How to stay ahead of the constantly changing HR industry

The HR industry is forever changing. There’s a steady stream of new employment laws to consider and updates on best practice to be kept on top of. As a recruitment agency we make it our mission to stay abreast of changes in employment, as we know it’s what affects our clients on a day-to-day basis. Of course, it also ensures that we do our job well too.

The past few months have been no exception to rule that HR is a constantly fluctuating industry. We’ve seen flexible working laws undergo huge changes and debates over zero hour contracts have received a lot of media attention.

In the last week alone there has been talk about employers discriminating against tattooed employees: the BBC covered a magazine story asking, Should tattoo discrimination be made illegal? The article mentions several cases in which employees claim to have been denied a job or dismissed from a current position because of their body art.

Although this is just one example in the press, we’ve seen many different case studies crop up recently with regards to employment law. The Recruitment & Employment Confederation recently featured several court cases that may affect the law with regards to holiday pay.

Evidently, there are always cases that spark debate over employment law. As hirers and HR professionals you will want to find out more about the stand out cases, which may effect how you employ staff in the future.

Similarly, new trends in work culture or the hiring process crop up all the time – and as a consequence they bring questions about whether these trends are compliant with the law. Again, it’s a process that the hirers and HR professionals need to stay ahead of: for example, one of our recent Lunch & Learn sessions focussed on the rising trend for using social media in the hiring process. We covered topics on whether it was ethical, within the law and how it can be done effectively.

Aside from keeping up with employment law case studies and changes to work cultures, there are a few other simple steps you can make that can help you stay ahead:

-       Network: Speaking to other professionals in the same field as you will help you to pick up on what the industry is talking about. Ask what other hirers have found challenging in the last six months: has auto-enrollment been a difficulty? Have they used social media when hiring? Have they seen an increase in flexible working requests?

-       Research: There are plenty of resources online, which will help HR professionals pick up on the latest ‘buzz’ surrounding recruitment. The REC blog is a fantastic place to start, with topics from recruiting women in senior leadership roles right through to the nitty-gritty subjects such as, “should commission payments be taken into consideration when calculating holiday pay?”. Other blogs that are worth a read include: UndercoverRecruiter, for something a little more light-hearted, and the LinkedInTalent Blog.

-       Speak with your recruitment agency: A good recruitment agency will be dedicated to staying in touch with their clients, and willing to help when they can with questions regarding employment. When you’re looking for a new recruit, speak to your agency about any concerns you may have and ask their advice on hiring issues you’ve had in the past.

-       Keep on top of your sector’s news: This is especially important for HR professionals in specialist industries. There will be different recruitment concerns depending on what industry you’re working in. Look in trade magazines and online for specific advice like this article in the Morning Advertiser, targeted at hiring in the hospitality sector: “Holiday entitlement - a pub employersguide”.

-       Make the most of industry events: Attending industry events can be a huge help to hirers. Not only do they provide you with an ideal networking opportunity, they will also provide you with the opportunity to take part in discussions and listen to presentations from industry-leaders. In fact, our Employment Law Seminar, in partnership with Hegarty LLP Solicitors, is a great example of such an event. This year’s Employment Law Seminar’s agenda is as follows:

o   Martin Bloom, partner at Hegarty’s LLP Solicitors, will tackle the employment law issues surrounding open plan working.

o   Emma Carter, solicitor, will be looking into some case studies from the past 12 months and reviewing the implications these case studies may have for your business.

o   Tim Thompson, partner, will be explaining the intricacies of flexible working and zero hour contracts.

Why not make it your goal to stay well ahead of the changing industry? Hopefully these tips will give you a great starting point. If you would like to attend the Breakfast Employment Law Seminar on the 9^th September, we would be delighted to have you. Simply email us on info@annecorder.co.uk or call 01733 235298 to register your interest.

WHY THE ‘JOB FOR LIFE’ CONCEPT IS FADING FAST

Our last blog focused on the right to request flexible working and the impact this was likely to have on both employers and employees. Inextricably linked with any discussion on this new piece of legislation is a wider comment on our ever-evolving workforce and its changing attitude and behaviours towards traditional employment processes.

Not only are we seeing an increasing number of employees and jobseekers looking for variability in roles, but also in employers themselves. Studies have shown that people new to the job market are rarely looking to find a ‘job for life’, favouring instead jobs that suit their lifestyle at the time. And with skill shortages becoming a major problem for employers in certain industries, there are a selection of jobseekers out there whose attributes are so in demand that they can afford to be picky about where they choose to work.

So the first important message for employers here is: make yourself an employer of choice. We shared our ideas on how to best do this back in 2013 for our regular business surgery column contribution and much of what we covered still stands true. What the past 12 months has taught us instead is how the modern employee approaches the ‘work-life balance’ quest, and how much more they now expect from an employer.

Allegis Global Solutions wrote a fascinating blog on this very topic, hitting the nail on the head with the following statement:

“The modern candidate wants an organisation to serve as a talent platform that allows them to fulfil their potential and are happy to move on to a different employer once they feel they have achieved this. You only have to look at the growing prominence of the contingent workforce for evidence of this change.”

Some see this is as a fickle attitude to have, but it is one that unfortunately has been borne out of the impact of the recession, with the millennial generation of workers having entered the job market at a time of instability and uncertainty. Now, as employer confidence grows, businesses must acknowledge that the ‘job for life’ mentality is no longer adopted by the majority of jobseekers, and so must adapt their offering to give and get the most out of employees within a more realistic timeframe.

With research from the New College of Humanities revealing that a staggering 19 out of 20 graduates now change jobs at least once in the first three years after graduating from university, it certainly gives weight to what has been discussed so far. The NCH research is the most recent in statistical reports on this topic, and it shows that career changing goes well beyond the first job. With a third blaming financial reasons for such rapid job-hopping and two fifths looking to gain new skills and experience from different positions, it reinforces the attitudinal change hinted at earlier in on this post.

Also testament to this is the advice that is being given to ‘modern’ jobseekers. Gone are the days where CVs are strictly templated with the main focus on a person’s qualifications. Our latest candidate newsletter tells jobseekers not to hide their personality, focus less on their educational background and more on ‘telling their story’ i.e giving greater prominence to personal achievements and examples of use of skills in real life circumstances. A good personality fit is now much higher up an employer’s tick list when recruiting for new staff, and has become an increasingly important part of the client briefs the team have been dealing with recently.

The decline of the ‘job for life’ is another intriguing and unpredictable way in which our industry continues to surprise and challenge us  - our job is to learn to adapt and move forward accordingly to make life for our clients and candidates as easy as possible.