Getting a return on your investment requires buy in

 

 

 

 

 

Does this sound familiar?

“Training is a waste of time – I’m investing a lot of money in staff development but it’s not having any effect. Why should I bother?”

It wouldn’t be surprising if it does. Research shows that a quarter of training in the UK doesn’t lead to a significant improvement in performance – that’s equal to £10 billion a year, for a zero return on investment. Not the wisest expenditure is it? Especially when we’ve been battling a recession for the last year, in which every penny counts.

So what’s going wrong?

The recent Knowledgepool study found that there was a link between transferring knowledge learnt in training to the workplace, support from managers and an improvement in performance. Kevin Lovell from KnowledgePool said: “Sadly, too many line managers assume that when the training finishes, that’s the end of the process.”

Taking a systematic approach to training is vital – delivering the training is just part of the process.  To get the maximum benefit from your training:

• Identify training needs
• Communication must be established between trainer, learner and managers
• Managers should agree objectives with their people. This will not only engage them with the training giving them goals to work towards but also benchmarks their progress
• After the training there should always be feedback to managers and advice given on how to support their people at their desks, to make sure the learning is implemented effectively
• Managers should always debrief and support the learners action plans after training
• Ongoing involvement from your internal or external training provider is essential to maintain improved performance and for evaluation of the training

It is essential to be clear on what worked and what didn’t! Without buy-in from everyone in the organisation and a planned strategy you will not get the return on investment you hoped for!

Posted by: Fiona Lander

Fend off a winter of discontent!

This is the time of year when people make and take decisions about their future, often deciding they need to change jobs or get more out of their current one. At the same time it’s when management teams look to set company performance goals and individual targets for the year ahead.

This means it’s more important than ever to make time to evaluate how you and your team are doing, decide what your goals and aims really are and how they fit with your key values. It is also important to set some time dated milestones, to give the feeling of early momentum in the coming year.

 Unfortunately if people are thinking of leaving, conventional appraisals often aren’t able to help them develop or make the job more rewarding. So what can organisations do to keep the people that are thinking of continuing 2010 without them?

So where do we start?

• Train the management team on how to effectively coach people
• Ask open questions in a way that moves people to positive action which matches their beliefs and values

Let’s take a look at coaching
People often believe they are coaching when they are actually simply selling individuals the ideas and goals they want met, so…

• Create rapport. Match the person’s level of energy and only when they are comfortable begin to lead it up if necessary. E.g. if someone has complaints to make, they need to feel they are being listened to and acknowledged, before you move onto asking what a solution to the problem might be
• Always explain what is involved in the process and that the onus is on the person being coached to come up with the answers. This is especially important if the coach is a direct line manager
• The coach must have the mindset that the ‘coachee’ has all the personal resources they need to make good decisions. This avoids giving away [through body language and voice tone] the fact the coach want a particular answer to a question

Outside help
It is sometimes difficult for someone to be completely honest and feel free to explore what they want with their immediate manager.

Getting outside help could be anything from letting key staff have mentors from outside their team, to using professional coaches, to making the coaching and developing of others a key part of someone’s job.

Giving people a hand to help resolve issues, focus on the positive and make good resolutions that are actually kept, goes a long way to having people that are confident they are in the right job and therefore have a strong desire to do well.

The coach themselves will get a wider perspective on company issues which will be invaluable.

Retaining your talent: So one of the key priorities is to provide a supportive, learning environment where people can thrive and develop their skills.

Posted by: Toby Buckle

Head to Head Interview with Alan Clarke

Our delegates love Alan Clarke! As one of Lander Associates senior trainers who has trained thousands of recruiters, Alan has a wealth of expertise and recruitment knowledge. In our head to head interview we talk to Alan about what new recruits need to learn at the start of their career. What the hot tickets are for consultants in 2010 and we also get to know a bit more about the man behind the trainer.

 

Watch the full interview with Alan on our website where he talks more about our upcoming courses.

The recession aftermath

We are always saying how important training your staff is – but then again as training specialists we would say that! But here comes some research to prove it. According to Personnel Today, nearly seven in ten HR professionals have identified a “huge need” to ensure managers have the skills to manage the aftermath of the recession.

Henley Business School surveyed 117 HR professionals and found that almost 70% said developing middle managers was in their top two priorities. Linda Irwin, executive director, corporate development at Henley Business School, said: “Rather than axing development budgets and cutting leadership development, [management and HR] have focused effort on those individuals who they expect will lead their organisations into a future yet to be created. Softer skills – in leadership styles and coaching, for instance – that bring out the very best in people and facilitate team working, are also a priority.”

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves! As the recovery gets underway it’s vital to have strong management in place to lead the company through the changing conditions. Investing in training and development isn’t a luxury – it’s a necessity.

Posted by: Fiona Lander

The rules of engagement are changing

You may have seen me quoted in Recruiter talking about the key issues that recruiters must focus on for 2010. So here is a run down of those issues and what we need to be doing!

Extreme economic conditions have left recruitment leaders with smaller, stronger teams but anticipated growth, albeit minimal at first, will mean they need to attract the best talent out there to join them.  These new teams will face greater challenges than ever before. So what are the main challenges leaders/managers will face in 2010? How can we help and resource our people as leaders?

This burning issue should be high on the agenda in our boardrooms right now.  Whilst each individual company needs to thrash out the specifics, three overriding themes will be common to us all.

• Innovation – With tighter budgets, stronger competition and reduced resources, our only option is to be more creative. The problem right now is that people are nervous about taking this risk, so organisations must create an environment where innovation is actively encouraged.
• Managing change – Innovation itself creates change and the current market conditions are imposing change on our business models and how we interact with our customers.  The fast moving avalanche of technology can swamp us, if we are not ready to embrace the changes that it brings, so it is essential that we create change-ready organisations that are more adaptable. 
• Communication – We must communicate these changes to our teams so they can buy in and engage with what we are setting out to do. We not only need to engage with our existing talent in order to retain the best of the best but we must surely engage with future talent in order to once again grow our businesses as the economy eventually supports growth. Those organisations that have a highly engaged workforce will also have highly loyal customers.

It’s time we realised the rules of engagement have changed and that the landscape for talent management has been transformed.  With baby boomers retiring later and generation Y eagerly progressing up the professional ranks, sandwiching – and jointly outnumbering – the generation X’s, our challenge will be to engage them all and work out how to use things other than money as currency for retention.

Gallup research findings, at the end of last year, say organisations with engaged employees deliver 27% higher profits, 50% higher sales, 50% higher customer loyalty, and 38% above-average productivity. Without real efforts to engage employees, organisations will be stuck on a costly ‘hamster wheel’ of hiring, training, replacing and training, affecting both profitability and growth.

If we and our teams are going to be prepared for the year ahead, we need to push our thinking as leaders.  Businesses that win will take risks and create new paths for others to follow – they will not simply respond to change, they will drive it.  But most importantly they will recognise that engaging their current and future workforce is the absolute priority that will enable innovation and change to take place.

Posted by: Fiona Lander

How to motivate your team in 2010

  

We’re all hoping for a brighter 2010 after the tough year that was 2009 is now behind us. It is vital to fully engage your people and motivation plays a major part. Motivation is key during a recession, but it’s absolutely critical in a recovery. Why? We’re not out of the woods yet – many companies are still facing difficulties and they need to have hard working and motivated teams to ensure they make it through them. On other hand, as market conditions do start to improve, so will the jobs market – and unless they’re happy and well motivated, those people that you’ve retained over the past year will be plotting their move. So what should you be doing to motivate your team?

First and foremost, make sure you communicate with your people and keep everyone informed of what is going on – both in good times to encourage, and in the bad times to reassure. This open communication should not only come from the top but at all levels of management.

In the same way it’s important to give recognition and praise for a job well done – in other words making people feel valued. Don’t practice ‘seagull management’ and swoop in only when the situation is bad. Small things like this can have a large impact. Celebrate the minor victories as well as the major ones and make sure everyone knows when someone has done well. But this doesn’t just apply to work – it’s also important to make an effort when it comes to matters that aren’t work related – sending birthday cards, organising team outings and taking an interest in people’s lives outside of work can help both retention and team motivation.

Training and coaching is also important for a motivation strategy. There is nothing more de-motivating than being inadequately equipped to do your job, so make sure all your employees regularly brush up on the skills they need to perform well. Mentoring and buddy schemes are also great ways of providing support to your people and making them feel valued. All these things are important but it’s equally as important for the individual to take some responsibility for their own motivation. Encourage them to set goals for themselves and think about how those goals align with the company goals and objectives. Finally, even when times are hard, lead by example; try to maintain an upbeat attitude – keeping morale high is one of the ‘vital signs’ of a healthy organisation.

Motivation, as part of your engagement strategy, should be on every manager’s agenda for 2010 – no organisation can afford to employ people who aren’t reaching their potential, or worse are going to leave, because they’re feeling undervalued or uninspired. Invest some time and effort in motivation and you’ll immediately begin to see the return on your investment. 

Posted by: Fiona Lander     

 

Recruitment predictions for 2010

Somehow, we’re nearly at the end of first decade of the 2000s (or the noughties, whichever is the accepted phrase!) The past 10 years has flown by but has been full of ups and downs, as well as rather big changes, for the recruitment industry. So thinking about this, I started thinking about the year ahead and what will be in store for all us people in the recruitment world.

From listening to both experts and clients, I’m expecting conditions to improve during the first half of 2010 and then stabilise. This is obviously great for business and a short term relief that we’re starting to see some light at the end of the tunnel; however I think we still have a year or two before we’re completely rid of this very tough recession. With conditions picking up, recruitment consultancies definitely need to take advantage of the increased business potential out there, but at the same time it’s important that they have sensible and realistic plans and don’t cause themselves major problems by doing too much too soon.

So what else? I think that recruiters need to review their service offering for the changing times. Listen to your customers! With the prolific use of online tools in business and in the recruitment industry today, organisations need to think of new ways to offer their services – it’s these innovative companies that will be more successful.

Don’t forget about your own people. Research (CIPD) shows that up to 40% of those good people that you’ve managed to retain throughout the downturn will be looking to move as the recruitment job market picks up. That means recruiters really need to focus on engagement to keep their top talent.

Planning strategies for the year ahead would be a lot easier if we had a crystal ball!

Recruitment leaders need to focus on these key issues – change, innovation and engagement. With the situation constantly changing it’s the companies that are good at managing this change that will ultimately see their way through the year ahead; but they need the best talent to bring their creativity to the workplace to do it.

Posted by: Fiona Lander

Season’s Greetings

  Click here 

Take a look at what we’ve been up to

 

It’s been a busy few weeks for the team at Lander, with the many things we have been up to including the Raising the Bar event in Oxford.Started last year by two ex-candidates of the Apprentice, Raising the Bar is an opportunity for businesses to meet, talk and improve business performance. After two of our trainers attended last year’s event, this year organiser Jen Celerier offered Lander a speaking slot – so we decided to go for it and take the whole team along to learn from the other delegates and get some new ideas from outside of the recruitment sector.

We spoke about leadership, delivering our presentation on Engagement, Innovation and Change, which was very well received. Some interesting conversations were had and it was a really useful experience as it confirmed that recruiters are doing exactly what they should be doing – focussing on leadership and engagement as we begin to emerge from recession.

“It was a terrific event attended by around 500 decision makers from many different organisations, most of them outside of recruitment. It’s given us a real launch pad and the confidence to continue to grow our business outside of our specialist sector, recruitment.  We also saw the day as part of development and team building strategy and everyone agreed it was a useful, informative and enjoyable.”

We all enjoyed the event and found it it’s something that we will hopefully do again in 2010.

 

We also attended the APSCo Venetian Masquerade Ball in aid of ChildLine at the Intercontinental Hotel. This really was an enchanted evening. Greeted by handsome and beautiful Gondoliers singing opera and plying champagne, the evening, sponsored by 1^st Option, boded well Five hundred glamorous guests were ushered off by Gondoliers (aka ChildLine Volunteers) to choose exotic masks; fabulously feathered or gorgeously sparkling and even Nasone Style for those brave enough!                                                

Once masked, more champagne sipping in the reception room (later to be transformed into a buzzing casino) followed. Soon everyone moved into the marvellous banquet hall bedecked with colourful silk garlands of purple, red and green, Venetian statues and a scene depicting a canal in Venice with a real gondola as the backdrop for the stage. Dazzling table decorations featured bejewelled glasses and gorgeous ostrich feathers reflecting the colour theme with flashes of bright orange giving the ambience a carnival feel.

The festivities burst into action with the announcement of the 2009 Awards for excellence sponsored by SmartWork.com.

The worthy winners were: Innovator of the Year – OrangeGenie, Recruitment Sector Service Provider of the Year – Lander Associates (commendation Parasol), Recruitment Company of the Year – Hobson Prior (under £20m), CBS Butler (£21-£100m) and Volt Europe (over £100m), Individual Contributions – Francis Lewis (partner at Blake Lapthorn) and APSCo Chairman Richard Herring.

Ann Swain APSCo CEO received a standing ovation with her award for her 10 years of successfully leading APSCo from its inauguration to the key position it holds today.

Next, a delicious 3 course dinner with luscious litres of Italian wine flowing. Relaxed and ready for more, guests, splendid in all their finery, then participated in the Champagne Diamond Draw, a raffle and an exciting Charity Auction where competitive philanthropists battled it out for prizes including a Caribbean holiday and a long ‘five star’ weekend in Venice.

Dazzling after dinner dancing was complimented by visits to the casino, a karaoke studio and a stroll round the silent auction prizes which included an original lithograph by Picasso.

In all a phenomenal £60,000 plus was raised for the NSPCC’s ChildLine, thanks to the generosity of the guests. Gondolas were called at 2am and a surprisingly large number of the guests were still there till the end which is always a sign of a fantastic evening that people didn’t want to end. Sera fantastica! Non lo abbiamo desiderato concluderci!

See our Facebook page for some photos of us at Raising the Bar and at the APSCo ball.

Posted by Fiona Lander

How website analytics can help improve your business

Learning about how visitors use your website is a vital step in maximising its effectiveness and getting that essential return on investment, as well as generating new leads. An ineffective website not only damages your brand image but can lose crucial custom.

The great thing is that monitoring your website doesn’t have to be hard work or even cost you a thing! Over the last 6 months I have implement and monitored Google Analytics on our website and found that this free web analytics tool really does go beyond expectations.

 There are many factors that you are able to track through Google Analytics; here are just a few examples:

• Overall number of visitors and the percentage that are new or returning
• Which pages visitors look at and how long they remain on the site and each page
• Which page they exit the site from
• Where they came from i.e. Twitter, blog, search engines, referral sites etc..
• Which keywords were used to find you in the search engines
• The visitors location
• Bounce rate (Initial visitors to the site that ‘bounce’ away to a different site, rather than continue on to another page)

All this information and more can be monitored in real time or exported into comprehensive customised reports. 

I will be talking in more detail about Google Analytics over a series of blogs in order to share with you what I have learnt over the last 6 months, what all this information means and how it can benefit your business.

 Google Analytics and visitor tracking

The first blog in this series will look into the basics of visitor tracking and the benefit of monitoring the percentage of visitors to your website.

Highlighted below you can see the overall number of visitors to the site, which is then broken down to show the percentage of them which were new visitors, returning visitors and referral traffic (i.e. came from another site or social media like Twitter). It is vital to see where your traffic is coming from, to recognise if there are certain websites or social media applications that are generating more traffic than others. You can then put more marketing effort and time into the more successful sources, rather than using resources on less worthy causes.

We can also see what day and time people are visiting the site, as shown below. This will highlight any trends which can be helpful in understanding the best time to have press releases and marketing offers on the site, so they have maximum exposure.

Top Tip: Monitor your analytics for the first few months to obtain a good amount of statistics which will help you to gauge trends. Google Analytics will calculate your daily average visitors to the site and from this your average number of new visitors, returning visitors and referral traffic. (Please be aware that this average includes weekends, if you don’t want to include non business days in your average, then you will need to calculate this out). This information gives you a benchmark, especially if you are monitoring your analytics daily. Obviously, this average will need to be re calculated monthly to keep the data current but by gaining an average you can not only see how your site is doing against your own average, but it also gives you an opportunity to set targets.

Creating daily/monthly targets will help you monitor your website activity and encourage new initiatives to improve your website traffic. This may mean that you are updating your website to incorporate your initiatives which will then in turn help improve your SEO (search engine optimisation) as your content will be changing on a regular basis.

Using all your analytics data effectively will not only help to fine tune your website but will also help to create better synergy between your site and your marketing strategy.

Next Blog: Exits – Discovering your sites ineffective pages

Posted by: Rachel Gould