Done your research?

Given the current economic climate, it’s no surprise that candidates have started to demand higher standards and security from employers.

A recent survey conducted by the Huntress Group, has found that candidates are taking into consideration not only the reputation but also how secure the organisation is, a lot earlier in their application process than a few years ago.

The main findings from the study are:

• 47% said they would always check to see if a company is financially stable before working for them.
• 45% would be most concerned if a company has changed its name a number of times.
• 59% would think carefully before working for a company with an unfavourable Credit Report.
• Over half would not consider a company with a high turnover of senior management, in particular, directors.

Almost a third surveyed have worked for a company that has closed down since they left, which is reflected in the top three factors when choosing the next career move:

 

• Job satisfaction
• Company stability
• Proximity to home

Do you vet an organisation before applying for a role, or going for interview? What would be your key deciding factors?

5 “old school” tips for the under 25’s job hunt

Recent figures have shown that youth unemployment is at an all time high within the UK. Several matters often stand in the way of a young persons’ job hunt. A lot of people nowadays focus their efforts entirely on the internet rather than embracing other methods alongside the world wide web. We’ve put together some old fashioned hints and tips to help encourage your job search…

1. Dedicate more time – Allowing a couple of hours a day looking through job boards whilst checking your Facebook and Twitter at the same time will not suffice. They say the process of finding a job should be the equivalent of having a full time job – so make sure it is!

2. Apply speculatively to companies – Research has found that 80% of vacancies aren’t even advertised. Advertising vacancies can be an expensive process for companies, so if they can avoid it, most will. Send your CV and a tailored covering letter addressed to the person responsible for recruitment. If you can’t find this out from their corporate website, then call the company and ask.

3. Look elsewhere other than the internet – newspapers, industry publications. If you’re a graduate, attend job fairs and network – especially if your job role is quite specialist.

4. Be open minded – Don’t restrict yourself to one industry. Think about transferrable skills. You may not want to work in that specific industry for the rest of your life, but it might well prove to be a stepping stone in your career to the job you’ve always wanted.

5. Offer your skills for free – if you’re not working, then why not volunteer in a local charitable organisation, or within a company that you’ve always wanted to work for? It will provide you with the opportunity to increase your skills offering, and you never know, it could lead to a permanent job offer!

Sometimes, all it takes is a small adjustment to change the whole dimensions – be open to making changes within your job search strategy. Before you know it, you may be the one offering the advice and in the process, you may learn some valuable lessons through doing this.

Managing your social media presence

Recent research has found that 90% of recruiters and hiring managers have looked at a candidate’s social media profile, and almost half have done it after receiving the application, but before initiating a screening conversation. The research also showed that 69% of recruiters have rejected someone based on their social networking profile. The main reasons were because the candidate had lied about their qualifications, posted inappropriate photos or comments, or had negative comment about a previous employer. 68%, however, were reported to have hired someone because of what they’d seen on their profile. This was often due to the candidate’s profile providing a positive impression of personality and organisational fit, it showed the person was creative or it supported qualifications and had good references.

To help avoid being rejected due to your social media presence, we’ve put together some tips…

• Make sure your privacy settings are set to private unless you want everyone and anyone knowing your business – this includes the potential employers!

• When updating your social media platform, think about what you’re posting and how it may be perceived.

• Bear in mind that even if your profile is private, recruiters will still be able to see your profile picture. Offensive photos are often found to be the main reason for a recruiter rejecting a candidate.

• http://www.reppler.com is a free social media monitoring service which helps users manage their online image. In a nutshell, it checks all your social networks and highlights anything that could be considered a potential issue or risk.

How to get a call back...

So, we’ve all been there, you’ve managed to secure an interview for a job and you think it’s gone really well, but you’ve not heard anything when they said they would ‘get back to you within the next few days’. As each day passes you begin doubting how well the interview really went.

Don’t panic! This situation happens to everyone, so just relax and make sure you follow these steps to try avoid these situations as much as possible…

·         Remember that interviewers have very busy schedule – especially when they’re recruiting. If you haven’t heard, chances are there’s not a decision yet.

·         To avoid this, ask at the end of the interview when you’re likely to hear. If they say ‘within the next few days’ then ask when it will be acceptable for you to follow up if you don’t hear by then.

·         Never assume that they’re going to call you back.

·         If you don’t manage to arrange a certain time then follow them up. Be pro-active, and push for a response – but gently.

·         Unfortunately, waiting is part of the job seeking process. It can be frustrating, but being patient is important – just not too patient!

 

How to get a job through social media...

Nowadays, people use social media for lots of different aspects of their lives – socialising, shopping, for educational purposes and informational purposes, so it’s not surprising that companies have started using social media to recruit as well. We’ve put together some tips to help you source your next role through social media.

·        Don’t just search for jobs – search for people. Websites such as LinkedIn allow us to search for companies and it's employees. It provides you with direct access to the HR manager. You can also use it for research purposes when you do bag an interview.

·        When someone thinks of twitter, they probably won’t think of it as a place to find your next job. However, several companies have twitter accounts dedicated entirely to their recruitment team – plus recruitment companies are always tweeting their positions. Search specific hash tags to find live vacancies. Some examples are, #jobsearch, #jobseeker, #vacancies. Or try industry specific hash tags such as #housingjobs or #publicsectorjobs

·        Several companies have Facebook fan pages with a dedicated job search tab. The HousingJob Facebook page has a job search application whereby you can search through live vacancies without leaving the website.

·        Subscribe to blogs – a lot of people don’t realise that blogs are the number 1 social media tool. A quick google search will provide you with a vast range of blogs on every topic you could imagine. Look for industry specific blogs, as well as ones based on job seeking and HR matters.

Be careful not to focus all your efforts solely on social media though – you should do the above in conjunction with more traditional methods to make sure you’ve got all bases covered.

Tackling age discrimination

2010-11 Tribunals Service statistics have revealed that the number of age discrimination claims accepted by employment tribunals has risen by nearly one third (30.8%) to 6,800.

                                                        Personneltoday, 2011

                                                      

The statistics, which cover the period from 1st April 2010 until 21st March 2011, shows that the number of overall claims has decreased by 8% on the previous year.

Adrian Crawford, employment partner at law firm Kingsley Napley, comments: "It is noteworthy that while age discrimination claims are still a long way behind sex discrimination, they are now catching up with disability claims and have overtaken race-related claims to be the third most frequent type of discrimination action.

"Everybody has an age so anyone can potentially formulate an age discrimination claim. This may explain why there are already so many claims even before we have felt the impact of the abolition of the default retirement age, which is likely to lead to a huge increase in age discrimination claims."

Housing Jobs prides itself on providing a discrimination free job seeking process. The ability to upload/view job descriptions, person specifications and create tailored job descriptions helps housing associations reach their equality and diversity aims.

All aspects of employment are protected from age discrimination. This includes:

•Recruitment – advertising/application forms and interviewing
•Training
•Promotions and transfers
•Employment benefits
•Employment terms and conditions
•Flexible working
•Redundancy
•Retirement
•Sickness benefit
•Dismissals

If you think you may have been a victim of age discrimination, visit the direct.gov.uk website for help on what to do next.

How to improve your time management skills

Time management is one of those skills that you're not taught during your time in education, but is vital in the professional world. The ability to prioritise and organise your workload will differentiate yourself within the workplace. Your colleagues will respect and admire how you keep level headed under pressure due to your organised outlook and colour-coded 'post it notes'! If you struggle with time management, here's our top eight tips to help you achieve this level of recognition:

1. Track your daily activities - Keeping track of your daily activities - what you did and the time frames involved - will help evaluate where you're wasting time and where you need more time assigned. If you use Outlook, you can utilise your calender to do so, or if you prefer a pen and paper, keep a diary.
2. Create to-do lists - To-do lists will prevent you forgetting about tasks and make sure you complete the tasks in order of priority. Soon, you won't be able to start a days work without creating a list! Once again, Outlook provides you with the option to create a task list, or if you prefer, just use a notepad/diary.
3. Avoid leaving e-mails sitting in your inbox - Keep your inbox organised with designated folders. Schedule regular times to check your e-mails, and action them as soon as you've read them - otherwise you'll end up forgetting about said e-mail!
4. Be careful when multi-tasking - Multi-tasking isn't something to take lightly. People often take so much on board they end up becoming overwhelmed and forgetting about certain tasks. Don't be afraid to say no!
5. Keep your website bookmarks organised - Bookmark websites that you regularly visit, then organise them by folders. This will reduce time, and prevent you losing any relevant websites!
6. Be honest with yourself - Assess when you're at most productive. Everyone has a time in the day when they work best. If that's the morning, then prioritise your most important work to do during the morning, that way you will achieve more within your working day.
7. Set time limits - Use your outlook or diary to set time frames for each task. Regularly assess these time frames. If you're running out of times for certain tasks, then make sure you assign a longer time frame the next time.
8. Take your time - People want quality work, not rushed. Don't be afraid to take your time, accuracy is more important than rushing and producing work littered with mistakes. Remember the tortoise and the hare?

Talk about diversity!

Whilst reading about the arrival of a 'Zonkey' foal (a cross between a donkey and a zebra!) in South East China this morning, it got us thinking about diversity in the workplace.

Diversity and equality within the workplace is becoming more expected, especially of organisations within the public sector. It's often considered a minefield with some organisations not having a clue where they should start, which is why we've put together some ideas to get you started...

• Create a 'diversity calendar' - with a range of religions and ethnicity within the workplace, a good starting point for your organisation is to create a 'diversity calendar'. It will not only help the organisation keep track of annual cultural celebrations, but also it can help provide information on the celebrations and even allow organisations to organise events to highlight the celebrations. A 'diversity calendar' may also improve staff morale as it will show an organisation's respect for their employee's and their beliefs.

• Make use of creativity - Having employees from a wealth of different backgrounds and upbringing can only be beneficial for the organisation. It will provide the opportunity for creative ideas from all different angles of society. Tapping into the individual qualities of the personnel will encourage an organisation to grow and expand.

• Cost effective - Not only has research shown that an organisation with a diverse workforce suffers from lower absenteeism and employee turnover rates, but they are also less likely to come under threat from discrimination law suits.

• Encourages business - Just as an organisation is likely to come across diversity in the workplace, the organisations' external business dealings will also involve different ethnicities and cultures. If you promote diversity and equality in the workplace, your external business dealings will improve as a result.

At Housing Jobs, we promote diversity and equality by providing our clients with a platform whereby they can control and monitor their recruitment methods within a discrimination free process.

Finally, something to make you smile on a rainy Wednesday morning, view the video of the Zonkey foal here

Who's in?

Ever thought about enhancing your CV through volunteering?

Searching for a new job can be frustrating. Hundreds of applicants, all applying for the same role. How do you make yourself stand out?

Research has found that volunteering can make you much more appealing to potential employers, as it shows that you aren't afraid to use your initiative and helps to develop leadership skills.

Volunteering is much more likely to enhance your skills and be more beneficial than doing work experience.

Becci Newton, senior research fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies, suggests volunteering.

"There's no doubt that young people are struggling in the labour market and there's no doubt that they'd benefit if there was somebody to offer them a bit of a reference about their abilities," she said.

"Volunteering is quite different in that young people have a greater opportunity to perhaps develop leadership skills than they might in work, because they are able to devise to a greater extent or suggest their own projects that they might take forward."

Not only will it improve your job prospects, but there's also the feel good factor of knowing you're helping a worthy cause!

How to get a job through Housing Jobs...

We've not updated the blog for a while, so we thought we'd give you an update as to how Housing Jobs can help you in your job search.

So, here are some hints and tips to help you find your dream role…

• Job alerts – Set up your job alerts on the Housing Jobs website, so any relevant vacancies get sent straight to your inbox as soon as they go live.
• Become a fan on Facebook – Take advantage of our Facebook page which features our new Housing Jobs application which allows you to search through all our vacancies without leaving the page itself.
• Check out our new clients – Sanctuary Housing have recently started advertising on Housing Jobs. Take a look at their current vacancies by clicking here

We hope that our help will assist you in finding the job you’ve always wanted. In the meantime, we’d love to hear from you if there’s anything you think we can improve on or any suggestions about our website. Drop us an e-mail at sophie.taylor@housingjobs.org.uk and we promise to take what you say on board!

Good luck!

The Housing Jobs team.