Harris Hill's Golden Softballs 2018

In a world where you can advertise jobs and hold interviews from the comfort of your kitchen table, is there any benefit to bringing professional recruiters on board? We investigate, discover far too many, then whittle them down to...Ten reasons you need a recruitment agency Okay, ‘need’ is a strong word, but try getting ‘would benefit greatly from working with’ into a punchy headline.If you’re looking for jobs, there’s little question: being with an agency gives you access to more opportunities, help and support with your search, and costs you precisely nothing, so it’s difficult to see a downside. For an organisation looking to hire, however, it’s not quite that simple. Putting an agency on the case might be the easiest (and we’d argue, most effective) option, but in these belt-tightening times, couldn’t you get the same result and cut costs by doing it all yourself? After all, if you're in a position to be hiring, you’re probably no stranger to the recruitment process. And unlike, say, performing heart surgery or directing air traffic, it seems like the kind of thing you could probably have a bash at without any specific training, and not risk imminent catastrophe. Clearly, it's an option, but is it the most efficient one that will deliver the best outcome? Can you afford to spend the time, and what happens to your other projects in the meantime? And crucially, once all these things are factored in, will you actually save any money? As a recruitment agency ourselves (full disclosure: that’s kind of our thing), you can probably guess where we stand on this, but there are very good reasons behind it. And if you're prepared to read on, strap in, because we're fully prepared to list them.Let's do this.1. Saving your time It’s very easy to underestimate the time you’ll spend on a recruitment campaign, or to imagine you’ll be able to schedule it neatly around your existing projects without affecting them. That might initially be the case as you prepare the job description and advert, but once it’s posted, it’s anyone’s guess what you'll get, like sending a parcel through Yodel. People will respond. Many will have questions. Some of them will even be about the job. There could be a deluge of applications that takes days to deal with, or almost nothing at all, sending you back to the drawing board. And if you do find promising candidates, you’ll need to move quickly before they’re snapped up elsewhere, which could throw out your schedule.About the only certainty is that it’ll demand considerably more of your time than you expect. Brief it to an agency however, and all of this is off your shoulders. You’ll need to choose who to interview and do so, of course, but they’ll take care of all the sourcing, vetting and co-ordinating with candidates, leaving you free to get on with your work. 2. Keeping it legal Regulation around the recruitment process is always evolving, concerning things like the right to work, data protection, discrimination by age/race/gender and so forth, so if you haven’t recruited for a while, what’s considered best practice has probably changed. It’s a lot to keep up with if it’s not your everyday role, so if you’re at all uncertain, going through a reputable agency is a good way to quell your concerns. Or at least to make it their problem. 3. Market insight Knowing your market is a big advantage when you need to find new talent, and even if it’s a field you often recruit in, you’ll struggle to know it better than a specialist consultant who does so all day, every day, for multiple organisations, all year round (bar the odd fortnight in Marbella). Their up-to-the-minute insight can make all the difference when suitable candidates are scarce.4. A broader reachAdvertising predominantly reaches those who are actively job-seeking, but in the charity sector, limited numbers usually mean you’ll also need those who aren’t. You might also want to reach a more diverse range of people than have applied for previous vacancies.This is where a specialist agency can be invaluable, because they’ll know many of the right people already. For example in our case, having worked solely with the charity sector for almost 30 years, there’s a good chance we’ve placed them or at least had some interaction before. Even if we haven’t, we've got the resources, privileged access to LinkedIn, and a range of powerful proactive search tools to track them down. It's less alarming than it sounds.5. Better candidates Recruiting directly means dealing with every application that comes in: the good, the bad and the wildly irrelevant, of which there tend to be quite a few. By contrast we use rigorous screening processes to ensure applicants meet the required qualifications, experience, and cultural fit, filtering out the unsuitable to ensure that you only see candidates who are worth your time to review. You’d expect us to say that, of course, but while we can’t speak for our entire agency brethren, for us it’s simply a matter of logic: our goal is to fill the vacancy, and for you to be delighted and return, so it’s always in our interests (neatly aligned with yours here) to put forward the very best possible candidates.6. Knowledgeable advice and support To fill a position successfully, you need to see it in the context of the wider sector: how does it compare to similar roles elsewhere? Are there many people with the skills you need, and where are they likely to be? What would attract them to the role? Working with an agency gives you a recruitment partner with that crucial external perspective: as sector specialists, for example, our consultants can offer deep insights into the job market, salary benchmarking and hiring trends. They'll also be happy to discuss recruitment strategy more broadly, and can offer an informed professional opinion on anything you’re unsure of, to help you make the best decisions.7. Selling the opportunity In our experience, hiring managers can often talk animatedly and at length about the job and the type of person they need, but when asked what they offer in return, everyone looks a little awkward and tumbleweeds roll by. We're exaggerating slightly, but it's reflected in a lot of charity job descriptions, with lists of responsibilities and essential/desirable characteristics that far outweigh everything else. And it's notable how often, when asked what makes them a good employer, charities talk only about the benefits of their work to society, not the benefits of being a member of staff. That gap is a real problem if you're trying to recruit, but fortunately, one that recruitment consultants are perfectly placed to fill, because finding the positives from a candidate perspective and generating interest with them is like breathing to these people.It's what they do, and they're very good at it. I've been promised they'll release me now.Here at Harris Hill (other agencies are, for now, available), we can also work with you to develop a strong employer brand that communicates your strengths as a place to work. And if you already have one, it needn’t be compromised by working with an agency. We can mirror your branding and processes to provide a candidate experience entirely consistent with your own, acting as ambassadors for your organisation. 8. Keeping it confidential Conversely, while we’re all for openness and transparency, there are times when the brand needs to stay in the shadows; when it would be inappropriate, insensitive or simply unhelpful to tell the world you’re recruiting for a particular position. That’s very difficult when recruiting directly, so agencies are the ideal solution for sensitive roles or situations requiring discretion, providing an anonymous and professional buffer during the recruitment process. 9. Flexibility Hiring directly is one thing for permanent positions, but maintaining your own roster of available talent for temporary or contract roles is a very different proposition, and likely unfeasible for most organisations. However, agencies are the obvious solution here too, as that’s exactly what many of them do. So in our case, for example, whether it’s for a week, for a year or forever (give or take), we’ll be able to adapt to your specific requirements. 10. Cost ‘Now hold on a minute...’, you're thinking, ‘...isn’t this the main reason not to use an agency?’ That's certainly what you'd see from the road, so to speak, but it’s worth going up for a closer look, because there are things you might not have considered that mitigate it quite significantly:•Aside from the most senior executive roles, recruitment is generally on a contingency basis, where payment is contingent on a successful result. In short, that means you only pay if we succeed in filling the vacancy, and if not, there’s no charge. This arrangement makes it impossible to waste money on recruitment campaigns that don’t work, something that’s only too possible when running your own. • Fees are agreed at the outset, and in our case at least, you won’t pay a penny more, even if the campaign proves far longer and more challenging than expected. • There is no cost-free option. Doing everything yourself might seem cheaper on the surface, but it comes at the cost of your time, which itself is a cost to the organisation. And unlike an agency fee, nothing will stop it going up and up, the longer it takes to fill the position.• There’s also the cost of advertising the role to consider. Recruitment agencies typically post far more jobs than a single organisation, so they tend to get much better rates from job boards. Most share the benefit of this, offering discounted advertising, but rumour has it there's even one super-generous agency, specialising in the charity sector, couple of ‘H’s in the name, who won't charge you for it at all. Chapeau! (whoever you are).All told, it’s worth looking carefully at the numbers to see how your options really stack up. Ultimately, only you will know how the total cost of your time spent recruiting, your advertising spend, and the cost of delaying other work compares with an agency fee, but we’re willing to bet it’s a lot closer than you think. In fact, you may well find that recruiting through an agency doesn’t just make financial sense, save time, make you better-looking and bring you lots of new friends (I may be embellishing a little), but delivers better outcomes in terms of candidate quality, choice, diversity, the candidate experience, and all the other factors we’ve outlined above. Why not call one today? David Young, Director of Marketing, and the team at Harris HillTo find out more about how we can help your organisation to recruit, follow the links below to contact our consultants or read more about our services. You can also submit a job directly, or give us a call on 020 7820 7300. We'd be happy to help!Contact our specialistsRecruit for your organisationSubmit a vacancyRead more from the Harris Hill Blog ►

Given that so many work with marginalised or disadvantaged groups of people, you’d expect charities to be more aware than most of the barriers to employment such groups often face, and the need to be more inclusive. Which research suggests that by and large, they are. However research also suggests that in terms of using that awareness to build a more diverse workforce, they’re lagging behind sectors like hospitality, arts & entertainment and even telecoms, so fresh from National Inclusion Week, it seems a good time to look at the progress of inclusive recruitment in the charity sector: why it’s needed, what employers are doing, and how to apply it to your own recruitment process. By our count, there are precisely two ways of making your organisation more diverse and inclusive: change the people you have, or change the people you hire. The first means trying to eliminate unconscious bias through ongoing training, the impact of which some believe to be limited and fleeting at best. If for some reason you haven’t got vast sums to throw at a largely fruitless exercise, that leaves you the second option, putting it squarely in the purview of recruitment. Why do we need inclusive recruitment? According to disability charity Scope, around 23% of working age adults in the UK are disabled, while the British Dyslexia Association reports that more than 15% are neurodivergent, and numbers are rising. While there’s overlap between the two groups, that’s still at least a quarter of the workforce facing obstacles to employment or progression, while many more still face an uphill battle (even if arguably on a slightly lesser incline than in the past) due to factors like race, age and gender. For many people, breaking down those barriers is simply the right thing to do. One organisation determined to do so is South London’s Maudsley Charity, which became an independent entity (from the Maudsley Hospital) in 2018. We’ve partnered with them to run inclusive recruitment processes since 2021 when, as Director of Finance and Operations Lisa Kiew explains: ‘We recognised that like many charities and the third sector as a whole, we didn’t reflect the communities that we work with and on behalf of. For that to change, we needed to commit, invest resources and prioritise taking action.’ The charity has pioneered a raft of inclusive initiatives, including a well-received webinar where prospective candidates can, swathed in the cloak of anonymity if preferred, ask anything they like of the Maudsley team. It’s a smart decision, because moral arguments aside, at a time when so many employers are struggling for candidates, it simply makes sense to keep the talent pool as large as possible by ensuring no-one is needlessly excluded. What’s more, maximising the available talent isn’t the only benefit of being more inclusive. There’s now plenty of evidence that diverse teams outperform their more homogenous counterparts, while a diverse workforce also improves the employer brand, which in turn makes it easier to recruit. Call it a virtuous circle. It likes that. What makes an inclusive recruitment process? If you’re not using discriminatory language or actively precluding particular groups, it’s easy to believe that your hiring process is already inclusive and open to all. But that might not necessarily be the case, as there are potential pitfalls throughout the process that might be pushing certain groups away. To address this, we suggest working carefully through the process from a candidate’s perspective, paying particular attention to these key elements. • The job description • The person specification • Advertising • Applications • Interviews Let’s take these one by one, and fair warning, you might want another coffee first, there’s quite a lot of this. The job description Most readers of job descriptions are looking to answer one question: is this something I can do? Having a disability or other condition makes that a bigger question, and what can be even more frustrating than a ‘no’ is when there's just not enough information given to answer it at all.Vague assertions like ‘the role requires some travel’ may suffice for those with few concerns or commitments, but many will need to know more. To where? How often? For how long? By what means? People can judge for themselves if a role is within their capability, but they need full and specific details to do it. That said, listing every last responsibility of the role can look daunting, even if half of them amount to little more than a moment’s work. Rolling minor tasks into ‘other duties as required’ is fine, provided they don’t require anything more of the individual than is covered elsewhere. This can help to keep the list looking manageable and (importantly) proportionate to the salary on offer. So to make your job description inclusive, think clear, sufficiently detailed to assess the logistics, but not overwhelming. Which brings us to… The person specification This is a little trickier. How do you make a list of ‘essential’ attributes, the very point of which is to exclude certain people, more inclusive? In three words: less is more. The shorter the list, the fewer reasons for someone to rule themselves out, so question every requirement, challenge assumptions (look to the recent Paralympic Games for evidence that attributes once thought essential might not be), and be ruthless in removing criteria that are anything short of absolutely life-or-death vital. Also, in the sober words of the CIPD: ‘When advertising for existing roles, we recommend assessing the needs of the role as it stands today, rather than relying on previous adverts or specifications’. Which is to say, don’t just bang out the same spec as last time, because that’s what they did then too, and probably the time before that, and this is how you end up with ads calling skills ‘essential’ that haven’t been relevant for 20 years. But why not aim higher and ask for everything that would make up the perfect candidate? You’re not expecting to get it, but there’s no harm in asking, right?Actually, there might be: there’s a widely-quoted finding, shared by the Harvard Business Review and former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg among others, that while men are happy with 60%, women feel they need to meet 100% of the specified criteria before they’ll apply for a role. Making 100% all but impossible would therefore see female candidates rule themselves out. As it turns out, this was purely a guess by someone in a meeting at Hewlett-Packard, but the claim has probably persisted because it sounds potentially true. Actual research by the Behavioural Insights Team found a far smaller difference in reality, but the point remains that asking too much simply reduces the proportion of boxes that even the strongest candidates can tick, and this makes them (whatever their gender) less likely to apply. Stick to the skills that are needed and no more. Advertising the job Be aware that the language in your ad can suggest a degree of bias. Words like ‘competitive’ or ‘driven’ can give the impression you’re expecting to hire a man, which can often deter female applicants, while words like ‘supportive’ or ‘nurturing’ can suggest you’re seeking a woman, although interestingly this doesn’t deter male applicants in the same way. Consider where to advertise, too. If you’re not getting sufficient diversity from the usual channels, try others; there are now plenty of job boards aimed specifically at one or more marginalised groups. In our experience, these may not guarantee more hires from said groups, but they do show you’re willing to invest in attracting them, with positive effects on the employer brand that can pay off further down the line. Referrals can be helpful if they’re targeted towards underrepresented groups, but remember that if you’re simply asking staff to refer a friend, you’ll tend to get people who are fairly alike. Be wary too of prioritising 'cultural fit' which, when you look at it, is just a more acceptable way of saying that you're looking for ‘people like us’.Showing the salary of the role is a must: some groups (you can probably guess which) are more comfortable and successful negotiating salaries than others, so leaving it open increases disparities. Further to the earlier point about detail, salary information is pretty essential for jobseekers to know if it’s a viable prospect worth pursuing, while many see a certain lack of respect in expecting candidates to jump through the hoops of application (terrible band) with no idea if it’s even worthwhile. Finally, you can use the ad to make applicants of all kinds feel welcome and included, by proactively inviting them to discuss any reasonable adjustments needed upfront.Applications How should people apply for the role? CVs and supporting statements suit some just fine - they’re familiar and the internet is awash with tips on doing them well – but they might not be the right forum for everyone to shine. Why judge someone’s ability to create a well-presented written document if what you’re looking for is resilience and interpersonal skills? Inclusive recruiting means hiring people for what they can do, not what they can’t, so switching CVs for something that plays to their people skills might be more illuminating in this instance. In the interests of eliminating bias however, some charities advocate for a highly standardised application form, often anonymised by removing names, dates and other identifying details. Everyone’s asked the same questions, making it easy to compare answers, and if nobody knows whose they’re reading, decisions cannot be influenced by anything other than the substance of what they have said. However, a plea on behalf of applicants everywhere: it’s either a form or a CV, but not both. Few things say ‘we have no respect for your time’ as clearly as insisting a CV be uploaded, then asking for all the same information again in a different format. Interviews This is where bias gets some of its best opportunities to creep into the process, thanks to the presence of multiple people and a fair amount of actual human interaction (a quick pause here for our introverts to finish shuddering). However, charities like the British Heart Foundation (BHF) are fighting hard to keep bias out, recently launching an interactive interview-building tool that reads the job description and person specification, determines the required characteristics, and designs questions to help you assess them objectively. These become part of structured interviews, in which all candidates are asked the same things in the same order, with their answers scored against specific criteria agreed in advance. As Maggie Morgan-Valentine, BHF’s head of equality, diversity and inclusion told Civil Society: ‘By designing structured interviews with robust evaluation criteria, we can reduce the influence of bias and find the best candidates based on objective requirements for success in each role’. Another approach we’ve been using with Maudsley Charity that’s becoming more popular is to send questions to interviewees in advance. ‘But surely this is madness?!’, we hear you cry, and it’s certainly unconventional, but the reasoning is sound. Providing questions ahead of time allows you to evaluate candidates based on their considered answers - often a fair reflection of their knowledge and outlook - rather than what they blurt out on the spot under interview pressure, which often isn’t. It’s particularly helpful for neurodivergent candidates who may struggle to think on their feet, reducing stress and anxiety, and enables more people to perform well at interview than would otherwise be the case. After all, unless responding to unexpected questions on the spot will be part of their job, does it matter if they’re not particularly good at it? By springing questions on people unannounced, there’s a risk of rejecting someone who’d be great at the job in favour of someone who’s simply good at interviews. There are drawbacks of course, one being that candidates’ answers could sound robotic and over-rehearsed, focusing more on remembering the words than what they’re actually saying. This could make it hard to get a sense of their character or build a rapport. There’s also a risk they could seek help from others, copy from the web or ask an expert – how will you know their answers are their own? A solution that charities are increasingly using is to provide interview questions just a short time, perhaps a maximum of two hours, in advance. This retains the benefit of easing candidate nerves while minimising (albeit not entirely eradicating) their opportunity to get help or over-rehearse. An alternative is to provide some, but not all, of the questions ahead of time, which gives space for more spontaneous, off-the-cuff conversation. This can give you a better sense of their character and personality. Whatever you choose, it’s important to ensure a level playing field, by running an interview process that works equally for all. Often overlooked in this are the financial costs for candidates. If someone has to travel from elsewhere into London, for example, during peak hours for a 9am interview, perhaps in smart new clothing they’ve had to buy, it’s neither cheap, nor something they’ll be able to do too often. Could the logistics of your interview process be limiting access to only those with the funds to take part?The answer that many charities have alighted on is to hold all interviews online, the pros and cons of which are perhaps for another time, except to note that while this may lose something in terms of personal rapport, in today’s workplace it’s arguably just as important to see how someone performs on a Teams call as how they perform in an uncomfortably hot box room in your office. Ultimately, there’s no secret formula that brings down the barriers and unlocks a vast untapped source of wonderfully diverse professionals. More often than not, the art of inclusive recruiting is simply to avoid things that drive them away. There’s also a limit to how far it can go. With a single position, you’ll inevitably reach a point where you have to exclude all but one person, however innovative the route there. But for everyone to have a fair chance of being that person, they need a fair chance of making the shortlist, a level playing field all the way back, and to feel they’ll be just as valued, just as welcome to take part in the process as anyone else. And that’s where inclusive recruitment practices can really make a difference. Team Harris HillFor more advice or any assistance you need with inclusive recruiting, please contact our specialist consultants on 020 7820 7300 or get in touch via info@harrishill.co.ukSearch charity jobsRecruit for your organisationRead the Harris Hill Blogtext

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