95% of managers believe coaching benefits their organisation
A recent survey by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) reveals that coaching techniques are finding widespread adoption and that the ‘coaching culture’ is really taking off. The report also found organisations are realising a variety of benefits to the coached individuals and the overall business. Here are some of the key findings: Read the rest of this entry »
In these tough economic times, employers are looking for ever more cost effective ways to up skill, develop and retain their talent. Finding training that delivers a true benefit to the individual and the company can sometimes prove more challenging than you might imagine.
Often, employers are unsure as to the specific development needs of their teams, which can cause them to adopt a “sheep dip” approach to training. Whilst this may undoubtedly be more beneficial than no training at all, the impact of the training can sometimes lose momentum after the event.
This may be for a number of reasons; Read the rest of this entry »
In part 1 we looked at the key sessions within our recruitment induction courses and I gave you tips for each. These included key result areas, communication, sales, taking a vacancy and sourcing candidates. This week we will look at the remaining sessions.
Profile and Qualifying Candidates
Before you register a candidate, decide whether they will represent your company well and whether they will work with you and not against you! Just because they have a fabulous CV, doesn’t mean they are a great candidate. Tip 6 – Spend time profiling the candidate before you decide to register them. This will save you a lot of time later. You won’t clog up your database with people you can’t help.
Friday the 16th September saw a celebration of ReThink’s academy consultants flying the nest to full target-dom and getting lots of praise, booze, food and money in the process.
A massive congratulations to the academy graduates: Chris Walker – Bristol, Wayne Hay – London, Qamar Khan – London
The day started off with a number of presentations for Andy (MD), Midge (Director), Christine (Contracts manager Bristol), Guy (Contracts manager London) and Fiona Lander (of Lander Associates) delivered by the academy graduates. Thankfully I did well in keeping my composure throughout the presentation which lasted the best part of 20 minutes.
A training needs analysis does exactly what it says it should –assess your training requirements. There is no point planning and delivering training that you think your people need, as this may not be where the skills gaps lie and where the knowledge is required. A training needs analysis is designed not only to address these gaps but also to identify strengths and then take those strengths to a higher level.
Especially in tight markets, many people may have the skills and abilities needed for their role but that this isn’t always enough. There needs to be a frame of reference for the challenging market we’re working in. Yes, your team may have the skills to perform well in a strong market but this won’t help if they cannot adapt the way they use them in a downturn. In other words there may not be a skills gap, but a knowledge gap instead. When you have identified these gaps and the areas where there is potential to raise the level of skill even further, you can then set about devising a strategy of training solutions.
But how do you go about undertaking this task?
I was interested to read recently that research shows the useful transfer of learning back to the workplace could be as low as 10%. This is down to the fact that a lot of training addresses knowledge and skill but not attitude! This to me highlights two things:
1. The need to include in the training itself the role of attitude and how it enables the participant to change their behaviour and use the skills being taught
2. Making sure those in the room are bought into the training in the first place!
This otherwise leads to the trainer having to ‘sell’ to the people in the room who don’t want to be there or do not see the value, which not only wastes time but takes the attention from those who want to be there.
The age of the internet means that we can all know a little about a lot! Combined with that, the rise of job boards and the growth of LinkedIn has specifically challenged how recruiters can remain relevant in the future.
Never a better time than now then to develop narrow and deep expertise that encourages clients to talk to you whilst dissuading them from alternative sources.
Employment/recruitment law can be a dry subject but it is knowing your stuff here that really makes that point of difference in a conversation with a client or candidate – it’s that ‘value add’ thing. You are saving them time by keeping them up to date around the latest legislation or legal developments and this in turn boosts your credibility and develops relationships. Read the rest of this entry »
‘Like a human sponge’ is the best way to describe how I felt during an intensive two-day recruitment training course I attended last week. The course director, experience in recruitment equals my entire 22 years of existence and therefore, his wise words of wisdom were frantically scrawled down at every available opportunity.
There was 8 of us ‘newbies’ attending the course, all of whom came from diverse recruitment backgrounds but all of whom had one thing in common: eagerness to learn. The material we were originally aiming to cover was vast but the trainer did a fantastic job in tailoring his action plan to our individual needs. It was reassuring to discover that others had similar concerns to me and no matter how silly they seemed, we were able to voice them in the safe, classroom environment. Read the rest of this entry »
These days it’s almost impossible to become a successful recruiter if you aren’t a wiz at using your social media skills. Over 3 million people in the UK alone use LinkedIn and good recruiters use it as a tool to source candidates and clients. The majority though, don’t know what they don’t know and could be getting so much more from it than they realise.
Even if you are that social media ‘wiz kid’, that’s only half the story. If you don’t have credible, consultative headhunting skills, having the names of top talent is meaningless if you can’t confidently approach them to professionally present an opportunity.
Using these skills together is the key, so learning them together makes sense.
Lander Associates has teamed up with LinkedIn expert Mark Williams (Mr LinkedIn) to create a unique training programme that combines LinkedIn and traditional headhunting techniques.
LinkedIn skills from setting up that ‘killer’ profile to discovering applications that you should be taking advantage of to really extend your network, go hand in hand with using a headhunting structure that gives professional credibility, managing even the most senior candidates with confidence. Read the rest of this entry »
We might be miles apart from Australia but that doesn’t stop us working with overseas companies. In fact, we have been working with medical and professional recruiter, Your World for some time now who have offices in both London and Australia.
Your World required some assistance to ensure there was consistency across the two continents, something we achieved by assisting them with their vision setting – a key part of any organisation. We are now delivering an ongoing annual training programme to both the Australia and London offices – consisting of a two week intensive training programme in Australia and a drip fed course over a longer period of time in London. Whilst this requires regular trips to Australia to deliver the training (not that I am complaining!), it is followed up by regular project work and over the phone coaching. We have also facilitated international management meetings for Your World via video conferencing to ensure that the team continue to grow together as a unit.
This example shows how organisations with offices in different locations can successfully build a cohesive culture no matter how far apart they are physically. What’s more, it pays real dividends – Your World are seeing an increase in business and head count. The result? An investment in cool new offices to facilitate their expansion.
Posted by Fiona Lander
