How To Use Storytelling For Talent Acquisition

Sure, storytelling is used in film and tv to create great entertainment, but it’s increasingly being used in corporate contexts. Just as storytelling is used in marketing to attract buyers, so too can it be used to draw top talent your company. While many roles have similar responsibilities, pay packages and quirky open planned spaces, each company has its own story. Telling that story differentiates your role from the rest.

What it’s Not

You probably think that you’re already telling the story of your company by discussing the values or ethos of the business. But have you ever noticed how many other companies list respect and innovation among their values? Company values do not equate to your company story, and they’re usually overused cliches. Fortunately, you don’t have to write as well as Stephen Spielberg to tell a good company story. All you need to do is focus on what makes your company unique.

Consider the Company

The first step to telling your company story is sitting down and considering each individual part of the whole and getting a feel for each one. Here is a list of all the aspects you should consider and some questions you can ask.

The team- Why would someone enjoy working with this team? What is the social atmosphere like at this place?

Growth – How does the company facilitate professional development for its employees?

Processes –  How would someone get their job done at the company? What sort of steps would they need to take, who would they need to engage with?

Environment – What are the benefits of the location,and how does the internal space affect the work done?

Values – Dig a little deeper than the cliches on your company’s site.  When it comes to communicating values, the company’s actions speak louder than words.

Bragging Rights – What single perk would an employee brag about to their friends?

Next, Differentiate…

Now that you’ve got a holistic feel for the company and all its parts, it’s time to pick out a few of the best points you’ve come up with. These will become your “point of difference”, setting you apart from competitors.

Give a Thought to Audience

Telling your company’s story to all and sundry will make for a confusing plot. It’s time to hone in on your target audience and write for that dream candidate. One strategy is to put yourself in your candidate’s shoes and share a story that would resonate with them. You could also draw from the experiences of those existing employees with whom your desired candidate would share a lot in common. In this way, you’d be writing an engaging and concise company story that most appeals to your candidate.

Want even more recruitment & hiring tips? Connect with us on LinkedIn.

5 Ways To Make Your Resume Stand Out – Construction & Engineering

Hiring managers in construction and engineering are looking for specific qualities in job candidates. That’s why it’s important to write a resume that is not generic but addresses the key questions of hiring managers in your industry. After years of working in construction and engineering, we’ve learnt a thing or two about how candidates can grab that HR manager’s attention. With the following tips, you’ll create a resume for construction and engineering that stands out from the rest.

1. Spruce Up Your LinkedIn Profile

It used to be that hiring managers had to go to LinkedIn if they wanted to view a candidate’s past work, recommendations and endorsements. But now that Microsoft has integrated with LinkedIn, hiring managers can see details from a candidate’s LinkedIn profile in their Outlook application. Having a great LinkedIn profile is more essential than ever, and if you haven’t used Resume Assistant, make sure your LinkedIn and resume are consistent with each other.

2. Use Resume Assistant

Microsoft Word’s latest feature, Resume Assistant, is a great tool for creating a resume that truly stands out. It’s basically a pane that appears beside your word document and pulls data from your LinkedIn profile to set up a basic resume for you. From here, you can browse profiles of professionals in your field and read industry news to get an idea of great keywords and trending phrases. Read more about the Two New Features of Microsoft & LinkedIn That Are Great for Job Hunting.

3. List Your Projects

For engineering and construction jobs, we recommend that listing your projects is just as important as listing the companies you’ve worked for. Keep in mind that hiring staff may or may not be aware of the projects you’ve worked on, so provide clear and simple dot point summaries of each project and your role within it.

4. List Accomplishments

When most people write their resumes, they’ll list their responsibilities for each of their former roles. But to make your resume really stand out, turn these responsibilities into accomplishments. For example, instead of stating “Managed a team of staff,” convert that to “Improved team efficiency over three months & promoted to manager”. Accomplishments communicate more about your strengths and abilities in your former roles.

5. Write A Proper Cover Letter

When you send your resume to a HR manager or recruiter, your email essentially becomes your cover letter. And no matter how great your resume is, it won’t make it past the first hurdle unless it’s packaged with a great cover letter to match. This is your opportunities to quickly and clearly summarise why you are great for the role and any other relevant information such as start date and location. With a great cover letter, your excellent resume has a chance to shine.

Good Luck!

Get more job search tips at our Latest News page.

Featured Project: Victoria Police Headquarters

The Project

This 39-storey development is being purpose-built to house the Victoria Police headquarters. The commercial tower will span 65,000m2, with an efficient side core design that offers large open floor plates of 2,000m2 . The building is set to be a cutting-edge development for civic purposes, intended to improve efficiency for law enforcement operations in Victoria. It also meets a high level of environmental standards, having a NABERS Energy and Water rating of 4.5 and a Green Star Office Design rating of 5.

The Players

Tier One building company Probuild won the tender to build the new police centre, and were chosen for their technical capabilities and large-scale resource capacity. Typically contracted for retail and residential projects, the police headquarters will be part of Probuild’s move towards large-scale commercial and civic developments. Probuild will partner with Cbus Property and Australia Post to deliver the civic development development.

The Location

The new police headquarters is going up within Melbourne’s crime fighting district of Spencer Street. The Victoria Police headquarters at 311 Spencer Street will sit beside the City West Police Complex at 313 Spencer Street, another development recently completed by Cbus Property.

The Timeline

Construction for the development began in mid-May 2017, with works expected to continue through to the end of 2019.

Need more industry news and trends? Browse our Latest News column today.

Two New Features Of Microsoft & LinkedIn That Are Great For Professional Networking

About

For anyone looking for a job or new staff, the coming together of Microsoft and LinkedIn is interesting to say the least. So far, the merger has resulted in new integrations between the two platforms which offer nifty tools for professional networking purposes. Let’s take a look at the two new features you can use for your professional jobs networking purposes.

Office 365 Profile Cards

One of the fantastic outcomes of Microsoft’s new partnership with LinkedIn is the improvement on Microsoft Office 365’s personal profiles, or “profile cards”. Until recently, if your contact had little information on their profile card, you’d have to go to LinkedIn in order to learn more about them. Now, profile cards pulls personal information about your contacts from LinkedIn, giving you a full overview of the person right within your Microsoft products like Outlook. This makes life easier, but it also lets you retain a bit of anonymity because your contact wont get an email when you’ve viewed their profile.

How to Use It

1. Profile Cards appear in your Cortana, Outlook for PC, and many other Microsoft applications.
2. If you want to change your profile information, go to Outlook for PC > File > Office Account > About Me.
3. Enter in up-to-date information about your professional role, organisation and skills, and upload a photo to complete your profile.

Linkedin Resume Assistant

The other new integration is Microsoft’s Resume Assistant. Powered by LinkedIn, this feature also pulls data from LinkedIn to give you more complete information in Microsoft. While creating a resume, resume assistant appears on the side, allowing you to view examples of great resumes from experts in your field, or read industry news to inform your what you put in your CV. You can also use the feature to view job ads right within word and share your information with recruiters. We’ve tried Resume Assistant ourselves and found it to be an excellent tool for people in construction and engineering.

How To Use It

1. In Microsoft Word, go to Review > Resume Assistant.
2. View what keywords your peers are using to describe their skills, or read industry news to find out what employers are searching for.
3. If Resume Assistant is not appearing, click File > Options, and on the General tab select Show LinkedIn features in my Office applications.

For more news, tips and articles about jobs in construction & engineering, head to Quadrant Exec blog.

image post

What You’re Doing Wrong When Hiring New Staff

While most hiring staff want adaptable, resilient and courageous new employees, hiring trends tell a different story about who is being hired. Despite the need for open-minded and flexible candidates who can keep up with ever-changing roles and technologies, HR still focuses on specialisations and experience. The nature of job roles has changed, and it’s time for hiring habits to catch up with them. Read on to discover what you’re doing wrong when hiring new staff, and how to hire better.

Focusing on skills and experience

Hiring managers put undue emphasis on skills and experience, typically by having a long list of must-haves along with their job roles. But by limiting their possible candidates with these strict guidelines, they are also limiting the number of candidates that are able to upskill, adapt and innovate within their role.

  • What to do instead

When hiring new staff, reconsider your must-haves and change as many as possible into nice-to-haves. You’re better off choosing a candidate who can learn new skills and technologies rather than someone who is set in their ways.

Picturing the perfect candidate

Similar to the above, hiring staff are often on the hunt for something specific, like a candidate with “building experience in Melbourne”. In having such a specific set of requirements, they won’t look at candidates outside of the building sector, and filter out a lot of great candidates who could have equivalent skills and experience.

  • What to do instead

Consider that an “imperfect” candidate may actually be perfect for your role. Candidates from the mining or civil industries could have just the right skills and experience for a role in the building sector.

Relying too much on resume, interview and references

A candidate’s resume and cover letter is going to reflect the typical expectations of your role, again, prioritising skills, experience and education over the ability to adapt and grow. If you’re relying on resumes, interviews and references, you’re not gaining a good understanding of your candidate’s ability to innovate within your role.

  • What to do instead

Incorporate a psychometric assessment into your hiring process. This will help you find candidates who indicate an adaptable approach to work and open-mindedness.

Thinking too narrowly about the role

Ending up with employees who are not adaptable can be a direct result of the company’s perception of that role. Hiring managers need to ask themselves how important today’s must-have qualities will be in five or ten years’ time, and look for someone who will take the role into the future.

  • What to do instead

Another way to think about how you hire new staff is by shifting your attention away from the candidate and taking another look at the role. Consider how the requirements for that role might change in the future, and redefine what’s important in your candidates.

Not taking an organisation-wide approach

Try mapping talent analytics across your organisation what your staff are capable of now and what skills will be required in the short-to-medium term. Take these insights with you when you hire new staff.

  • What to do instead 

    Try mapping talent analytics across your organisation what your staff are capable of now and what skills will be required in the short-to-medium term. Take these insights with you when you hire new staff.

Need better candidates for your roles? Read about our process for hiring great staff.

New Name & Look For Seasoned Recruitment Firm: Quadrant Engineering Become Quadrant Exec

As of March 2018, Melbourne-based HR consulting firm Quadrant Engineering have become Quadrant Exec, marking a new look for this established player in the construction industry.

The name change comes with a brand-refresh for the boutique agency, which has been fitting great candidates in construction and engineering roles for over ten years.

In addition to the name change, a new brand logo and website will revive the appearance of the company, without changing the nature of the high-quality service that it provides.

Quadrant Exec began in 2007, when founder Scott Rojko saw a gap in the marketplace for search-based recruitment, fitting middle and senior management staff with roles in tier one and two construction companies.

“We’re a search-based recruitment agency rather than a volume-based recruitment company. Previously in Melbourne construction you had recruiters sticking up ads on job boards and lumping people in jobs en masse. Our agency will go and tap a great candidate on the shoulder and fit them in a job they’re perfect for,” said Rojko.

Having been in the game for ten years, Quadrant Exec has seen the Melbourne construction industry change and grow. With a slew of mergers and acquisitions taking place over the years, Quadrant Exec has seen just as many recruiters come and go.

“What sets us apart is our ethical standard in the recruitment game. That, and the fact we’ve got a lot of repeat customer.”

The Melbourne construction market has undergone a massive evolution in recent years, with consolidations in the tier one sector enabling smaller companies like Kane and Built to move into the tier one space.

The changes have resulted in fewer job availabilities and greater competition for top roles, cementing Quadrant Exec’s services as invaluable.

Quadrant Exec specialises in HR consulting across Melbourne’s construction, engineering and rail industries. With a new look and a new name, Quadrant Exec will continue to provide their established recruitment services in Melbourne’s construction industry.