Sirona Says

Generation Y'ers - not for us, say SME's!

Generation Y staff are surprisingly not in demand for SME companies, says the latest report from the entrepreneur think tank, the Tenon Forum. They claim that these generation Y'ers are often not just up to the job, but also show a lack of work readiness. They also go on to say that over 30% of the SME's surveyed cited poor literacy and numeracy amongst school leavers as a key issue facing their business.

So, while the generation Y'ers are an employers future lifeblood, it does appear that companies that need 'real' skills are shying away from them.....at the moment anyway. So are companies starting to realise that the generation X and the boomer's are actually still worth employing? It appears that they are actively seeking them out!! 

Entrepreneur and Tenon Forum think tank member, Khalid Aziz, Chairman of the Aziz Corporation, says: "We are becoming increasingly frustrated with a lack of work-readiness amongst graduates, many of whom do not possess basic skills, such as mental arithmetic. Those under the age of 40 have never experienced high unemployment and this is contributing to a tendency for younger employees to take work for granted or, worse, treat it as an extension of their social lives. This failure to take work seriously is not an issue amongst more mature employees."

Recruitment and Retention has now just got harder!!

While I appreciate that the whole world is having recruitment challenges, I wanted to highlight two problems that I feel are going to impact massively on recruitment and retention. I have actually already experienced both of them with candidates in the last few weeks, and I am sure it will just get worse.

So what am I talking about? Petrol and Houses. The price of petrol is rising higher and higher every week, so obviously your staff (and you of course) will be paying more for their commute into work. With this price estimated to get to £1.50 per litre by the end of the summer, then their commuting costs (by car) have just risen by 50%. How many will be looking to get a job closer to home to cut down traveling? What are you doing about it? Are you encouraging more home working? Are you being flexible with allowing them to come into the office less? Are you actually sharing your concerns with your staff? If you don't they will look for an employer that is doing something about it.

House prices - more importantly the mortgage rate - are stopping people moving. Higher interest rates mean that mortgages have lept up substantially this year, costing people more money. There are two implications from this, 1) they may now not be earning enough money where they currently work, and may have to look at another job and leaving your company or 2) the option of relocating for a new job has suddenly been diminished for the moment, not because they don't want to move, but because they may not sell their house! So recruiting for specific skills in a market where they are absent now becomes a real problem. Whereas, before you could relocate someone with the right skills, now it will become more of a challenge to convince candidates to move. So if this is going to cause you problems, what are you doing about it? Have you even thought of the long term implications? Should you be reconsidering recruiting lower skilled and training them? Should you look at retraining of existing staff? What about ad hoc pay rises?

The one thing that both petrol prices and house prices will definitely test, and that will be how creative a company can be with their creative retention policies!!!!

Talent Managers: What is more important - recruitment or retention?

Talent management as we know is the number one problem for HR globally. So why is it that it is still such an undefined phrase? In talking to many companies, it is very evident that there is a vast difference in what Talent Leaders (HR Managers, HR Directors and alike) see as talent management and the subsequant actions they take in dealing with it.

I am not going to go on an in depth analysis of the theories of talent management, the rights and wrongs, best practice or the systems used etc. What I want to do is to ask all you Talent Managers out there a question that I am finding more difficult to get an answer from companies on. So here goes (and I do expect some honest answers, please!)

On a scale of 1 - 10, with Recruitment Stategy at No 1 and Retention Strategy at the No 10, where is your company positioned along the scale, in terms of balance? Are you at a low number meaning you are more focused on recruitment, a high number meaning you are focused more on retention, or do you think you have it about right somewhere in the middle?

Big fat retainers - the new insurance policy?

Everyone has heard the phrase, 'your reputation precedes you', but what if clients engaged you with large retainers for work they hope you won't do? What a nice job to have! Well a lady in the news currently is the top lawyer Fiona Shackleton, who recently defended Sir Paul McCartney against the viper tongued Heather Mills.

Her reputation does go before her and with a successful track record of winning high profile divorce cases (including two royal ones), she has found herself in an enviable position. A number of the worlds super-rich men actually retain Fiona's services (with huge retainers no doubt!) long before their marriage is even in trouble!!! Why, I hear you ask?  Simple really - it is their form of contingency insurance. It is aimed at stopping their wives using the formidable services of Fiona Shackleton, should the worst happen and they divorce!!

So before she is even needed, she has the pleasure of raising large invoices for work that may never happen!!  Is that a display of great business sense from these well-'healed men' or just extreme paranoia?

Employer branding - the new twilight zone?

Your ability to attract and retain the brightest young talent in your industry, ahead of your competitors, is determined by the self proclaimed statement - 'who you are is who you hire'. This is a radical shift of emphasis and culture, but one that does appeal to generation Y'ers. This is a key part of the future business strategy and should be treated as such by senior management, not just the HR department.

We have stepped into the world of the twilight zone, also known as, employer branding!! Whist many companies spend significant money, time and resources on developing their brand and market presence, not all of them focus significant resources on developing their employer brand. I believe the Generation Y'ers and the future Generation Z'ers ( I know I am getting ahead of myself here!) will really focus on the employer brand, what it stands for and the values it represents as an employer of choice. It will differentiate employers if not now, then certainly in the not too distant future. The young people are becoming more choosy and picky when they look at jobs, not just looking at money, perks and bonus. They want to work in organisations that have the right culture, a heartbeat and visionary credentials for the future.

The problem is that because of employment demographics for the next 10 years ( a shrinking workforce!), these young, future employees will have the luxury of being able to make the choices!! So get out of the twilight zone and find your employment brand!

Job for Life - not for us say the Generation Y'ers!

Believe it or not, ten years have passed since the phrase that went into HR and Recruitment immortality - The War for Talent - was born. It was actually Mckinsey that created it in their report of the same name. But many years after this initial offering, it could be that 'war' might be the right word!!

European demographics are changing and according to CIPD statistics, by 2010 47% of the European working population will be aged 55years and older!!

Tequila in London is running dry

Yesterday I read an letter in Marketing Week (the old fashioned paper version), from Simon McMaster, the Director of Digital at Tequila/London, the marketing agency, moaning about the spiraling salaries in his sector.  His real gripe is that e-marketeers / online marketeers are demanding too much money for permanent salaries, and that they are all going freelance, and therefore costing him alot more money. He says that this is driving up client costs as their costs increase accordingly, and that it is time to keep online marketing salaries from getting out of control. Get real, this just won't happen - your industry is telling us this !!

We have the classic economic supply and demand equation - low supply+ high demand = high fees.

Cities beginning with letter 'B' are not good places to work

If you are looking for a new job, don't go to Brighton, Bristol or Belfast to find one. Thats the message from Badenoch & Clark’s latest quarterly Happiness at Work survey. Apparently, office workers in these cities are the least happy at work - I find that strange having worked in two of them, they are not that bad, honestly!!

The survey goes on to say that the unhappiest profession is HR (again!) with nearly a third of them unhappy in their jobs. Maybe that is why so many HR people give recruiters a hard time then - if they are not happy in their jobs, they could be taking it out on recruiters! (Maybe it's just me who has experienced this??)

The staggering figure the survey does highlight is that 48% (yes, nearly half!) of workers want to change jobs in 2008!! There is certainly a few retention AND recruitment issues  to be addressed there then!

The HR Disconnect

The HR Disconnect

Recently TalentDrain conducted an interesting piece of research, with HR practitioners and 'leaving employees'. In looking at some of the data, it does become clear very quickly that there is certainly a dis-connect when it comes to why HR think employees have left their company, and the 'real reason' from the leaver.
When many companies recruit staff they use some form of analysis or assessment, to help in their process, but it has become apparent that on leaving, there are many companies that rely just on opinion and gut reaction. The cold hard fact is that staff retention is the 'poor cousin' in the whole recruitment cycle within companies. They seem happy to keep recruiting new staff, but pay less importance to why their staff are leaving.
So, looking at some of these gathered facts that HR believed to be true:

If HR can't manage it, then what hope for the others?

It appears that HR professionals are suffering like the rest of us from working too hard and for too long. At the CIPD Conference at Harrogate earlier this year, People Management conducted a survey amongst many HR people around hours of work and work life balance etc. I know the results won't be too much of a surprise, but my point is that if this is the situation within the department that is supposed to be focused on protecting and helping employees working life then what chance have companies in the UK got to get it right?