Growing Your Business

Employees are the foundation of any business and their greatest asset but also the most overlooked asset! Unfortunately, we have seen over the last couple of years some local businesses haven’t used the opportunity to make insightful and positive adjustments, by putting employees at the forefront of their mind. These businesses are now experiencing a high turnover in a fast paced candidate market, as candidates are tempted away for a variety of reasons, and we have seen even when they provide feedback during exit interviews its overlooked by the businesses long term. Employee turnover is thus leading to frustrations recruiting to backfill those positions, or increase headcount as part of growth plans which can ultimately impact customer satisfaction and profitability.

The GBCC recent quarterly business report showed that the percentage of businesses attempting to recruit talent increased from 52% in Q3 to 61% in Q4 2022, but sadly 69% faced challenges when attempting to recruit. Regardless of skills challenges within particular sectors, businesses should also be looking at themselves in the mirror to see why they are struggling to recruit – obvious reasons non-competitive salary or benefits offering, using ineffective advertising channels or failing to use recruitment specialists?

Recruiting in a post pandemic market is a different landscape to which we have ever personally experienced in our 20 years. Companies still offering 20 days holiday plus bank holidays in hope this will be attractive to jobseekers is simply not good enough. Candidates are interested in “flexibility” and what that truly means in reality with clear guidelines. These include hybrid working restrictions or can they start earlier or work later to suit around personal commitments? Another key topic of discussion with candidates is around “culture” such as policies relating to EDI, charitable commitments, wellbeing initiatives and a desire to know what the company will offer to them to enhance them both professionally and personally. Not the old school token comment of offering free tea/coffee or fruit in a break out room.

Social media is an essential marketing tool for any business to promote their products and services, but how often is it used to positively promote your business as a place to work? A continued focus on the positive promotion of the business as an employer of choice highlighting employee wellbeing and benefits, could be a deciding factor between a candidate clicking to apply, or even better speculatively getting in contact for future opportunities. Simple changes on social media could ensure an employer moves from being in the 69% struggling to recruit, to the 31% that aren’t because they now have a bank of candidates keen to work for them.

There is no one size fits all method for recruiting and growing your business through successful talent acquisition, however simple adjustments to benefits, working practices and social media could help businesses take a step in the right direction. A happier workforce will provide a better service to your customers, so maybe offering 5 days extra holiday won’t be such a bad thing after all. These discussions are not going away, and will continue to shape the world of work, for example the