertise for and recruit women for the construction industry. Women have been historically underrepresented in this industry. Protech Personnel’s actions were well-intended, however they were still required to specifically apply for an exemption.

In our view, section 104 of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (QLD) may be relevant. It allows a person to do an act, to members of a group with an attribute (such as age), if the act was designed to assist their welfare. Given the intention of the JobMaker Scheme is to benefit the welfare of a particular age group, it may fall within section 104 of the Queensland Act, creating an exemption to age discrimination.

Having regard to the above, there is unlikely to be an issue if an employer only hires persons eligible for JobMaker. There may well be an issue however, where the employer specifically advertises for persons aged 16 – 35. There is a material difference between merely making use of JobMaker and specifically excluding applicants from applying for a vacant position because of their age.

Q3) With JobKeeper due to expire in March, can employers terminate employees if there is no work? (What if there is work for some employees but not all?)

The unavailability of work does not in itself create a reason to dismiss an employer, however it is a change to the operational requirements of an employer’s business. The employer can then make decisions as to whether or not certain roles are still required, having regard to the changes in operational requirements. If roles are no longer required, the employer may be able to dismiss an employee for reasons of redundancy.’

There is a process for this however and depending on the industrial instruments in play it can even be prescribed.

If an employer and/or an employee is covered by an award, there may be certain consultation obligations under the award that must be fulfilled prior to making a role redundant. These consultation obligations are quite strict, for example, most awards require information to be providing in writing to potentially affected employees.

Regardless of whether an employer and/or employee is covered by an award, there is still an obligation on an employer to consider redeployment opportunities. These opportunities may not exist in the event of unavailability of work, however the onus remains on the employer to give consideration.

Failure to consider redeployment or properly consult with employees may lead to additional risks for an employer (for example, the risk of a successful unfair dismissal or a general protections claim).

Q4) Is it the organisation’s responsibility to provide equipment to work-from-home employees for safe working; for example, a proper computer chair?

An employer has an obligation to ensure the health and safety of its employees whilst they are at work, irrespective of whether the employees are performing their work from the employer’s premises. As part of these obligations, an employer should seek to determine whether the employee’s workspace at home is reasonable, having regard to health and safety risks. This can be by way of a self-audit performed by the employee or another professional attending the work office of the employee.

The Fair Work Commission decision of McKean v Red Energy Pty Ltd (a summary of the case can be found here) involved a work from home employee due to COVID-19 who was denied a request for a desk. The Fair Work Commission found that it was “plainly” reasonable to refuse the provision of a desk as other items had been provided already:

• Online training and resources
• Access to an occupational therapist
• Ergonomic assessment
• Laptop computer
• Headset
• Chair

Although it involved an unfair dismissal claim it is relevant because it focuses on the reasonableness factor by way of:

• Rejection
• Direction
• Refusal

It is important to note the primary duty is to do what is “reasonably practicable” to ensure the health and safety of workers under workplace health and safety legislation.  What is reasonably practicable will largely depend on the individual circumstances of the employer.

We also note a good way to keep track of Company assets is to implement a Company asset register.  If an employee is allowed to take office equipment (e.g. desks, chairs, phones), they should be required to sign a declaration saying they possess the equipment.  This will ensure that all Company property is returned when the employee returns to the workplace.

Please also note workers have a duty under work health and safety laws to take reasonable care for their own health and safety.  As such it is a good idea for the business to require the employee to perform an audit and make a declaration that their premises are fit to allow working from home.

This series may be limited. Send your employment questions to editor@www.rmm.onenazmul.dev.

*Legal advice is general in nature. For tailored legal advice specific to your organisation, industry and location, speak to your organisation’s legal advisor.  

Send your questions to editor@www.rmm.onenazmul.dev. Jonathan and his team of employment lawyers at NB Lawyers will answer as many as they can and share these answers in Recruitment Marketing Magazine*. 

The post Ask an employment lawyer Q&A: Leave entitlements, JobMaker, WFH setups and more appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.

Nate Guggia, Co-Founder of Before You Apply shares why tech alone won’t solve your employer branding challenges.

The question is no longer “what is employer branding and why does it matter?”. It’s now, “what does this look like for our company and how do we create at scale?”

Creative capabilities and a clearly defined process answer these questions. Not technology. Tools can’t create the process. They can only help to execute it. Bottom line: An employee advocacy tool is useless when there’s no content to share.

The post Technology won’t solve your employer branding problems appeared first on Recruitment Marketing.