A recent survey carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) found that the main reason people gave for switching jobs was a desire to ‘increase pay and benefits’. This had changed from the same survey taken a year before, when ‘improving job satisfaction’ was given as the top reason.

This is a sign of these economic times, with people (understandably) striving for financial security – often even more than career progression.

Even if you suitably reward your staff though, a happy workplace doesn’t always equal a successful one.

It is often the little things that make people happy – not the “sticking plasters” of bonuses and financial incentives. Doug Shaw, CEO of What Goes Around Limited recently asked the question:

With social tools everywhere, why do some companies try to restrict access to these tools for fear of what their employees may say, about the company, about each other and about the customer. Why do companies persist in employing people they clearly don’t trust?

I bet you never thought that that was what you were guilty of.

That is because your perception of the world of work isn’t the same as the people around you. Just like them, you have 14 unconscious motivational patterns that lead you to communicate, act and make decisions in a certain way.

We have previously discussed how LAB Profiling can help when recruiting new staff, but how about using it to optimise the performance of your existing workforce?

Though you may feel you already know the capabilities and knowledge of your staff, LAB Profiling can scientifically give you the information you need to determine their motivations and attitude. This will help you to redesign or adapt individual task assignments to make  your staff feel both happy and fully challenged.

Instead of using “sticking plasters”, why not use a tool that takes each individual’s needs into consideration so that your team can go from good to great?

Recrion is a specialist in career and talent management, and works with organisations to retain and motivate their employees. For more information contact us on 01780 484910 or email katherine@recrion.co.uk .

Will this job motivate him?

For many, there is no such thing as the perfect candidate.

Even after sifting through 100s of applicants and orchestrating a rigorous interview process, it can feel as if you haven’t found exactly what you’re looking for.  And like many employers who can’t afford to wait for that "elusive" individual to turn up, you adapt the job criteria to suit the individual strengths of the next best candidate.  And then hope they are worth the gamble.

I recently discussed how social media had begun to change the recruitment process, in that it enabled you to broaden your search for talent and tap into passive candidates – who aren’t necessarily looking for a specific job.

But, even if you’ve added Social Media to your recruitment arsenal to source the people you believe will fit seamlessly into your company, what then? How can you ensure that you’re making a worthwhile investment?

LAB Profiling is one way of keeping consistency throughout the recruitment process, ensuring that – from start to finish – you are clear of exactly what it is you are looking for.  So that when you do adapt the job criteria and select the next best candidate you are no longer taking a gamble.  Instead, you are making a confident decision.

The key to making a confident hiring decision, is to understand what behaviours candidates need to have to be motivated to do the job.

For example:

If the candidates are going to be troubleshooting and solving problems most of the time,  they need to be motivated to prevent bad things from happening and have an Away From pattern.

If they are more interested in moving Toward a goal, then they might have trouble recognising what should be avoided or identifying problems.

These two motivations move in the OPPOSITE direction!

The LAB Profile is a conversational tool rather than a psychometric test and is used to assess the candidate's 14 sub-conscious motivational patterns at work.  By understanding what triggers their motivation and then keeps them motivated, you are able to take the risk out of the appointment enabling the candidate to thrive in your environment.

Sound interesting? Why not find out more about LAB and Job Profiling and how it can derisk your recruitment process.

Recrion is a specialist in career and talent management, and works with organisations to streamline their recruitment and retain and motivate their employees. For more information contact us on +44 (0)1780 484910 or visit www.recrion.co.uk

Are you at risk of losing your top talent?

As a business and manager of people, it is vital to accurately assess the needs and strengths of your employees.  Your employees pay attention to how you treat them.  If you do not understand what truly motivates them, they are likely to get their needs met elsewhere.  It is easy to vastly underestimate the financial benefits of retaining existing employees.

As the economy starts to recover, it is crucial that you consider the full costs of losing staff through resignation.  Increasingly, as employees have become more challenging to deal with, you need better ways of understanding them. The "one size fits all" approach is not working.

Jon Terry, Head of Reward at PwC argues that British companies should carefully consider how they reward and motivate their workforce: “Pay alone is no guarantee of a content workforce. Different individuals will be motivated by different rewards and ultimately incentives need to be tailored to the company and individual."

In order to understand what rewards and incentives are going to work, you need to have a mechanism for tracking what truly motivates your employees and how their motivation shifts from time to time and place to place.

Recrion, a Career and Talent Management Specialist based in the UK, has been successfully using the Language and Behavioural Profile (LAB Profile) to understand what below-conscious motivational patterns we humans have in various contexts.  This subtle psycho-linguistic tool gives us unique insights into the motivations and thinking patterns of your team as a whole.

• What are the elements of the LAB Profile that characterise your team?
• What are their strengths and weaknesses when you consider the tasks that need to be accomplished?
• How can you maximise these strengths and take advantage of the weaknesses?
• How can you adapt your rewards to motivate each individual to operate at peak performance levels?

Recrion has been working closely with KuDOS Pharmaceuticals /Astra Zeneca to enable their employees understand their below conscious motivators.  Siobhan Shadwell, HR Manager commented “LAB Profiling is a useful part of our employee’s personal development process and lots of people at KuDOS valued the process." 

With the job market starting to pick up, many employees who sat tight during the recession are looking for opportunities to move on to greener pastures.  Rethinking your reward and motivational strategies are key to retaining them.

For more information about Motivational Profiling and Recrion's Retention Consultancy services  please contact Katherine Wiid on 01780 484910 or visit our website.

Whilst there is doom and gloom every time one switches on the television or opens a newspaper, there are encouraging signs that business has learnt clear lessons from past downturns. The obvious reaction to cut costs is tempered by clear memories of past blips in the economy when leading firms cut back staff and training too quickly, leaving themselves short of the right people when the upswing took place.  This had a direct impact on the skills shortages we experience in several sectors today.

In a downturn, the HR function needs to be fine tuned and imaginative rather than act defensively. Applying innovative HR management alternatives will help ensure survival, but equally importantly, will ensure a company survives with its most valuable resources intact and ready to drive growth.

There are strategies to balance talent retention versus cost cutting that work across all sizes of business. The key is communication with employees.  Finding the time to explain clearly and consistently what is happening and why, encourages trust and loyalty. Instead of making drastic headcount cuts, alternatives such as reduced working hours, retraining and upskilling will not only win the loyalty of employees but help companies get back on track.

Retention is becoming the buzzword of this recession – ignore it at your peril!  For help on your retention and redundancy strategies call Katherine Wiid on 01780 484910 or visit www.recrion.co.uk.  Take the opportunity to find out how engaged your staff currently are!

They are finding that initially recruiting a diverse workforce is easy but they are falling down when it comes to creating an inclusive atmosphere where lawyers from all backgrounds want to stay and build their careers.

One of the hardest HR issues facing professional firms is Inclusion – rather than the initial recruitment of minority workers.

Whilst efforts have already been made to encourage diversity in the legal sector, firms need to concentrate on how many people from diverse backgrounds they can retain rather than the number they can recruit.

Many City leaders pride themselves on having a distinct culture and this can cause problems if they mean people from all backgrounds are forced to try and fit into the same mould.

Linbert Spencer, a leading diversity consultant has a valid point to make on the subject. "Diversity is a given – everyone is different. The task is managing inclusion. If you start by looking to change your diversity you are conceptually starting in the wrong place."

Spencer is admirably trying to breathe life into the Government's diversity legislation that deals with discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, age and sex.  He argues that there are other areas that can make people feel uncomfortable or isolated. To this end, Spencer argues that firms need to be aware of the message they are sending to the market if they want to attract and retain the best talent.

Recrion works with a wide range of organisations on Retention and Diversity issues.  We encourage firms to broaden their recruitment criteria to include aptitude and psychometric testing rather than just academic qualifications. This does not mean lowering standards. A 2:1 degree barrier is fine as long as, within that bracket, law firms ensure they are attracting the most diverse group of recruits.

For more information on Recrion's Retention services contact Katherine Wiid, Client Director on 01780 484910 www.recrion.co.uk.

The good news is that people due diligence can help companies avoid these problems. Done early enough, it helps acquirers decide whether to embrace or kill a deal and determine the price they are willing to pay. 
Bain & Company conducted detailed interviews with managers involved in 40 recent M&A deals. In the 15 deals that generated excess returns vs. peers, 93% of the acquirers had identified key employees and targeted them for retention during due diligence or within the first 30 days after the announcement. By comparison, this task was carried out in only 36% of the unsuccessful deals.

People due diligence contributes to a deal's success by uncovering capability gaps, increasing retention, and identifying where key talent should be deployed in the new organisation. It also lays the groundwork for smooth integration. When acquirers have done their homework, they can uncover capability gaps, points of friction, and differences in decision making. Even more important, they can make the critical "people" decisions: who stays, who goes, who runs the combined business, what to do with more junior staff at the time the deal is announced or shortly thereafter. Making such decisions within the first 30 days is critical to the success of a deal.

Recrion is a People Management Specialist that has often been called in to pick up the pieces when mergers start to fail.  So why not get it right first time?  In our experience, getting the People Due Diligence part of the puzzle in place only works if it is given the highest priority and performed with full access to management.

For more information on Recrion's approach to M & A related People Due Diligence, contact Katherine Wiid on 01780 484910 or www.recrion.co.uk

"Just the Facts about Making the Most of your Money" will provide unbiased facts and information on how to get help in areas such as budgeting, borrowing, protection and planning.

Tesco also held a series of hour-long briefings for office-based staff, and has more planned for its distribution centres. In-store employees are being made aware of the booklet in weekly planning meetings.

Hayley Tatum, Director of Personnel for stores and distribution at Tesco UK, said: "Tesco is undertaking these initiatives because we are very keen to support our people every way we can. Good money management can make a real difference to people's lives."

What a great example of how employers can help support employees through tough times. This kind of practical support will boost their image as an employer even more.

Read more about innovative employee engagement initiatives and Recrion's Employee Engagement Barometer on http://www.recrion.co.uk  Telephone 01780 484910

But why should employees stay and help keep the boat afloat?  Research conducted by performance improvement firm Grass Roots, found that UK companies are worse at saying thank you to staff than they were ten years ago.  The research found that 37 per cent of respondents felt that appreciation shown by bosses has declined during the last decade.  As many as 43 per cent of people stated they had left their last job because they didn't feel valued by their employer. 

In these turbulent times, employees that feel under valued are using the opportunity to move on to high performing companies that reward and recognise their employees.  Specialist skills are still in huge demand (IT skills shortages in the UK reached their highest level in 10 years in February 2008) and job boards are filled to the brim with opportunities.

I always advise my clients when considering reducing headcount to consider the long term impact of their decision.  Whilst the law is geared around making sure that the employer has thought of every alternative to redundancy, there are strong commercial arguments to support this.  The Chartered Institute of Personnel (CIPD) estimates the cost of replacing an employee is almost £5,000. In the case of specialist skills and more senior roles, it is estimated to be as much as 1.5 times their salary.  And what about the impact on staff morale if indiscriminate staff cuts are made and not dealt with in a sensitive manner?

Recrion advises clients on redundancy selection processes that are geared at right sizing a business without losing its competitive edge.  As Jim Collins (Good to Great) stated "People are not your most important asset. The right people are".

Visit www.recrion.co.uk or call +44 1780 484910 for more information.

According to a survey carried out of over 200 UK contact centres by the UK Contact Centre Operational Review 200 attrition rates remain around 30%, with finance and telecoms experiencing the highest levels.  The most widely given reasons for high attrition rates are a lack of upward opportunities and low pay.  It is interesting to note that only 13% of contact centre staff leave to work in another contact centre.

Recruitment and growth is seen as the no.1 issue for respondents – higher even than reducing staff attrition or decreasing costs.  81% of respondents state that they are looking to increase headcount in the next year.

The report's author, Steve Morrell, commented:

"There are contradictory pressures on the UK contact centre industry where HR is concerned. As ever, attrition is a problem for most operations, and worse, most departing agents do not move between contact centres, and their skills and experience are completely lost to the industry. In addition to this, the majority of contact centres are planning recruitment drives in 2009.

"Yet agent salaries are not increasing – in fact there has been a very slight decline in average starting salaries since 2007 – and this is shrinking the labour pool further. There is a danger that contact centres will have to lower their recruitment standards to meet their headcount targets, which would have the double negative effect of lowering quality and increasing attrition".

Recrion, a Talent and Retention Management Specialist, has been finding that there seems to be a temporary reduction in attrition as employees in general become more risk-averse due to the uncertain economic climate.  However most of the managers in high turnover sectors are realistic that the problem hasn't gone away all together.  Recrion is working with HR and operations managers to take advantage of the temporary lull in recruiting to replace leavers as an opportunity to address the root causes of attrition and employee dis-engagement. 

For more information visit www.recrion.co.uk or call us on +44 1780 484910

Staff at the USA call centre of Go Daddy in Arizona, have taken staff motivation to new levels.  They not only compete with each other but their industry rivals as well.

"We have monthly, weekly, daily and hourly competitions," explains Bob Parsons, chief executive and founder. "Hourly prizes might be $100 and weekly and monthly prizes include jet skis, cars, four years' college tuition or having your mortgage paid for a year." To qualify for the company's staff competitions, "you need to have a certain level of customer satisfaction or sales goal."

The CEO says he got the idea five years ago when he walked past the call centre and was alarmed to see his employees looking de-motivated. So he decided to spend "$1,000 to make this place fun". Sales shot up by $8,000 that day and he was convinced; the company now spends $1m a year on its competitions. "What we realise is that employees really work to live so we want to make it as enjoyable for them as possible." The prizes, he says, may be as strange as being put in a machine and having $50 bills blown at you, but the results are happier customers, happier staff and lower employee turnover.

What really impressed me in the UK context is that the public sector is looking at what works in the private sector and is starting to join in the fun. 

Tube Lines, the company that maintains and manages some London Underground lines, has developed an innovative competition. The "Change Challenge Cup" is a quarterly competition where shortlisted candidates pitch their ideas to a panel of judges along similar lines to the television business programme Dragons' Den. Winners of each quarterly competition receive £1,000 worth of vouchers, and at the end of the year they are entered into a further competition to win £2,000.

"We really wanted something that would capture people's imaginations," says Steve Hurrell, Tube Lines finance director, adding that the company is keen to develop a more dynamic and innovative culture as it moves away from its public-sector roots. The Challenge Cup not only creates a happy workplace and boosts productivity. One winner came up with a metal platform to allow Tube Lines workers to cross the tube tracks without scaffolding. The platforms have aroused interest from potential clients, meaning they could be a source of future revenue.

And why stop at just rewarding good ideas and performance?  Last year, the US state of Nevada's Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation ran a wellness challenge where, among other goals, staff competed to see who could lose the most weight for cash prizes and trophies. Again, the purpose was to deliver positive benefits for the organisation in an enjoyable and fun manner. The competition attracted 228 entrants across 28 teams who, between them, lost 2,025lbs.

Recrion is a People Management Consultancy with tried and tested methods of retaining staff.  Katherine Wiid, the Director, commented "whilst competitions have shown significant results within certain contexts, they do not work in every environment. Some companies have tried to replicate these schemes in a professional environment but they have failed spectacularly. The trick is to understand enough about your people to know what will work and not work". 

Recrion has been working with professional firms to carry out innovative role modeling exercises consisting of behaivoural event interviews and videoing the top performers.  "At the end of the day, people are looking for recognition" Katherine said.

To find out more about employee motivation and engagement, contact Katherine on +44 1780 484910 or www.recrion.co.uk