Women Returning To Work: 10 Top Tips To Ease Mums Back into Work Life

This week's guest blog is written by Jacky Lewis of Training Matters. As a working Mum myself with two kids, two and five years old (plus one on the way!), I asked Jacky to write some top tips on one of her areas of expertise, helping women who are returning to work after a career break or maternity leave.  

Enjoy! You can read more about Jacky below, and connect with her on LinkedIn  by viewing her profile here.

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You've had a baby six months ago; you have a toddler or even two; you want to get back into the fray of work but feel your confidence is at low ebb.  The agreement with your husband/partner was that you’d go back after 6 months, after all it takes two of you to pay the mortgage.  Then you ask yourself what you have to offer to the world of work, what would you talk about?  Your brain is fried with gigglebiz and teletubbies…  Well, think again- you can do it!  

All it takes is a bit of forward planning and a stronger level of self-belief. But make sure you have your contingency planning in place; life is full of pitfalls for new mum-returners, things can be uncertain. However, if you are the woman who promised herself that she would not vegetate at home, that she would further her career as she brought up her family, here’s 10 top tips from an experienced career woman and mum (with grown-up children), to ease you back into work:

Top 10 Tips

1. Plan your return, involve your husband/partner/best friend/mum, talk to your employer, are you agreed on timescales? Days? Hours? Clarify, clarify.
   
   
2. If you’re breastfeeding plan your weaning carefully; get advice from your health visitor or other trusted mums.  You don’t want to traumatise yourself or the baby by sudden feeding withdrawal. Keep on an early morning and night time feed for quick baby-soothing in the middle of the night.
   
   
3. Agree an achievable (and friendly) rota with your partner for getting up to a crying baby in the night and stick to it.  Avoid the ‘it’s easier to do it myself’, mentality.
   
   
4. Don’t wear your best work suit around a sticky baby for that last kiss in the morning; get real…. and think about the mum-returner whose 10 month baby was learning to walk and made a hole in her tights as he pulled himself up to stand, just as she was running out of the door for an important early-morning meeting.
   
   
5. If you are vacillating about going back to work, write a pro’s and con’s list.  Make sure you really want to do it- depression and longing for your baby are toxic things. Do you need to leave it a little longer?
   
   
6. Is your employer mummy-friendly? Can you ease in slowly? Or does your organisation like new mums to go back 24/7?  Your salary will positively reflect a 5 day, long-hours working schedule but is this you want? If it is that’s fine, if not then get real with yourself.
   
   
7. Can you do any of your work from home? Have you checked this out with your employer? Give them a list of the financial advantages to them of you working some days from home; make sure they see the ‘£’ signs. If you want it badly then make it happen.
   
   
8. How robust is your fall-back child-care plan? Will you be using a child-minder? How many children do they care for?  What happens if someone gets chickenpox at nursery? Who will look after your toddler if they are off-colour? How quickly can you access support in the morning? Do you rely on a nanny; what happens if she gets the ‘flu’?
   
   
9. How will you look after yourself?  Can you fit in some ‘me’ time? This is important if you’re not to burn out. The mum who boomerangs between child minder, home and the office will have little creative thinking to offer her job.  Make sure you get a little time to have your haircut or even allow yourself a quick ‘child-free’ coffee on the way home.  Look after your own batteries; care for yourself. 
   
   
10. Choose a role-model and analyse her; how does she do it? Notice how she dresses; how she impresses others at work; how she manages her family; demonstrates her level of confidence.  What could you take from her example? Think about the personal changes you could make to your own style of thinking and level of assurance.  Perhaps you could do with some self-challenge; is your thinking ‘self-limiting’?

Finally remember, belief that you can achieve has a strong, positive effect on those around you and opens out your own possibilities for achievement.  Confidence is contagious.

About Jacky Lewis:  Jacky is a busy corporate trainer, coach and mediator working at all levels of the organisation; she has a special interest in mentoring & developing female members of the team.  She has worked to support and develop staff in many situations & is often brought in during the disciplinary & grievance process. She also works to resolve conflict & build bridges in a range of situations and is used by lawyers as an expert mediator in best interests, Court of Protection matters. She first trained as an existential psychotherapist and supervisor and has a special interest in ‘difficult’ workplace situations.  She recently contributed a chapter on Workplace Coaching to the book, ‘Existential Perspectives on Coaching’, published by Palgrave MacMillan in May 2012.

Fixed Price Recruitment: How Does It Work?

Could you save money on your recruitment costs?

Most people think that it is expensive to use a recruitment company, so many small businesses opt to try and do it themselves to save money which is totally understandable. 


The recruitment industry is going through significant changes, with new technology and the accessibility of candidates through social media, there are now new ways of finding the perfect candidate without any interaction with a traditional agency.  


The idea of fixed price recruitment is not a new one, and there are a range of options available to clients looking to use this model.  However, these can still range from upwards of €800 per vacancy and this is still a stretch especially for a sole trader or small limited company.  


Expect Talent's mission is to change the way the world does recruitment, by helping small businesses to get hiring again with job creation at the forefront of everything we do.   This week sees the launch a brand new Fixed Cost Recruitment model to the Irish & UK market with prices starting from just €295.


So how does Fixed Cost Recruitment at €295 Work?


1.  Submit Job Description - The client submits their Job Description (if they need help in creating one we will create it for them)


2.  Post & Advertise The Job - We will submit the job to the most relevant job sites across Ireland & UK on the client's behalf


3.  CV's Received - We will handle all of the administration involved in receiving applications from interested candidates, saving the client lots of administration time


4.  7 Day Turnaround - After 7 days, the client receives one simple file with all CV's of people who have applied for the role


5.  Select, Interview, Hire - The Client then chooses from the applications and interviews the candidates themselves and hires who they want for the job.  Simple!


Fixed Cost Recruitment is easy, accessible and affordable. We are making it even easier for small businesses to engage in job creation and hope to help more job-seekers to secure employment in these challenging times.


For clients who are tight on time or want support on screening and interviewing we have other packages to suit.  There is a full list of packages available on this link.  It is time that the recruitment industry changed for the better, and this simple, easy pricing model can only help towards achieving this. 


We would love to hear your views on this and hope that you feel compelled to spread the word about this new cost-effective approach to an industry that has to change.
  

Employee Engagement: What's It All About?

This week I am delighted to present the first in a series of guest blogs from a leading expert in the field of Talent Management Strategy.  Simon North from Position Ignition specialises in helping companies through the transition of Senior Leadership Team Members at Executive Level.  

I would like to personally thank Simon for the support he has given to Expect Talent to date, it is a real pleasure to deal with him and his highly talented team of HR experts.

Employee Engagement:  What's It All About?

In a job market where the war for talent is making it tough to find good workers and where key skills are likely to be getting scarcer, the need to treat people well increases every day. It’s vital to make sure your workers are engaged and fully invested in what they’re doing. 

Employee engagement is about honesty – particularly in uncertain times. Your colleagues want you to be clear about what you’re saying to them and they want to be engaged on a regular basis. Regularity is contextual, whether it be every so often or weekly. The important thing is that contact is open and is as honest as it can be.

 

Systems that focus on people need simple processes. Employees absolutely hate performance management systems that have no human touch and are computer-based processes that require them to connect with loads of people to get facile comments which lead nowhere and bear no resemblance to anything important in their lives.

 

Instead, listen and tune in to every individual on a regular basis. This does not have to be formalised and structured as part of the standard appraisal process. This is much more about day to day management and supervision.  

Avoid over-measuring --whilst it is important to measure outputs and performance, over-measurement can be a real irritant to high-performing individuals and may reduce their level of engagement with what it is that they do. An employer or manager might think that micromanagement shows the worker that they’re cared about and not ignored, but because micromanagement isn’t about listening and respect, too much of it will prove counter-productive.

It is far better to have regular input sessions on being clear about the future and the team’s performance, followed up by frequent shorter feedback conversations both one on one and in small groups to check that the individual and the team are going in the right direction. If it sounds simple that’s because it is. One of the biggest mistakes that we can make is by over complicating what is really a simple humanistic process based on personal relationships. 

Good leaders have high touch, high personal integrity and connect on a one-on-one level as well as on the group level regularly and sincerely, both in imparting information and finding out how people are feeling. Systems and processes built around such simple, intimate processes can be more powerful for employees than super sophisticated HR systems. 

Finally be fair. 

The above points relate to being fair to your employees. It’s all aligned to how people feel about their engagement and there is nothing as powerful as the information that workers share with one another and that organisations and leaders rarely find out.

Guest Post by Simon North:  Simon North is the Founder of Position Ignition, which specialises in helping organisations and HR with the challenges presented by a maturing workforce. They focus on creating and ensuring smooth employee exit paths for talented and valued employees. Simon a renowned expert in HR and career transition work, with a focus around the older worker and how best to manage the later stages in our careers effectively.  Visit their HR Blog for more thoughts and advice on the latest HR challenges.

What is RPO?

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is becoming more and more widely used as organisations experience rapid change and exceptional growth, particularly in the technology and online sectors.  Flexibility and scalability are critical to any business, and RPO gives companies a solution to ever-changing hiring demands.

The Recruitment Process Outsourcing Association defines RPO as follows: "When a provider acts as a company's internal recruitment function for a portion or all of its jobs. RPO providers manage the entire recruiting/hiring process from job profiling through the onboarding of the new hire, including staff, technology, method and reporting. A properly managed RPO will improve a company's time to hire, increase the quality of the candidate pool, provide verifiable metrics, reduce cost and improve HR compliance."

The biggest distinction between RPO and other types of staffing is Process. In RPO, the service provider assumes ownership of the process, while in other types of staffing the service provider is part of a process controlled by the organisation buying their services.  RPO Providers work seamlessly alongside HR to provide a high-volume solution to staffing. 

The RPO Alliance, a group of the Human Resources Outsourcing Association (HROA), approved this definition in February 2009: "Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is a form of business process outsourcing (BPO) where an employer transfers all or part of its recruitment processes to an external service provider. An RPO provider can provide its own or may assume the company's staff, technology, methodologies and reporting.”

In all cases, RPO differs greatly from providers such as staffing agencies which provide contingent/retained in that it assumes ownership of the design and management of the recruitment process and the responsibility of results.  

What to consider when selecting an RPO partner:

• Track Record - ensure that there is proven history of success with other clients, preferably in your industry.  Talk to the clients which have been serviced by your shortlist of RPO providers, learn from their experience and ask them to provide references. A companies client list on RPO can tell you a lot about their ability to handle your project.
• Candidate Reach - make sure that your RPO provider has experience and knowledge of how to source and recruit outside of your geographic location. If the talent is not in-country, then you need to be confident that they can go and find it for you.
• Recruitment Process & Automation - RPO is all about process, look into detail at the processes and way in which the company handles applications from high-volumes of candidates, and how they get from volume to quality hires.
• The People Behind the Process - It's all very well having the processes in place, but the people running the project, from the management team down to the administration and recruitment team are critical to the success of the RPO.
• Your Core Values & Culture - It is vital that your RPO provider 'gets' your business. They must truly understand your values, your people and your culture in order to implement are highly effective RPO solution which exceeds your expectations.
• SLA's in Place - Always ensure that you agree Service Level Agreements which are metrics driven in line with your company standards to keep your RPO provider accountable.  These could include time to hire, fill rate, quality of hire, retention, attendance, performance etc. and will vary depending on whether you are bringing in RPO for contract staff or permanent staff.

There are many benefits to RPO:

• Scalable solution to support the ebb and flow of hiring demands; with an RPO provider you can manage staffing for a seasonal business or ramp-up quickly when a new contract is won and increased headcount is needed.  One of our clients we provide RPO for increases headcount by in excess of 700 staff in the lead up to Christmas in UK & Ireland.  Our role in this is to source, select, screen, assess, hire, onboard and pay the staff and then manage any disciplinary procedures for the duration of the contract.  We provide onsite staff and work seamlessly with the HR team and management within the business. 
• Cost-Saving - What is the cost saving for a business in using RPO?  A large IT company in the US saved over $1m per annum, representing 40% of their costs.  Initially companies may look to RPO for cost reasons, but they also make long term gains.  Outsourcing is better for efficiency, better service, employer brand reputation and a host of other reasons. Once corporates engage in dialogue with the RPO provider they start realising the value in other areas. Cost brings RPO to the table but its not why people sign up and stay with RPOs.
• Large or Small Business?  - It’s just not just large corporates who are turning to RPO, start-ups who have just taken on VC funding are looking to RPOs as a quick and effective way to get scale quickly.  They focus on what they do best and outsource areas such as recruitment and HR from the get go.
• Expertise & Industry Knowledge - An RPO provider can hit the ground running, they can start building a pipeline quickly
• Your Employer Brand - An RPO provider can give your company more exposure and more credibility in the marketplace by representing you really well to jobseekers and potential talent.  Their reach in the market will be greater and many RPO providers will advertise on your behalf with your branding, as well as running social media campaigns to attract only the best people.  Their networks in many cases can take you further afield and build you a great reputation in the marketplace. 
• Strategic Focus for HR Teams - Bringing in an RPO provider allows key internal HR resources to refocus on higher level organizational competencies.    

I hope you found this explanation useful, I am regularly asked this question so I thought I would share my thoughts and ideas and point you in the direction of resources that can help you decide if RPO is right for your organisation.

Other Useful Links:

Webcast: What Benefits Should I Expect to Gain in an RPO Engagement  

How to Become An Employer of Choice & Attract the Best Talent

Top talent is hard to find. Fact.  Despite the increasing number of people out there who are looking for work, attracting the best people is increasingly more difficult.  Those who are in employment are reluctant to make a move in the current climate, so being able to find, attract and engage passive candidates (those who are working and not actively looking) is more and more important.  There are some key factors to consider when you are searching for top talent, especially if you want to become an 'Employer of Choice'.



Have a Clear Message About What you Offer

You only have a short window to impress a potential candidate, so think about "What's in it for Them" when you are approaching potential candidates.  Most of the time a candidate will consider the opportunity with you based on a few criteria such as Salary, Location, Title and Company.  It's up to you to get beyond these basic facts and convey "Why You?".  This is vital with passive candidates, standing out from the crowd makes all the difference.  

Use Your Existing Networks for Referrals
Your existing employees will all have fantastic networks, so having a strong candidate referral scheme will help to engage your staff in actively work on your behalf to find new employees.  They will all be very active on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media so this should always be the first place to look.  Uncovering great talent can be made easier by working with your internal employees.

Protect Your Reputation 

If you are recruiting, then ensure that you go back to every candidate who applies to work with you, leaving a good impression on them about your company, regardless of whether or not they secured the position.  Companies who leave it days and days to get get back to people, even candidates they want to hire, are always going to lose out on the best talent.   We see it on a daily basis, and always encourage our clients to get back to us quickly on great candidates so that they don't miss out.

Becoming An 'Employer of Choice'

Being an 'Employer of Choice' is about much more than having a funky workplace, free meals and a gym, it is about having an organisational culture and a set of core values which engages employees in ways that few companies manage to achieve.  One such example would be Zappos, others which immediately spring to mind are Amazon, Google and Apple to name a few.  It is important that employees buy-in to the companies vision, and that the culture is one that every person in the company lives and breathes.  

Here is a list of questions you can ask of your own company that will help you to review how you currently rate as an Employer of Choice.  The more 'Yes' answers the better:

Checklist
- Do you have a clear company vision and mission statement?
- Is your company’s vision & mission statement clearly understood by your employees?
- Does your Leadership Team visit employees, at different sites, or in the field?
- Do your Senior Management listen to employees input and follow up with action?
- Do you conduct regular employee surveys to assess employee satisfaction?
- Can your staff easily access information about products/services, HR policies, and operational procedures?
- Do you have a formal training and development program?
- On average, how many hours of training per year does each employee receive?
- Does your new-hire training program equip new hires with the necessary skills and resources to do their jobs well?
- Do you solicit employee and management feedback on what works well and what needs to improve in employee training?
- Do managers and supervisors know how to give effective coaching to employees?
- Are your managers and supervisors rewarded for growing talent?
- Do you offer internal promotions and make it easy for employees to apply?
- Do you have a formal performance management program?
- Are managers held accountable for reviewing employee performance regularly?
- Do you offer flexible work arrangements & benefits that meet your employees needs?

There are many factors that come into play when someone decides to join or not join your organisation.  On first glance candidates will only be attracted by a few details about the job, however their final decision will be made based on their view of the organisation, its culture and the opportunities that it will present for them if they decide to make the move.  Having a clear strategy for attracting the best, and enticing them to your brand through effective employee engagement is one of the best ways to become an Employer of Choice in this competitive candidate market.  

Sabbaticals for Staff helps Productivity & Retention

For those of you who read this blog regularly and know me personally, I value the happiness of my staff as much as I am passionate about wowing customers.  The fantastic team at Expect Talent are what make this business, and I am very proud of our 100% retention within the  recruitment division. Our very first hire Margaret is about to celebrate her 4th anniversary with Expect Talent.  Shortly followed by Julia, who last year was promoted to the role of Operations Manager and is a key member of the management team.  

A number of weeks ago Julia came to me to let me know her plans for 2012 were to go travelling, this was nothing new as she usually takes a 3-4 week trip annually.  But when I heard that these plans were for a 4-6 month period I had a bit of a shock...

My goal is to ensure that I help every single member of the team achieve their personal and business goals. So I knew I needed to see how I could make this happen.  The answer was to give Julia a sabbatical.  She had been worried about how I might react to her plans, given that we are experiencing major growth in the business and she plays a major role in the delivery of our results.  

The way I look at it is this, if I had said "No", she would have been very unhappy and much less productive and may have decided to leave the business anyway to go travelling.  By saying "Yes", she is much happier already and I know she will work really hard between now and when she leaves to ensure that the business will run without her.  I can only imagine the level of productivity, commitment and happiness she will feel after taking an extended break.  So I have started to look at the other benefits that this sabbatical will bring to the business:

1.  Opportunities & Personal Development

The first is that we can now give an opportunity to Margaret, who during the time Julia is away will take on a covering role as Operations Manager.  Margaret will spend the next few months training and up-skilling to take on this position in Julia's absence.

2.  Streamlined Processes

Our systems, processes and reporting will be streamlined and improved before the sabbatical to ensure that the business can continue to run effectively, with Margaret overseeing operations.   

3.  Improved Staff Happiness 

The rest of the team here at Expect Talent now know that I am willing and able to give sabbaticals to employees, and I have now decided to add this as a benefit to long-serving employees of 4 years or more.  

4.   Less chance of Burn-out and Stress 

After 4 solid years of hard work and contribution, some stress and worries can creep in, especially in a position of responsibility and leadership.  The last thing I want is a team who are unhappy, stressed out and at burn-out.  A sabbatical would do anyone good! 

On the flipside what could be the challenges, especially for a Small Business?

1.  Disruption of Workflow

Of course having a key member of staff out of the business for an extended period is going to disrupt the normal workflow.  There are a few points to consider - I would recommend that you get at least 3 months notice of any proposed sabbatical.  Also make sure that you have the right structure, reporting, process and systems in place to make a sabbatical a reality.

2.  Risk of No Return

What if an employee decides not to return? Of course this is a risk, but if they are happy in their job, you have looked after their personal goals by offering the sabbatical in the first place and have kept their job open for them on return you will minimize this risk.  

3.  Loss of Revenue

Depending on the role the person is doing, the chances are that a whole piece of expertise, skills and knowledge will be missing for the duration of the sabbatical, this often is related to the revenue generated in the business.  Putting a solid plan in place for handover, training and up-skilling of the person that is going to cover the role for the period of the sabbatical will minimise this potential lost revenue.

Having spent a great deal of time thinking about this, researching and understanding what it means for me, the business and the team, I am very comfortable with the idea of sabbaticals becoming an integral part of my business.  Work/Life balance is critical for every staff member and plays an important part in every business.  You can see a list here of some very well-known companies who in 2011 are offering sabbaticals on YourSabbatical.com.  What is your view on sabbaticals and would you take the plunge in the interest of your staff?

How to Boost Online Reputation with LinkedIn - Part 2

This week I am staying with the theme of online reputation, again focused on LinkedIn, actually this is the third post in a row on this subject, but as you will see there is a lot to cover.  If you are reading this post without having read the other two, I recommend scrolling down to read my two previous blog entries with great tips to help you.

Having a great online reputation is ultimately the key to generating business through LinkedIn.  Over 100 million people are now on LinkedIn, but how many are actually getting the results that they want from it. Everybody knows that it is important to be there, to have a profile, to be visible.  But unless you have that instant credibility in the first place then you will not secure that job, close that sale or generate the leads that you need your profile to deliver for you.  There are a number of ways to build credibility, some of which I talked about last week, but today I am going to focus on the more interactive elements within LinkedIn, which allow you to elevate your profile to new heights.

Tip 1 - Groups

You can join up to 50 groups on LinkedIn.  Yes, 50! After reading this, why not check how many you are actually in?  Groups are a fantastic way to raise your profile with the people who you want to gain visibility with.  Whether you are a job-seeker, a business owner, a recruiter, a manager or a sales person.  You can search the groups available by going to the top right-hand search box and adding keywords for Groups you would be interested in.  Think which groups your target market would be interested in, where are they networking?   

Groups are valuable for a number of reasons:

- They keep you up to date with industry knowledge

- You can find out answers from experts, and read relevant articles

- Position yourself as an expert in a group by being active in credible discussions

- Once in a group, the contacts are open to you, makes it easier to grow your connections

- You can start a group, and as group manager you can grow your network in your field

- You can post jobs for free in some groups, and access great candidates

- You are in control of how often you interact with the group, check your "Settings"

- You are more likely to be generate visibility with your target market or hiring managers

Some groups will allow you to join straight away, other groups have a screening process only allowing relevant people to join the group, so you may have to wait for approval.  This will open you up to a whole world of new connections, information and at least 50 places for you to become visible, active and boost your online reputation. 

Someone is more likely to accept your connection request if you are in the same group, because they will see you as being relevant to them and credible as you already have common ground, which is the start of any relationship.

Tip 2 - Questions & Answers

This is another totally under-utilised area of LinkedIn.  You can pose a question, answer questions and interact in polls within LinkedIn.  I was recently in the market to buy a new ATS (Applicant Tracking System), to handle all of our high-volume recruitment needs, as I wanted to update the current system we are using. I needed to find out from experienced corporate recruiters and agencies what the best options were out there, before engaging in any long sales process with multiple suppliers.  

I posed a question on LinkedIn within a group which I knew had many people that would have had experience in this, a group specifically for my industry.  I received feedback from many people about the best cloud-based solutions.  In addition to receiving responses to my question, I also was able to look through the Answers to similar questions that other people had posted. These were unbiased opinions, not sales people trying to pitch me their product.  I had a shortlist of 2 ATS/CRM systems within 1 hour of research, which told me a great deal more than spending hours on the internet wading through websites and pages of sale blurb, I could cut to the chase and I knew instantly what I wanted.

Imagine seeing a question posed by someone in LinkedIn, and you giving a credible and valid answer which helps them and helps everyone else in the group.  I mean answering without selling, helping someone else through your knowledge.  If you are in a group with 20,000 members, and you are regularly giving advice and help to the group through discussions and Answers in LinkedIn, your online reputation is going to fly high.

You can simply use the Search button in the top right-hand side of the LinkedIn page, and change the drop-down button from People to Answers.  This will allow you to keyword search Answers, so that you can find relevant information for your industry.  When you are in a Group, go to the Discussions tab and you will see all of the latest questions, blogs and posts.

Summary

Online reputation is all about Visibility and Credibility, and if you have both of these then it can only lead to Profitability.  I learnt about this very early on in the world's largest and most successful referral network BNI, and this VCP® process is even more relevant when you network online.  I hope you have found this series of blog entries useful and that your own online reputation is growing by the day.  Please feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn, to benefit from access my 2400+ connections globally.