Unexpected Skills Recruiters Bring To Companies

Volume-based recruiters often have an overload of roles to fill. They’ve got a stack of clients they don’t know very well and a directory of candidates they’ll hardly get acquainted with. With this sort of thing going on, it’s no wonder recruiters get a bad rap. However, good recruiters have a search-based, rather than a volume-based, approach. These HR professionals are famous for their skills in dealing with people and relationships. Let’s take a look at the unexpected skills that recruiters, aka HR professionals, have to offer construction companies.

1. Engagement manager

Once upon a time, managers would get together and assess their employees performances. There was little dialogue between workers and their managers, and employees would be assessed at 3, 6 or 12 month intervals. These days, organisations prefer ongoing conversations between workers and employees around performance and happiness. This can be facilitated through technology such as employee engagement software or it can be managed by an expert HR professional.

2. Diversity rep

In construction and engineering, as in many other industries, companies are realising the value of cultivating a diverse workforce. Taking on staff of various backgrounds, irrespective of gender, race or age, ensures a fair and open workplace, and one that is enriched by the diverse experiences the employees bring. Your HR professional will act as a diversity officer, not just ensuring that the right people are hired without prejudice, but that diverse employees have their needs met post-hire.

3. Talent nurturer

As much as they want to, companies can’t always be on the lookout for great talent. After all, they do have a business to run! Standard recruiters typically don’t source the best talent for the companies they represent because they’re simply too swamped with work. Even if you aren’t looking to fill a specific role, a good HR consultant will have a vast network of industry connections to top talent. They’ll have their eyes peeled for talent, and will know your company well enough to keep you informed on who’s out there when it’s time to recruit.

4. Wellness Coach

Employees can disengage from their work when they are overworked, overtired or for a variety of other personal and professional reasons. Your HR professional can help you identify factors that may be causing your employees to disengage, and recommend some wellness programs to get them back on track. This can include education on work-life balance and healthy office habits, suggestions on stress management and even therapy.

Get a construction recruitment specialist with 10+ years in the industry. Contact Quadrant Exec today.

5 Simple Yet Effective Tricks for Managing a Team

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To be a great team leader you need to think of yourself as a “nurturer of talent” rather than the “boss”. Your role is to build a team and provide them with the conditions and confidence to achieve their goals. Here are some great tips for managing a team successfully.

Allocate tasks evenly

By making your team members do tasks they are not good at and don’t enjoy, you’ll lose not just their confidence but their enthusiasm too. Find out what each member of your team is best at and tailor their roles accordingly. You’ll find your team is more efficient and less stressed when each member is doing what they do best.

Criticise and praise

Did you know that the human brain is wired for negative thinking more than it is for positive? Naturally, we tend to see the glass as half empty rather than half full. However, as a team leader, you need to pay close attention to your attitudes towards your team’s work and your responses to it. Always be constructive in your criticism and encouraging in your delivery. Avoid making your colleagues feel small and give compliments frequently. It’s also a great idea to recognise the good work of one team member publicly in front of everyone else– but make sure you do so for all members of the team.

Build more than a team

Knowing your team on a personal level has many benefits. Aside from the obvious one of building rapport, it helps you appreciate them as a person and work with them more effectively. In addition to getting to know your team members personally, encourage the same bonds of friendship amongst the members of the team. Doing so will increase trust, reduce competitiveness, and prevent anyone taking offence to what another person has says. Weekly team lunches or Friday night drinks help.

Communicate

There’s no doubt that being a team leader requires exceptional communication skills, and we’re not just talking about the ability to write and speak. Your role requires you to foster open communications, encourage ideas and opinions that will aid your team’s work. You will also need to be a good listener, and be receptive to criticism and debate. Become someone that your team are not afraid to talk to and be honest with, as this is highly constructive.

Be accountable

It’s one thing to make plans and goals, it’s another thing to stick to them by holding yourself and your team accountable. When one member of the team fails, the rest of the team won’t be able to do their part. This is why accountability is so important. When setting goals as a team, take it upon yourself to check collective and individual results along the way, and ensure that your team can also hold others accountable when they miss a beat.

 

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How to Choose Your Recruitment Process Outsourcing Partner

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Partnering with a recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) provider offers many benefits for companies in construction and engineering. Doing so can help your company manage the costs of recruitment, and, if you’ve partnered with the right RPO provider, can get you the best talent for your roles. In this article, we show you how to choose a top-level RPO provider that will help your company grow.

Think about the services you need

Recruitment Process Outsourcing providers will come in all shapes and sizes. Some will help only with the sourcing and recruitment of new candidates, while others will offer a more complete suite of services including the negotiation of offers and monitoring of candidates in the year after hire. The first step in choosing your RPO provider is to sit down and think about what services you’ll need, and then search for an RPO provider that will do them for you. For example, you may need help sourcing, interviewing and screening candidates, as well as ongoing help for a year or two while new hires settle into their roles.

Choose search-based consultants over volume-based

There are fundamentally two types of recruitment consultants. “Volume-based” recruiters will advertise for jobs, sift through a huge number of applicants, and presenting you with a number of applicants for any given role. “Search-based” recruiters have a totally different method for acquiring new talent. These specialists have deep industry connections and will headhunt candidates for your role discreetly. When choosing your RPO provider, go for search-based recruiters. They will present you with just one or two talented candidates that are perfect for the role, saving you time and money while giving  you the best result. Read more about why volume-based recruiting doesn’t work.

Look at their experience and specialisation

When shopping around for your RPO partner, always do a bit of research into the company as well as their individual recruiters. Ask questions like: How long have they been around? Are they a fly-by-night operation or have they demonstrated proven results? When looking at companies, make sure that they specialise in your industry. The best recruitment consultants will have deep industry connections, and it’s impossible to have these while operating in more than one or two industries. Finally, do some research on the individual recruiters who you’d be working with by looking at their LinkedIn and previous clients.  Choose an expert with industry knowledge and a proven track record of success.

 

Still not sure which RPO provider to choose? Quadrant Exec have placed candidates in top tier construction roles for over ten years, outlasting most recruiters in the industry. Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation.

 

Commonly Asked Job Interview Questions And How To Answer Them

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The questions asked at your job interview are a way of getting a few key points of information: who you are, how employing you will benefit the organisation, why you left your old job, and what your salary expectations are. Keep this in mind during your interview, and you’ll answer each question well.

Tell us about yourself

Your interviewer wants a short and succinct summary of your skills and experience that are relevant to the job. Skills and experience are more important than education, but that said, if you’re new in the game, you can touch on your recently completed qualifications. Avoid talking about things that aren’t relevant to the job, like what you enjoy doing on weekends.

Why do you want to work for us?

Your interviewer is looking for someone who has a passion for the type of work they’re offering and will stick around. In order to impress, try linking your skills, experience and career goals with what the company does.

Why should we hire you?

This is your chance to go into a little more depth about your skills and experience. Be specific about results you’ve achieved and give examples. You want to demonstrate to your interviewer how you might achieve similar results while working for them. If you have any particular skills and experience that are truly unique and make you stand out from the other candidates, here’s your opportunity to bring them up.

Why are you leaving your job?

Your interviewer is not asking you this question in the same way your best friend did over last night’s dinner. The interviewer doesn’t want to hear about how mean your old boss was or how you didn’t get the promotion you deserved, and they won’t be sympathetic. Instead, focus on the opportunities that await you in the new role, and what you plan to achieve.

Why did you like and dislike about your previous job?

If you were an employer, would you hire someone with a positive view on life or a negative one? This question is asked to gauge how optimistic and adaptable you are. Paint your former role in a positive light if you want to make yourself look good.  

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Make sure you enter the room with more strengths in mind than weaknesses. When discussing strengths, be specific and describe how your met key performance indicators for your previous role. When giving weakness, demonstrate that you’ve thought carefully about how to get around the said weakness, or paint it in a positive light. As a general rule of thumb, avoid bragging and just be honest.

What are your salary expectations?

What the employer really wants to know is how cheaply they can get you for. Don’t sell yourself short. Think of a range based on your experience and qualifications, and state that the amount is negotiable based on job description and package. 

 

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