Culture – It is an increasing importance for attraction and retention

Research has been done and has been found that there is usually a positive correlation (It basically means, both have to increase at the same time) between company’s profit as well as worker’s satisfaction. What affects worker’s satisfaction and retention is the company’s culture.

It helps in attraction of good candidates

You will probably understand when a good candidate has your offer, as well as another company’s offer. Both offer packages are similar, with little discrepancies – a common situation for quality candidates. What is the distinguishing factor is your company’s culture, and how well it is being represented and communicated to your stakeholders.

This is even more important if your salary package is not market competitive. Your culture could be the deciding factor why quality candidates might reject the higher salary package over yours.

It helps in ensuring a good fit between the company and the potential new entrant

Regardless of how long your interview is, it is not long enough to define your culture or how you can alter the judgement from your interviewees. Candidate already has formed a perception about what this company is, it’s reputation and the culture and purpose of this company.

The preconceived information is attained from news articles, word of mouth and social media – and they are likely information disseminated by your very own employees who could be currently employed, and fully involved in the daily activities.

Hence, it is important to not only communicate your culture but to continuously reinforce your culture

Leaders actions and decisions reinforce the culture of the company. It influences the way people act and communicate with each other. Your existing employees will reinforce the company’s culture to the group of new entrants.

Ultimately, the culture that your company have assist in the employer branding - which makes you unique compared to your competitors. Your culture is then defined by your goals and objectives that your company have, or that leaders emphasize on their employees. 

Leave Work at Work

No matter how hard you work, the truth is… you will never get a chance to leave work with all items on the checklist cleared. There will be work left undone. Ticking all your items on the checklist also does not necessarily make you a good employee. 

An overworked employee is more likely to make mistakes in her deliverables. You should remind yourself to leave work behind, keep your mind clear. You still got another day to settle the remaining work. Your quality of work would less likely be compromised when you are afresh and energetic to tackle what is ahead.

This is how you separate work from your rest time. Yes, at CVista HR, we are teaching you how to rest.

Keep the music on when commuting back home

Keep the music playing and do something that makes you really relaxed. Sing softly if you have a really nice voice or keep the melody going in your head if you don’t sound nice. Keep the journey back home enjoyable for both you and other commuters.

Try not to rush home

This is a little bit more challenging with everyone rushing to get home. Give yourself time, and let others squeeze as much as they want into the already packed train. You don’t have to – because you have the time. Do not have to be influenced and be one of the many sardines. This helps you relax, then feel frustrated when people are cutting your queue. If you have not been gracious the whole day, this is a good time to start!

“Work Hard, Play Hard”

Overused phrase – but it is true. If you have already left work, please do not think about work and think of the areas where you have not performed today. You will not be paid Overtime
anyways.

Draw a line between work and play distinctively. This helps you in getting recharged for the work tomorrow. Think about the drama 9pm show you’ll be watching later!  

You should connect with yourself and your friends and families. Not with work because it affects your emotions negatively. You don’t want to be a snapping alligator when you are back home, and neither do you want to be judged when you yell at aggressive commuters (or get STOMPED!)

Just simply, enjoy life and be thankful for all that you have. That’s your responsibility until you begin your next day at work again.

Changes from MOM (Strengthening the core of PMEs)

It has very well been established that for companies to apply for Employment Pass, companies with more than 25 headcounts should have posted their advertisement on Jobs Bank for at least 14 days to strengthen the Singaporean Core of PMEs. 

Effective from 01 October 2015, Companies should indicate a salary range on Jobs Bank. Companies who do not adhere to this practice are at risk of having their Employment Pass rejected. This will assist in ensuring transparency between Singaporean candidates and employers in the market, and will ensure proper communication. 

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) will place emphasis on Employment Pass applications on firms who have a lesser Singaporeans who are under the Professional, Managers and Executives (PMEs) category in comparison to its industry players. To verify, MOM can require more information and statistics to ensure that Singaporeans were considered first.
Efforts have been established to ensure that Singaporean PMEs are constantly upgrading themselves to ensure they remain employable. Initiatives such as Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and (Employment and Employability Institute) e2i will roll out a Career Support Programme (CSP) have already been in the pipeline. Even when mature Singaporean PMEs have joined, efforts have been established to orientate them into the new environment where external and on the job training will be implemented.  

The Singapore government have also constantly recognised and encouraged employers to employ mature Singaporean PMEs. Organisations that hire mid-level Singaporean PMEs who have been looking for jobs for at least six months, and are being paid at least $4000 will be given wage support based on the following table. 

The Employment Claims Tribunal (ECT) was also established in the first quarter of 2016 for PMEs who earn more than $4500 and who are not covered by the Employment Act for conflict resolution pertaining to statutory and contractual salary. 

http://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/press-releases/2015/0708-enhanced-support-for-singaporean-pmes

How to get a "YES" from the right candidate?

It is really no point attracting the right candidates, only to be rejected later. Not only do we understand how long it takes to nurse that broken heart – we also understand how much resources you have wasted such as your precious time. 

Over-Promise

Funny getting this as a reminder from a Recruitment Company? This is the fundamentals and we practise this daily in our course of work. Do not oversell your company’s expansion plans or company’s profile, or the amount of exposure or professional development plans you have for the right candidate. You might be able to get the right candidate to say YES for now, but definitely not for later when the right candidate is in your employment. You do not also want to be known as the workplace without integrity. 

It is fundamental for both the hiring manager, as well as the Candidate to have clarity on the roles and responsibilities and value of the roles and responsibilities. 

Understand your Competitors

Do your homework. You should understand not just competitors who are selling similar products or services, but other companies offering a similar position. To get your right candidate to say YES, you will need to understand his value first. Providing a low salary package would mean you do not appreciate his value, while providing a high salary package would mean you are overstating his value. 

Understand your RIGHT Candidate

What do your right candidate value? Through engaging your right candidate and understanding this, you can have this position closed not only now, but later. Employers need to understand what candidates value – and it is always not just the name of the position, or salary – but personal and professional growth. 

Every point of engagement would then represent an opportunity to share what you can offer, and to reinforce your employer branding and values. Convince them your workplace is the ideal choice. The best time to share this is during your orientation where they feel a part of your organization and is embraced into the culture. Provide opportunities for your new entrant to share about their challenges, and always provide an open communication between the reporting superior and the right employee. 

Respecting your Candidates

This means no last-minute cancellations, or having interviews with candidates after their interview time scheduled. You might have the bargaining power now – but not at the expense of your reputation. Letting candidates wait for you do not reflect candidate’s commitment and interest to the position, but it shows how your companies “respect” people.  

The emphasis of interview questions should be related to work instead of personal questions. Good candidates are more interested in sharing how they can contribute, and share what they have learnt over their past experiences. This also means you are transparent with your Candidates so as to clarify their expectations. 

Interviews are a two-way process. In this age, you are not just evaluating your candidates but candidates are evaluating you. Give a chance for your good candidates to ask questions. 

Short Response Time

Once you are done with the interview, please keep your response time short. You should inform candidates 2 days after their application or their interview if they have been shortlisted or selected. Candidates, especially good candidates will not wait for too long. 
You do not want to be the one crying over spilt milk. 

Ease Your Mind with Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)

Some organizations have come to understand the significant importance of outsourcing the recruitment needs to recruitment firms. These days, HR are moving into the strategic roles and will want to reduce as much administration as they could, in order to focus on the planning and executing of strategic directions.

With RPO, HR can now finally let go of administrative works from their shoulders. Recruitment can really be a timeless and boundless process within the department. This process will repeat itself and HR practitioners will not like such monotonous nature in job. In fact, albeit spending time with administrative matters, HR practitioner always understands that efficiency in the key in delivery solutions. How much have these administrative matters tie you down and you realized that you were unable to sit down to resolve the key and prioritized matters?
Look for the right firms in supporting RPO, they are present to ensure that it lightens your loads in many areas of work such as scanning through resumes, communicating of job scopes, coordinating of interview arrangements and even offering and signing contracts with selected candidates.

While RPO firms help reduce the burden on administration, organizations can also further leverage on the pool of candidates. RPO firms will also have the eagerness and selfless plan to observe analytic trends and results. Not only does RPO firms provide administrative services, they may even help you on analytical data. RPO might even provide you wages and benefits comparison among different industries.

RPO firms would also want to position themselves as strategic partners. RPO would want to allow organizations see the importance needs for future growth. Having integrated both services would help organizations achieve great clarity in recruitment, administration and management affairs. It continuously builds the connections that can produce greater productivity.

Attracting the Right Candidates

You could have posted a job advertisement recently and have seen a steady stream of applicants. In our years of experience as being a recruiter, number of candidate do not necessarily equate to how effective your posting really is. In fact, the more number of applicants you have, the longer time is needed to filter candidates who really meet your requirements. 

To evaluate your effectiveness, you should think of how many RIGHT candidates the job posting really attracts. The following are tips for you to attract the right candidates, and you got it right – we’re sharing our little secrets of success to you. 

Concise Job Description

There is an indirect relationship to the length of your Job Description and how effective you really are. In addition, state your salary range upfront. Candidates will self-select their own applications, and this means a step lesser for you. Candidates who are on the lookout for jobs do not just apply for one company – but many companies. With that in mind, how much time do you think they will set aside to read your lengthy job description? 
Think about the number of quality candidates you will lose – and I mean the candidates who would really read through every job description before applying for the job with your lengthy job description with complex languages.

Streamline Application Process

Application process with steps A – Z would make candidates lose interest in it if it is too much hassle and time-consuming. You are only allowed to have a very complex application process when you can have an unbeatable employer branding. To simplify the process, you could allow candidates to easily upload their resume which they have already spend their time and effort doing. 

Usage of Job Portals

Think about who is your right candidate, and then act on it. Talk to your sales representative from different portals to understand which target audience are the portals attracting, and how effective their job portals are in attracting your RIGHT candidate. 

Be Worthy

Be concerned about your employer branding. Be very concerned. Employer branding does not equate to sky-high salary and awesome benefits and big organizations with operations in different countries – but proper management, opportunities for personal and professional growth as well as to feel recognized.  
That’s what good candidates are looking for anyway.