Dear Subscriber,

‘HR must try harder: Job seekers are often turned off by badly trained HR staff. This harms not only recruitment, but can also damage a company’s brand’.

The above headline appeared in the Sunday Times, a worrying thought; surely it can’t be true, can it?

A survey carried out by Ipsos Mori for T-Mobile across 2,000 people concluded that a third of job applicants come away from an interview with a bad impression of the business. Again not surprising is that two-thirds of jobseekers would be influenced whether to accept an offer because of the poor interview experience.

What should be really worrying for all organisations is that half of those would not purchase products and services from the offending firms, while a third would tell up to 5 other people about their poor experience!

Avoiding careless recruitment methods and sloppy interview techniques is easy but all too often over looked.

The most common mistake is not investing time in the recruitment process. Throwing your vacancy out to five agencies and refusing to spend any time with the consultant does nothing for your employee brand.

Your recruitment partner is essential. They are often the first introduction many people have had to your company so it’s important they know what they are talking about!

The organisation you use to assist you throughout the process should be seen as a true partner, an extension of your business and someone who will represent you openly and honestly. They should not be seen as a necessary evil. I accept that there are a number of ‘bums on seats’ agencies that will quite happily throw CVs at you and charge you a fortune. You know who they are. The option available to you here is very simple, don’t use them.

Pick your recruitment partner carefully, allow them to represent your business professionally and ensure they follow up on every applicant, every reject and eventually make sure they handle the offer stage with care and attention.

Using the correct recruitment process is vital, followed correctly and it can be rewarding and satisfying, above all, it allows you to recruit the right individual to build your business. Don’t counter that by becoming one of the statistics referred to earlier.

If you have any questions on improving your recruitment process and ensuring candidates enjoy their recruitment journey with your business, please feel free to email or call me direct on 0191 438 7989.

Mark Ions - Managing Director

exclusivehr.com - The North East's leading HR Recruitment and HR Consultancy Service

February, April and October tend to be busy times of the year in employment terms; financial limit changes in February, law changes in April and October.

This April was no different. So, what do you have to deal with?

First, Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007. Henceforth, corporations, and certain other designated bodies will be liable for ‘corporate manslaughter’ if death arises from a breach of a duty of care attributable to the management. Only time will tell whether this Act, designed to ensure responsibility attaches at the highest level will serve to reduce potentially fatal accidents from occurring.

Next, the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 have been extended to cover undertakings with 50 or more employees. The big question remains; pro-active or re-active? The choice is yours! Moving forward, the answer is likely to be pro-active. Whilst the reduction in union influence may mean fewer employee groups might ask for committees to be set up, long term they will probably become the norm. Given how they can be used for many consultation and negotiation purposes, this may be no bad thing.

Thirdly, the Sex Discrimination (Amendment of Legislation) Regulations 2008. In simple terms, over recent years it became apparent that the provisions of the 1975 SDA did not extend far enough to be effective in a number of situations; the amendment regulations have been designed to address this. The three principle areas of change relate to discrimination on the grounds of pregnancy or maternity leave – it is no longer necessary for the comparator to be a woman who is not pregnant; prohibition of harassment – to extend protection to conduct from third parties and to change the emphasis from ‘on the ground of her sex’ to ‘related to her sex’; and finally, protecting rights during maternity leave and in particular, removing the distinction between the rights accruing during ordinary maternity leave and those in additional maternity leave. For sure, those employers who have traditionally offered lesser rights during AML are unlikely to be able to continue such practice for babies born after October 2008.

As always, this is only a brief resume of some changes; there is no substitute for obtaining full and proper advice at the right time.

Jonathon Stokes is Head of Dispute Resolution at local firm, Gordon Brown Associates. He can be contacted on 0191 230 8103, or visit the web site www.gordon-brown.co.uk.

Each month we will be profiling one of our HR Associates. This month:

‘The Human Condition’

Joanne Smyth, an associate with Exclusive Human Resources, discusses how work-related health conditions (such as back pain, RSI and stress) can be avoided by considering the impact of the work environment on the people who work there.

By design, humans are extremely adaptable. We can problem solve and write or type our thoughts onto paper. We are able to lift and carry objects and perform intricate movements with our hands and fingers. We can drive and travel to multiple locations across the world to visit customers and suppliers. We apply and communicate our knowledge verbally and in writing every day.

These skills are incredibly special, and no business could survive without some level of human interaction. However, our adaptability as humans can also be our downfall. There are times where this ‘adaptability’ may lead to ‘compromise’. If our task demands are outside of our physical or mental abilities, we may try and do them anyway because that is what is required of us in that job. Organisations provide systems assuming that everyone can work to the same output level (just as a machine would!) but each individual has their own limits to what is comfortable. A breakdown between the demands of the task and the capability of the individual is essentially the root cause of work-related or work-aggravated conditions such as back-pain, RSI and stress.

This issue can be perceived as a minefield to most organisations. Most companies dutifully apply all of the guidance provided by the Health and Safety Executive or personnel-related policies in the hope that this will deal with the issue. All of this action is extremely important, but fully understanding human capability and applying this to the design of workplace environments and systems is the key to tackling this problem.

Joanne works with companies who are looking to eliminate the root causes of absenteeism in their work environments and systems by taking into account ‘the human factor’. Through her education in the science of Ergonomics and her practical experience of applying these principles in many public and private sector working environments, Joanne has developed a talent for delivering realistic and practical solutions which will delight your employees and have a positive impact on your bottom line. She has saved her clients over £5 million to date by embedding new working practices that are proven to yield results.

For further information or to book a free diagnostic assessment (worth £1000) with Joanne in your organisation, please email or call 0191 438 7989

Tax Update:

On the 6th April 2008 the tax system in the UK underwent a number of radical changes. Businesses and individuals were given prior warning, but has the message been getting through?

Dave Gibson of Tax Assist has the following advice to offer...

If you are in business, have complex personal tax affairs, or have a low income, you will be affected by a number of changes. In particular:

• Income Tax Rates – Although the basic rate of income tax is dropping from the present 22% to 20%, the existing starting rate of 10% is to be abolished. Individuals on low incomes will pay more tax as a result.

• Pension Contributions – An unwelcome effect of the lower basic rate tax rate is a lowering of total contributions to your pension scheme. At present if you pay £78 into your scheme the Government will top up the contribution with the basic rate tax deducted, £22. Total contributions invested £100. After the 5 April next year you will need to increase your contributions to £80 per month, tax top up £20, to achieve your £100 total investment.

• Capital Gains Tax – The present indexation and taper relief are to be scrapped and replaced with a single tax rate of 18%. If you have owned business assets (shares in your own company for example), for a number of years, you will likely suffer a higher tax charge if you dispose of those assets. There will be winners and losers.

• Family Businesses – If you have a family owned company or partnership the Revenue are introducing legislation to stop the arbitrary sharing of profits and dividends just to save tax. You may be asked to justify the underlying commercial reasons for the way in which income is allocated to family members, particularly husbands and wives in the 2009 Budget.

The changes to Capital Gains Tax and the ‘shifting of income’ between family members will have far reaching consequences for owners of small businesses. There is no point in waiting until it is too late to take action. For instance anyone who owns assets that would be subject to capital gains tax if sold now, should seek professional advice – there may still be strategies that can be implemented that overall will save you tax.

If you have any questions you would like put to Dave Gibson for May’s edition please email me directly.

TaxAssist Accountants are the accountancy and tax service for small business. They are the largest national network of accountants, looking after some 24,000 businesses. Based in North Shields Dave Gibson can be contacted on 0191 258 7676.

An area a lot of companies fail to address when recruiting is salaries. Each month we will give you an up-to-date salary benchmark for a given HR position within the North East & Cumbria. Utilising our live, active and specialist database of HR professionals we are able to accurately guide you on current market conditions.

This month we look at HR Managers:

Range: £23,500 all the way up to £50,000
Typical: £35,267
Benefits can include: Pension, bonus, flexitime, car, phone, health care, laptop, share options, profit share. 

The information again shows the confusion that exists in HR and that job titles quite often account for very little. When someone leaves your organisation, rather than simply replacing at a like for like level, check you are in fact paying the correct market rate, and not as in the example above, pay to little or too much!

Next month: HR Directors

For a free, informal discussion on either your own salary or your HR departments salaries, please call 0191 438 7989 or email us directly.

Launching from May 2008:  We will be offering every client a free, 6 month guarantee period with every permanent placement - this is a market first. We are so confident in our selection procedures that rather than receiving an industry standard 12 weeks, we will be offering you a free 6 month guarantee. Remember, we already offer a cost effective service charging 10% below the market average.

May 20th: CIPD Employment Law event & AGM - sponsored by Exclusive Human Resources - click here for more information

Free Diagnostic worth £1000: See 'Meet the Associate' for details

We are expanding: Due to our continued success in providing an HR Recruitment & HR Consultancy service to the North East, our team is expanding. Further details of our new team members will follow next month!