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Pod 6, The Engine Rooms, Station Road
Chepstow
Monmouthshire

01633 730907

For more than 10 years we have provided companies of all sizes and in a variety of sectors with uncomplicated, innovative and affordable human resources advice and on-site support ensuring that your people are an asset to your company and not a liability.

News

With the National Minimum Wage (NMW) now almost fifteen years old, and with another increase pending on 1st April 2017 HMRC have issued a list of the most elaborate excuses they've been given by employers for not paying the appropriate rates:

Recruitment, Remember it’s a Buyers Market

Alan Kitto

We’re regularly hearing from our clients about how challenging it is for them to find good candidates to fill vacant roles and that it’s now not uncommon for candidates to reject their offers of employment.

There’s no doubt that there is a shortage of candidates at the moment, unemployment Is low and with the added economic uncertainty it would seem that employees are choosing to stay where they are rather than change jobs and where good employees do look and find new roles, their employers are keen to do everything possible to keep them, knowing how difficult they’d be to replace.

Added to the problem is that some employers still make what we feel are cardinal sins when interviewing, that make candidates less inclined to accept an offer of employment if one was forthcoming.

Our golden rules for interviewing are:

  1. Being prepared, fully understand the role you’re interviewing for, what skills, qualifications and experience are needed and what personality attributes are essential for success

  2. Always listen to the candidates answers and ask follow up questions where appropriate and know what answers you’re looking for for each question

  3. Remember that the candidate is doing you a favour by expressing an interest in working with you, it’s not the other way around as some managers still seem to believe

  4. Don’t fall for stereotypes, there are advantages and disadvantages of both the ‘young pup’ vs. the ‘old timer’ etc.

  5. Be realistic in your expectations; the perfect candidate rarely exists

  6. Don’t recruit in your own image; does the team really need another you?

  7. Don’t kid yourself about your management style and the culture of the team or company. Be honest, you’ll be found out pretty quickly and you may lose your new starter

  8. Don’t oversell the company or the role; if you can’t deliver on what you promise, you lose your employee quickly when they realise

  9. Make the candidate feel relaxed and don’t fall for good interview technique; a candidate that’s good at interviews may have had too many and that may mean they can’t keep a job; remember you’re not looking for someone who is good at interviews

Form more information on recruitment and selection, get in touch.