The road back to work

 By Susan, a CareerMums member, NSW

I decided to put my middle management public sector career 'on ice' after I had my first daughter in 2004. I'd just finished post-grad studies, but wanted to take some time out after working for the past 20 years. With my second child approaching her second year, and 8 years out of the workforce behind me, I decided I would begin my search for work in earnest. My biggest concern was that I had left my re-entry too long; the longer I was out of work, the more de-skilled (and therefore less employable) I would become.

Feeling slightly daunted by the task, I had anticipated doors closing, numerous hurdles and barriers and a general apathy towards return-to-work mums. But I was pleasantly surprised. My initial research project revealed many resources to assist my return to work (e.g. blogs, websites, agencies who focus on mums back to work, media articles, social networking sites). I registered with as many sites with search options as I could find and kept sifting through the possible opportunities that landed in my in-box, with a view of eventually applying for the role that fitted my requirements.

With luck and good fortune, I found a role that suited my background and I believed I would make a strong candidate. On the plus side, it was two day a week job-share position with flexi-time. On the negative side,  the job classification was at the same level that I had began my public sector career in 1993!   But it was the first job that ticked all my boxes - and to my surprise I was offered the first job I applied for.

Whilst I am over qualified and generally under-employed, I view this role as my stepping stone to bigger and better opportunities in the future. The bonus is that my children get to enjoy the benefits of having me at home 3 days per week, and I have the benefit of being able to 'get my foot in the door', build on my work current experience, make new contacts and generally move forward again towards the career I always wanted.

Tips:

• Utilise any experience outside of paid employment to demonstrate reliability, flexibility, initiative, trustworthiness, etc. In particular, volunteer work or involvement in community activities can be used to cite examples of skills and attributes that suit the role being applied for.

• Research and then research more; the internet is your job search friend and there are thousands of sites, articles and blogs dedicated to the topic of those who want return to work.

• Familiarise yourself with the challenges and create strategies to tackle them. Enrol and register for email notifications that suit your criteria and the roles will come to you.

• Make sure you have all your family responsibilities and obligations sorted out before you approach an employer (which daycare/preschool days, drop offs, pick ups, before and after school care, school holidays, sick days, etc.) so that if you're asked about your availability, you can be confident that you can advise accordingly.

Considerations when hiring your next employee

When you are a new or growing business, there is guaranteed to be one business function that is non-existent and that is Human Resources. To help you in your recruitment, attraction and retention process, here are some key items to consider when hiring your next employee:

• Personalities: When it is a small office and you can’t hide from each other, you really need to consider the personality type you want to inject into your company. Consider the role and the type of personality this role requires. Also consider a personality type that you get on with. For example, if you require an accounts person to chase invoices and deal with suppliers, you want someone who is patient, polite, excellent phone manner and tenacious. Also, make it a habit not to hire friends. It makes if difficult if things don’t work out.

• Skills: Sometimes you don’t have the time or resources to train someone for a critical role in your business. I recently recruited for a financial planning firm. They were looking for someone to fast-track to a financial planner within three years. The final two candidates were very different. The first had strong communication skills with a strong background in finance but no qualifications. The second candidate had financial planning qualifications, a strong desire to move into financial planning, experience in selling banking products, and reasonable communication skills. It was a tough decision for them but they chose candidate two in the end because it was a safer choice in theory. Training time won’t be as long and they won’t need to invest time in this person completing their qualifications.  
• Mental health: Many people in our society are affected by depression and other forms of mental health so it is no surprise that we work side by side with people who are mentally unwell. In a recruitment situation, asking about depression is not a typical or appropriate interview question. Depression, if untreated, can have an impact on a person’s productivity and their attendance.  If you want more information about mental health awareness, beyondblue has a free Workplace Mental Health Awareness e-learning Program that examines myths and misconceptions about depression and anxiety disorders and aims to increase awareness and understanding. It is a stand-alone resource specifically designed for workplaces. www.beyondblue.org.au

• Contract to permanent: Consider trialling someone first before committing them to the status of permanent employee – and all the benefits that come with that. One option is to offer the person a 3-6 month contract with a view to the position going permanent. Always consult the National Employment Standards if you require more further information on employment law – www.fairwork.gov.au.

If you require recruitment assistance, I work with SMEs on a fee for service basis so you get the service you need without paying an excessive fee at the end. Visit my recruitment arm of the business - www.liftrecruitment.com.au

Retaining Staff in a Small Business

As a small business, you are forever competing with employee benefits offered by larger organisations – not to mention brand prestige, greater opportunities for career progression, travel, bonuses… the list goes on.

There are a few small businesses I know that can teach the larger organisations a thing or two about human nature, nurturing talents and retaining employees.

One of these businesses is a client of mine. They are a growing ISP. Over the past 18 months, I have recruited four IT professionals, bringing their head count to ten employees in total to date.

At a recent meeting with the Director, John, we spoke about the issue of staff retention in a small business. He mentioned that a senior developer had recently been approached by a worldwide search engine to come and work for them. He declined. I was surprised and pressed John on the reasons for why he stayed.

The senior developer is a typical IT geek. He rarely speaks to anyone, wears headphones all day, and probably has a touch of Asperger Syndrome or Autism. But when it comes to programming, which is what he is hired for, he is a gun. John mentioned that if he had ten times this guy, he would already be a multi-millionaire. So what is John’s secret to making them stay? His office is modern and simple. Nothing special. There is no ‘break-out room’ where the staff can play pool, watch TV, listen to music, and relax in ergonomic furniture.

John quite simply understands the needs of his staff. For this senior developer, all he requires is a beer and the ability to play computer games around 4pm each day for half an hour. Then it is back to work. John has another developer who enjoys going to a local take-away for a chicken roll and Pepsi with John once every two weeks. They talk about IT stuff and this makes him happy.

John’s ‘HR strategy’ is listening to the needs of his employees and acting on them.

Without a doubt, there are other factors that come into play to retain staff such as remuneration, working in a challenging and stimulating environment, and workplace culture.  But if business owners like John start practising this type of leadership in the early stages of business to keep good staff, there is no doubt that his business will flourish.

Use training as a retention and growth strategy tool in SMEs

Training and education opportunities are typically offered in larger organisations. They often have Learning and Development Managers who organise training budgets and requirements for all staff. Training is just as critical in SMEs but is often overlooked due to the perceived costs, the organisation of training requirements, and the valuable time that may not be spent on the business.

For SMEs, it is a matter of approaching training opportunities in a practical way. The first step is to analyse the skill gaps in your business. It can be an exercise for all staff in your business to analyse their existing role and consider what skills they would like to improve on to benefit the business. For example, the office manager may require MYOB training, or the marketing manager may require training in social media. All training options must be relevant to the employee’s role. You may find that rather than hiring another employee due to a skill gap, you could train up an existing employee. This training analysis not only engages your employees, but also creates a sense of loyalty because you are investing in their skills. After training is completed, you and your employee should be able to identify how the business will benefit from the new skills that have been developed. 

Once you have decided on the appropriate type of training, you could create a simple training agreement that covers the following:

• Type of training
• Justification for training
• Learning objectives to be achieved
• How training will be evaluated (e.g. changes anticipated, performance standards to be met)
• Cost of training
• Date of training

The next step is to identify training and education opportunities that fit your budget. For some professionals, professional development (PD) must be completed every year. The professional associations tend to offer a range of courses to build up PD hours.

Other cost effective training options can be sourced via the following channels:

• Your local TAFE, CIT or University
• Locate Registered Training Organisations in your area and ask if there are any Government subsidies currently being offered to up-skill employees. Visit www.training.gov.au for more information 
• Free webinars offered on business websites such as www.smartcompany.com.au. 
• CareerMums training website has a range of learning options including online, distance learning, face-to-face, and short courses. http://careermums.comparecourses.com.au/

Training is a risk management tool that builds human assets in your business, opens up new opportunities for your business, and engenders a loyal workforce.

Engendering customer loyalty in a B2B environment

We all want to be heard. It is simply human nature. At home, my kids often say ‘mum, are you listening to me!?’ My three year old has a habit of pulling my face to his and letting me know what he has to say – eyeball to eyeball – just to make sure.

In business, it is no different. Your customers expect to be heard. The more you listen, the more likely that you will provide a better customer experience that will lead to repeat business.

Here are some ideas to engender customer loyalty in a B2B environment:

·         Response times: How soon do you get back to your customers or potential customers when they make contact with you? In general, I respond within 24 hours. In reality, it is within three hours unless it is overnight.

·         Contact information: Is it easy for customers to locate your contact information? Do you have a standard contact form on your website? If you don’t have a receptionist, do you use a messaging service so someone can leave a message with a person rather than a voice recording? A messaging service can also give customers a sense that your business is bigger than it really is.

·         Complaints resolution: Do you have a policy when it comes to handling complaints? Is there someone in your business who is trained to handle difficult customers? Complaints can either be nipped in the bud or escalated quickly. Excellent customer skills combined with conflict resolution skills are excellent attributes to have in an employee and should be highly sought after in any business.

·         Provide value all the time: Part of my service offering is providing recruitment services. Everyone loves to hate recruiters so I need to add value from the start. I deal mostly with SMEs. I am a small business myself so I understand their challenges and needs. Recently, I assisted a client in finding some quality candidates to be interviewed for a job share role. The night before the interview, I designed an interview run-sheet that included appropriate interview questions for the role on offer. My client responded immediately letting me know that they were extremely grateful for this information as they were starting to stress about how to run the interviews the following day. 

·         Follow-up: After you have delivered your work, find out how you performed. What did they like and what could be improved? You have to be resilient enough to accept constructive criticism from time-to-time.

·         Consider how you are treated by your service providers: What do you like and what would you change? The adapt or adopt the best parts to suit your business.

Case Study: Anna's successful journey back to work

After finishing school, I became an Enrolled Nurse and worked in major Melbourne hospitals for 14 years.  Then I became pregnant and finished my working life and began to prepare for the next phase of life.  After having 3 children under 4, I stayed at home and became wife and Mum.  I spent 12 years experiencing highest of highs and the lowest of lows.  No one ever explained to me how being a Mum can be all consuming.  From when my eldest started Pre-School, I have been involved in my children’s education by being on committees.  When I look back it seems that I have done everything, from gardening to being Chairperson at the primary school’s Community Council.

Once all my girls were at school, I thought that I would enjoy having some time to myself, as it happened I seem to be spending nearly as much time at school as the girls. Then the time had come for me to start looking for work. This was   something that I had been dreading.  My nursing registration had lapsed and because I hadn’t had paid work for so long my confidence in getting a job was very low.  I was very good at playing down my abilities, but financially it was time for me to earn an income.

I started to look on websites at public service jobs and the application process eroded my confidence even more.  I started to ask around at school for help from those that worked in the public service and anyone else who I thought could assist me.  On a Friday after assembly I approached one of the mums and asked for her assistance in writing my resume.  She asked what kind of work I wanted to do; I said I would prefer part time school hours.  As it happened her husband was looking to employ someone for their small business.  I left school and went straight to meet her husband, I didn’t even have time to change.  I started work the following Monday.

At first I did anything from sweeping the floor to packaging, anything that was asked of me. Gradually I learned more about the business, answering phones, quoting and invoicing.  As my skill base grew so did my responsibilities and I became the office manager.  After four years, I decided that is was time for me to advance my career.  Again I asked for assistance from anyone who I thought would be able to give me some direction. A girlfriend suggested I contact Kate, at Career Mums; this was a very positive move.  Kate not only made me think about my skills, but gave me direction on how to improve them.  One being enrolling in Business Administration Certificate course at CIT, which I did and this gave me immense confidence in my abilities.

Again by asking for help from anyone and everyone, I was offered a new position with a Not For Profit Company. I am now their Executive Assistant.  I am doing things that I never thought I was capable of and enjoying a career like never before. 

My advice to any Mum that is looking to get back into the work force is to talk to anyone and everyone because you just don’t know what is out there until you ask.

Anna is a Canberra based mum who has three daughters - now all at school

The small business challenge... hiring staff

For any small business, it is a massive decision to take on staff. You have been responsible for everything up to this point. The ‘control freak’ in you has to let go in order for your business to grow and for you to focus on what you do best.

Defining the role.....
Typically, the new recruit will be an administrative person.  It can be tempting to assign just about everything that has an administrative angle to this role but be careful. It is not easy to recruit someone that can provided you with marketing/sales support, bookkeeping, database management, reception, business development, and office administration duties – not to mention the differing pay rates for these jobs.

Start with a simple task list and keep the duties reasonably focused. This list will help you to create a job advertisement and a job description. A job description is critical for performance measurement down the track. Employees like to know how they are tracking in their job, and being given opportunities to grow will engender long term loyalty.

Finding someone who will fit your business.....
Fifty per cent of finding the right person is having confidence that they can do the job. This can be established through one or two interviews, candidate testing for specific skills, and talking to previous employers. The other half is your gut feel that the person will be a good fit for your team and your business. Culture fit is generally established in an interview. For example, if you are a sales driven business, you would be looking for someone who is immaculately presented, has strong communication skills, has successful sales experience, is confident, and thrives on interaction with people.

Don’t forget to sell the merits of working for your business......
Your business is your entire universe at the moment, but in the eyes of a candidate, you have an unknown brand, a shoe box office, and budget constraints. You need to pitch your potential growth and promote any non-financial benefits of working for your business e.g. flexible work arrangements. When you are reviewing candidates, look closely at candidates who have worked for other SMEs or who have established their own businesses and are looking to come back into the workplace. You want people who are happy to get their hands dirty, have a hint of entrepreneurial spirit, or have no interest in working for large organisations. 

Contract or permanent to start with?.............
When employees are on a contract, they generally get paid on a per hour basis and there are no benefits attached such as sick leave, holiday leave, carers leave etc. Employers can either have contractors on their books or employers can hire a contractor through a recruiter. Hiring a contractor through a recruiter costs the employer more per hour but the contractor is effectively an employee of the recruitment firm so the employer has the flexibility to engage or disengage the contractor quickly without having to perform the recruitment process.

Hiring someone as a contractor or temp to start with can be a smart move to ensure that the new recruit can not only do the job, but also fits with the culture of the workplace. It also allows employers to test a flexible work arrangement before creating a more permanent position. Most of the time, candidates will work with a contract role as long as there is a view to the role becoming permanent. Keep in mind that some candidates prefer contract roles because they are short term so don’t be surprised if they move onto another opportunity.

Many employers are also happy to hire someone upfront in a permanent position. Most candidates are naturally attracted to permanent roles because it provides a sense of job security. If your business is established, there is sufficient work, and you require someone with skills that your business doesn’t have, permanent roles provide the opportunity for someone to come into the business with a medium to long term outlook.

Employment laws, staff documentation, and staff policies.........
Before hiring an employee, make sure you are up to speed on the National Employment Standards. You will need to provide a letter of offer, an employment agreement, and a job description. Once you start hiring staff, you will also need to create workplace policies (e.g. travel policy, expenses policy, flexible work policy, telecommuting policy) and have a performance measurement system to measure their work performance on a regular basis.

Make sure you visit www.fairwork.gov.au  and review the ten National Employment Standards that govern our workplace. Other great resources include www.ato.gov.au and http://www.business.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx


If you need help to recruit staff for your growing business, contact Kate Sykes to talk about our affordable recruitment and HR services - kate@careermums.com.au or 0400 823 914.