March's Monthly Wrap-Up!
The Outsourced Recruitment Company
Outsourced, in-house recruitment solutions for ambitious, small and medium businesses across the UK.
Welcome to OD Talent Solutions’ Monthly Wrap-Up!
Who can believe it's March already? Welcome to our monthly newsletter, if you like hearing what we have to say – remember to let us know.
Why are recruitment specialists writing a newsletter? We are very proud of our team and we believe that the knowledge that we have to share, deserves to be heard. Our team have a wealth of experience and opinions on the everyday news and it’s important to us that we deliver a newsletter that is clear, concise and easy to understand. It’s also important to us the we raise awareness of key issues and start conversations that everyone should be involved in.
We aren’t just experts in recruitment, we’re big fans of delivering the importance of employer brand. Thanks to that, we’ll be giving companies the recognition they deserve when they get their employer branding just right, regardless of if they are a client of ours or not! We’ll also be spotlighting individuals who deserve to be heard – throughout the month our team keep their eyes peeled for a status that has hit the nail on the head, and then we share it with you as our 'Status of the Month'.
Remember to subscribe if you don’t want to miss our future newsletters and be sure to tell us your thoughts – we’d love it if you could share this newsletter too! If you have ideas or suggestions for how we could improve please email us at?[email protected]?or drop one of the team a DM.
We hope you enjoy!
Summary of March
What happened this month?
March saw everyone celebrating National Careers Week (NCW). Each year, NCW brings together educational providers and organisations to provide advice and resources for young people to develop their awareness and start building excitement about their future careers and where their life could take them.
In addition to helping individuals advance their careers, NCW also benefits local business economy by promoting and encouraging a skilled and well-trained workforce. Keeping the future of our businesses alive and thriving.
Why does it matter to me?
Although intended for school, college and university students, it's important for us to address that National Careers Week can still be celebrated with existing employees. The intended career paths of your existing employees may shift overtime and you should recognise and encourage them to do what is best for their personal development and accept that them moving up or on is a possibility. It is necessary, as an employer, to recognise that different people have different motivators within your employee base. Some of those people will be motivated by their career prospect and opportunities. Thinking about how career pathways look and work in reality within your organisation is important. Celebrating the week with employees shows them its important to you too.
If considering people still in education, NCW provides an opportunity for you to connect with potential future candidates and showcase your company as an attractive place to work, hopefully you know by know that we will always advocate for employer brand - even if you are not actively hiring. By getting involved with NCW publicly on social media or attending events during NCW, hiring managers can meet with job seekers and advocate for their company's culture, values, and career opportunities.
Secondly, NCW has the ability to help identify and address skills gaps within your organisation. Younger generations flourish with innovation and creativity - don't get stuck in a certain way of doing things just because that is how your business has always done it. Embrace diversity. You could gain insight to the skills and training that employees may need to advance their careers and contribute more effectively to the organisation's goals.
Finally, NCW can help you stay informed about trends and developments in the job market. By attending webinars, events or workshops focused on workforce trends and labour market information, managing directors can gain insight into the changing needs and expectations of job seekers and adjust their recruitment and retention strategies accordingly.
Recent Blogs
How to support mothers in the workplace by Kim Draper
With an increase of working mums in the UK, employers need to be asking themselves ‘how can we support mothers in the workplace?’?
Working mothers are now at the highest level they have been for 20 years, with 3 in 4 now in employment. Despite this, companies are not doing enough to attract and retain this valuable workforce.?
At the end of December, figures suggested that more than 1.1 million jobs in the UK were vacant, so how can you tap into the market of working mothers and what can you do to support them??
Neurodiversity Celebration Week - Let's Talk Inclusive Hiring by Hayley Daniells
Inclusive hiring is the future, it should have been the past but traditional recruitment processes are set in a way that isn’t often susceptible to change. The process is simple isn’t it? Advertise a job, interview, hire.
This process isn’t necessarily inclusive and that’s why we’re here to help. Let’s answer the important questions: Why is inclusive hiring important and what do I need to do to make my hiring process accessible?
How does managing your employer brand help with recruitment by Kim Draper
Are you thinking to yourself ‘why am I struggling to recruit?’, did you know that managing your employer brand can help with recruitment???
It’s a classic scenario, you’re either getting lots of applications that aren’t right, or you’re not attracting anyone – both can be helped with the development and management of your employer brand.??
In a competitive job market, developing and defining your employer brand is more important than ever.
How to move up the career ladder by Hayley Daniells
Have you been asking yourself; “how can I get a promotion?” or “what do I need to do to move up the career ladder?”. This might be the blog for you.?
Do you feel stuck in your career and aren’t sure what your next steps look like? Do you dream of climbing that classic ‘corporate ladder’ but don’t know where to start? Fear not, OD Talent Solutions are here for you. Check out our top tips to get you that promotion you’ve been looking for and reaching for what you deserve.
Lookout!
Have you seen the news?
Have you got Mental Health First Aiders within your business? Did you know there is a Bill being considered by parliament called First Aid (Mental Health) Bill, this Bill, if passed, will mean it will be a legal requirement to have as many MHFA in your business as First Aiders for physical health.
At present many businesses offer mental health first aid training, but this is not a legal requirement. On 25th January 2023, Conservative MP, Dean Russell, proposed a new Bill to the House of Commons which would make it a legal requirement for employers to provide Mental Health First Aid training alongside their physical health first aid training.?
However, this idea isn't a new one and in 2018 a petition for mandatory Mental Health First Aiders in every workplace attracted more than 200,000 signatures. Then in 2021, Mr Russell attempted to bring forward similar legislation, but this failed to go any further.
Laura O'Driscoll and Kim Draper recently attended the MHFA England? training run by Becky Wright at New Leaf.
Here's what they have to say:
"This was a truly eye opening course, it’s long been on my to do list and I am so pleased we now have 2 MFHA in our small business. Ensuring that people facing Mental Health issues feel supported in their moment of need is as important as ensuring people’s physical health is taken care of. It is an important part of our culture and now we have the formal training so we are well equipped to deal with an issues that may arise for people.”
领英推荐
"I feel really blessed to work for a company who values their employees' mental health and wellbeing. We have a great culture at The Outsourced Recruitment Company and openly talk about mental health, which has always left me wondering if I'm supporting in the correct way. The training has given me the tools and confidence to support the team and those around me, from spotting the symptoms and having an initial conversation to signposting to the appropriate professional support. I've taken so much from Becky Wright 's two day MHFA course and would recommend to anyone considering this training for their own business."
Company Congratulations
Congratulations to…Innocent
Innocent is brand admired by many for their culture, marketing and employer branding activities. This month, their post on Instagram caught our eye, showing how they have made Fruit Towers more inclusive. This includes: gender neutral toilets, a private wellbeing room (for peace and quiet, breastfeeding, prayer or to take 5),?adding pronouns to email signatures, putting Sharps bins in all disabled toilets and a library including a large section of inclusive and diverse books.
This great video by Innocent not only showcases how inclusive they are as an employer, but also helps to prompt others to think about things they can change in their own business.
We appreciate not every business is large enough to be able to create a wellbeing room, but small simple steps like adding pronouns to emails, using more inclusive language and revising policies are a great place to start. We would also recommend speaking to your team and understanding what ideas they have.
Kim Draper 's Top Tips!
Get involved, content doesn’t just belong on your company page!
Only a proportion of your connections will follow your company page on social media, which means you need to do more to help reach your followers. As a business owner or someone at manager level, you should be active in helping to promote your business and employer brand. That means sharing content from the company page and creating your own.
When job seekers are searching for a new employer, they will research the company before and after submitting an application. Which means they may check out your profile on LinkedIn.?They’ll be looking for posts that indicate the type of person you are and the company culture you’ve helped to create.
If you’re not active on LinkedIn or aren’t sure what to write about, here’s a few tips:
If you want to understand more about enhancing your employer brand using social media, check out one of our recent blogs:
Status of the Month
If this isn't your first Monthly Wrap-Up, you'll know we usually use this segment to highlight a status that really caught our eye over the month. With International Women's Day there were incredible statuses everywhere, on all platforms.
With that in mind, this month we are doing something a little different. We want to highlight this account that was watched closely by workers across the country throughout #IWD2023 - Gender Pay Gap Bot.
Each year there are hundreds of tweets from companies tweeting about the importance of female empowerment. The Gender Pay Gap Bot is fact checking the tweets, do the words in the status match up to the actions of these organisations?
When a company tweeted about International Women’s Day, the bot quoted the tweet with their company gender pay gap. Universities, councils and even charity organisations have had their gender pay gaps exposed by the account.
"Deeds not words. Stop posting platitudes. Start fixing the problem."
Stats Worth Knowing
Are You Ready to Shift to a More Strategic Approach to Recruitment?
Last month I touched on the impact of the skills shortage hampering the future growth of some companies. So, it’s interesting that the talent acquisition (“TA”) function is becoming more involved strategically according to new data published by LinkedIn on the future of recruitment.
LinkedIn’s report reveals that a staggering 87% of recruitment professionals are saying that TA has become a more strategic function over the last year.
Click here to access The Future of Recruiting 2023
And to be honest, this doesn’t come as a big surprise to me because it’s been self-evident for some time now that in today’s candidate-led market, firms are struggling to attract (and in some cases retain) the key people essential for driving future growth.
A few years ago, the Harvard Business Review stated “Businesses have never done as much hiring as they do today. They’ve never spent as much money doing it. And they’ve never done a worse job of it.”
A hard-hitting assessment and arguably the situation has got even worse in the current environment.
Time and time again, the difficulty of attracting top talent appears near the top of the key challenges facing business leaders - so how can you adopt a more strategic approach to improve your results?
A good start point is reframing your thinking about recruitment as innovative new models are emerging that go beyond the traditional agency model that you’re probably more familiar with.
We discuss the recruitment landscape in some detail covering the various options available to SMEs in our Buyer’s Guide which is designed to get you thinking differently.
What does a strategic approach involve?
LinkedIn talk about adaptability, problem-solving and business acumen as being critical areas that savvy recruiters will need bring to the boardroom table. It’s all about asking the right questions and uncovering solutions that are aligned to the business’s strategic objectives.
One critical area we talk about a lot is employer branding in terms of enunciating what you stand for as a business, so your culture and values resonate with the candidates who you want to attract. Creating meaningful engagement goes beyond pay or flexibility and takes some work to implement effectively - but it will make employer brand stand out.
If you would like to learn more about how you can generate recruitment breakthroughs, then let’s talk – what you’ll get is an honest straightforward assessment of whether we think we can help your situation.
Andrew Gibb : Head of Business Development
See You There!
Tickets are now available for the following events: