Time flies when you are having fun...

I am delighted to say that we have been very busy here at HR Vision, with clients needing assistance on a variety of subjects.

Expanding Business

Take for example the client who is exceptionally busy expanding his successful business, very much aware of the impact employee relations can have on the success of his business.  The people he employ are exceptionally hard workers.  He has HR on his to do list, yet does not have the bandwidth to do something about it.  I step in and help out as and when required - helping with employee relations, training employees in HR related activities and processes or helping him to bring on board a new HR employee.  

Employee Relations

Or the client who has an employee grievance or disciplinary to handle, who needs that impartial view during the investigation and assistance in making a decision on the outcome.   Because the case is so close to home it’s difficult for her to be impartial.   Not keeping in line with legislation in this area has an impact on Employment Tribunal claims (take a look at ACAS.ORG for more information in this area) - so I help to reduce the risk and ensure that processes are implemented and followed when difficulties arise.

Individuals

Or the individual client who has been treated poorly at work and has a grievance to raise but is scared to do so, needing advice on what the best action is.  Coaching the client through their somewhat traumatic experience using NLP techniques brings us both joy (which is a most unexpected and welcome outcome for the client).  Mediating between the company and the employee to bring about an outcome that is good for both parties is particularly gratifying. 

HR for HR

HR clients can be my favourites - we talk the same talk - what a joy it is to work with likeminded people.  They know what they need to be doing for their company, but do not have the bandwidth to manage it effectively.  So I get called in to help in a variety of ways - reorganisations, outplacement support, employee relations, policies, HR data.  The list is endless and I love it!

No time to spare?

Sometimes of course, companies just can't help themselves.  They want to grow, but they are too busy doing just that to do anything about HR or Health & Safety.  This is when businesses start to struggle and experience all sorts of issues - HSE visits, ET claims etc. 

Without the investment (I am talking about people and time investment here, not £££s) then it is difficult to know how to help them.  Processes and policies can be put in place but if the company doesn't live and breathe them they can get into all kinds of trouble - having a policy or process that makes promises that are not kept in reality is somewhat worse than having no policy at all. 

So I try to ensure that policies and processes are written for that specific company.  Of course it means an investment in time getting to know the organisation.  But implementing a policy or process that is tailored to the business is so much more effective and real to management and employees than having a standard legal document that is probably difficult to understand.

Helping businesses and individuals to "do the right thing" for the company and the employee is important to me, brings me joy and is why I chose to set up HR Vision in 2001 and why it is still here 14 years later and for a few more years to come! 

Recruiting for HR - Raising the standard of CVs

I've had an interesting time of late while recruiting a HR Director for a client of ours.   It has been a very enjoyable process and I have spoken with and interviewed a large number of extremely competent and professional HR people.

What surprised me most is the quality and content of some of the CVs.  Yes, everyone is different.  Yes everyone has lots of experience that they want to display.  Some have fabulous strong written skills, others not so much.  

But was the CV succinct?  Did it reflect the professional skills of the individual?  This was not always the case and this is what surprised me.   I had to lower the criteria of what I expected to see in a CV produced by a HR professional and conduct telephone screenings in order to ensure that the people that were shortlisted for interview were of the correct calibre.  

What were my criteria?  

• Did the applicant provide a cover letter when this had been requested?
• Was the information requested by me provided in the cover letter?
• Did the cover letter show that the candidate had researched the organisation and its people?
• Was the CV presented well?
• Did the CV flow?
• Was the professional experience structured in such a way that it was easy to read?
• Did the candidate provide relevant professional experience to the role? (e.g. was the CV tailored to the Advert/Job Description to reflect the relevant experience?)
• Did the CV provide enough information to make me want to follow up by telephone, or too little information (one page bullet points) or conversely did it provide too much information (6+ pages of text)?
• If there were rapid job changes were these explained?  Likewise with gaps in employment.
• Could I locate Academic/Professional Qualifications easily - if the individual was a Chartered Member/Fellow of the CIPD was this apparent?
• Did the CV have spelling errors?

Don't get me wrong - I'm certainly not a perfectionist.  It can be confusing when there is so much advice around on how to write your CV, with everyone offering differing views on how it is best to produce them.  

If we can’t (or don't have the time) to write the CV ourselves then we can consult with experts in the matter who can help (HR Vision are happy to help here!).  

There really isn't a right way or a wrong way but there's no real excuse for us in HR.

But for me, (and please ignore the grammatical error of starting a sentence with "but") the question remains - if we in HR don't get our CV "right" - especially with regards to the basics - explaining any gaps in employment etc (which we are expected to investigate when recruiting people for our organisations) and providing potential employers with a good viewpoint on what our skillset is -  then how can we defend having such exacting standards when reviewing applicants' CVs ourselves?

So my call to action for the HR community is: let us in HR raise the standards by writing CVs that meet the criteria that we would expect to see when shortlisting candidates for a role we are recruiting for.

Tips to help us do this: 

• Spend time researching the organisation that you are applying for a role with
• Ensure that you write a good cover letter that reflects the research you have conducted. 
• Show in your cover letter how your experience matches the needs of the organisation
• Tailor your CV to reflect your experience that is relevant to the role you are applying for.
• Explain any gaps in employment or rapid moves
• And conduct a spell check!
• Once you have written your CV then leave it for 24 hours before applying for the role - by looking at the CV objectively alongside the role profile (as if you are the hiring manager) you will be able to tell if you have tailored it sufficiently or not.

Right..  I'm off to look at my master CV and Cover Letter just to check that I practice what I preach...... 

Good luck!  Remember - if you need help drafting or updating your CV then please do get in touch, we are more than happy to help.   

Outplacement/Redundancy Support

While considering a redundancy exercise a client is going through, the doom and gloom of the economy, more and more people being made redundant, businesses closing down, banks not financing businesses etc - ​it occurred to me that while everyone focuses on the negative, it is so hard to look at the positive side of redundancy.  Change.

​While change is scary at times, it has another side that makes people sit up straight and look around, evaluate where they are at present, are they on track with their life plan or not?  Do they want to be doing something else?  Are they happy doing what they do?   

​Instead of sitting still and accepting the status quo, it becomes a time for action, self-evaluation, learning and movement.

​That to me, is exciting stuff because we all get stuck in ruts.  And forget to stop and smell the roses because we are so busy smelling the manure.

​We help people to embrace these changes through our outplacement support services and career development coaching.  The feedback we get from these makes it worthwhile and makes me proud of the fact that we do make a positive difference to peoples lives.