Recruitment Matters International June Newsletter
Hello from the team at Recruitment Matters International!
Britain's railways were disrupted when thousands of RMT union members walked out last week and hundreds of British Airways workers at Heathrow Airport have also voted to go on strike during the summer holiday period over their wages. Now, more than 115,000 Royal Mail workers will begin voting on Tuesday over whether to strike over pay. Separately, 114 Post Offices are to be closed on 11 July in another strike over pay.
Much of the pending industrial action has been caused by prices rising at their fastest pace for 40 years, with UK inflation at 9.1%, the highest rate since 1982.
Inflationary pressure is unlikely to be easing significantly in the next few months, it seems. Yet employment levels of activity remain buoyant and many recruiters are working flat out to fill their clients' vacancies. All we need to do is find those pesky candidates...
We're here to help you work as productively as possible via our programme of interactive online training courses . Options during Q3 include:
Two Day Introduction To Recruitment
Candidate Control, Screening & Interview Techniques
Become An Exceptional Temp/Contract Recruiter
Head-Hunting As A Solution/Service
Candidate Sourcing
and much more...
In this month's newsletter:-
Warren shares some advice on managing the capacity of your "Stress Container" and gives an insight into what he is doing about his.
Ideal Marketing Company MD Jess Shailes looks at two key elements of marketing plans - budgets and timelines.
Our networking guru, Will Kintish reviews which part of the PIE is most important when furthering your career.
JMW's Simon Bloch and Shelby Munn provide an important case law update on disability discrimination.
Lastly for news of our full range of recruitment services, including upcoming training courses, check out "What's new?"
What's in your Stress Container?
Contributor: Warren Kemp, CEO and Trainer, Recruitment Matters International. Warren is also a qualified Mental Health First Aid Instructor
The question isn't just "What's in your stress container?" as it states in the diagram above - it is also "How FULL is your stress container?"
We all have a capacity to take on workloads, people, situations, 'life' and continue to function well. Yet, one person’s capacity will be greater or less than someone else's.
Recognising what your capacity is becomes crucial to your wellbeing. Your stress container is like a bucket with water , dripping / splashing / flowing in constantly. It doesn't matter how quick or how much - at some point it will overflow.
For the bucket of water not to overflow, you need a tap at the bottom you can turn on to let some out.
For your own stress vessel you need a metaphorical tap so you can turn it on and let some out.
Those will be healthy things you can do to release stress and/or stop it building up.
How do you keep your stress vessel at an acceptable level and how much attention do you pay to your capacity?
If you like walking in the countryside, for example, when was the last time you did just that? Or reading a book, perhaps - same question.
Keep an eye on your stress vessel. It's not selfish to look after yourself first - it's vital. You can't support others or do your job well if your vessel is overflowing. And that's not fair on others who need you. Airline flight attendants tell you to put on your own oxygen mask first before you help someone to put on theirs. That's no good if you find yours is empty at the crucial moment!!
Me? - same boat. I'm a Mental Health First Aid Instructor for MHFA England, a recruiter, a recruitment trainer/coach, I run a community hub helping people with work and wellbeing challenges, volunteer 3 hrs a week at a men's drop-in centre, run a number of wellbeing events in the evening as well as a weekly dementia cafe and am currently involved in a big project bringing over 55 Ukrainians to the UK and .....well, I'm pooped !
I need to take my own advice or I can't deliver the right results to my clients.
So, a couple of days ago, my wife and I decided to go up to Scotland for 2 weeks (at the end of this week) for some much needed down time. BUT I was going to work an exec search assignment while I was there. A Monday morning reality check meant that I've handed over a rather lucrative project to a colleague for something far more important – peace - and no phone, no laptop, no noise. And a lot of family, friends and fishing instead :)
#TakeYourOwnAdviceForAChangeWarren
Warren Kemp is CEO and trainer with Recruitment Matters International. For more tips, advice and information on RMI, visit https://recruitmentmatters.com/ telephone 0800 0749 289/ +44 (0)1529 410375 or email info@recruitmentmatters.com.
Marketing Plans - budgets and timelines
Contributor: Ideal Marketing Company MD Jess Shailes.
When creating your marketing plan, budgets and timelines are two significant factors you need to consider.
What’s the cost of gaining a customer?
You may have heard that you should attribute between 2-5% of your sales revenue to marketing.
That is a simplified way of creating a budget; an alternative is to consider the lifetime value of a potential customer and, in turn, decide what a reasonable cost per customer acquisition is.
The cost per customer acquisition (i.e. your marketing and sales costs) needs to come out of your existing profit, so it’s worth understanding how much room you have to work with and how long it will take to make the money you’ve invested in acquiring the customer. After all, there is no point in increasing your sales if it costs you all of your profit, unless you’re playing the long game.
Planning for profit
Marketing is an investment that can take time to provide a return, so in the short term, at least, you either need to be able to afford the marketing as a cost or have a forecast for when you will get your investment back. As your revenue increases, you may decide to attribute a higher or lower amount of your profits back into marketing.
Over time, your increase in sales may be more significant or less, you may reinvest a larger or smaller proportion of your profits or even borrow to make the marketing investment. There are a lot of variables that will impact how quickly your sales revenue increases. Only some are within your control but, ultimately, an investment in your marketing is an investment in the future of your company.
Setting a timeline
Look back at your business goals – what timeline did you set your sales goals against? Now, look at your budget; what marketing spend can you devote and over what period? You’ll need to strike a balance and potentially adjust your business goals if you don’t have the marketing budget you need to achieve them in the timeline that you initially set out.
Once you know what kind of budget you have, you can investigate your marketing options. Many people focus on choosing a certain marketing channel when they start investing in marketing because they know lots of people are using that channel – such as LinkedIn or YouTube. However, this kind of unresearched decision comes with a high risk of failure and wasted time and effort.
Marketing channel options
Your target audience should heavily influence your marketing channel depending on where they can be found. However, your budget and timeline will dictate what is possible/desirable, and audiences can usually be found in multiple places. I don’t recommend only picking one channel; as you’ll read below, no channel is good for everything. Different channels help at different customer journey points and have different costs and timelines.
Channels could include SEO; organic social media; email marketing; digital advertising; PR; direct mail. Draw up a list of pros and cons to help decide what channels might work best for you.
Create your plan and progress tracker
Once you have decided on the marketing channels you’ll use and the budget you can devote to each, break everything down into step-by-step activities and plot them into a marketing plan. You should include:
- Task
- Status
- Anticipated start date
- Anticipated end date
- Actual start date
- Actual end date
- Estimated cost
- Actual cost
This format works best because the plan can update as the situation evolves. Activities may take longer than you anticipated, costs could fluctuate, and if they do, you’ll have an easy way to keep on top of things in one place.
The alternative to making a marketing investment could be staying where you are, or it could be a decline in business. It’s important to remember that, if your competitors are investing and you’re not, you could be left behind.
If you follow these steps, you’ll be well on your way to creating a successful marketing plan.
Once you have your marketing plan in place, you’ll want to think about how you’ll measure success!
For a free consultation about your marketing needs, from branding to PR to digital marketing, visit idealmarketingcompany.co.uk or call 01858 44 55 43.
What part of the PIE do you think is important?
Contributor: Will Kintish, Networking guru
How well you do your job has very little to do with how successful you are in your professional career. Or, more precisely, how well you do your prescribed work will account for about 10% of your overall success. That’s according to Harvey Coleman in his book “Empowering Yourself: The Organizational Game Revealed.”
In short, Harvey asserts that career success is based on the 3 key elements of Performance, Image and Exposure (a.k.a. PIE):
Performance: this is about the day-to-day work you’re tasked with and the quality of the results you deliver.
Image: this is what other people think of you. Your personal brand. Do you maintain a positive attitude? Do you lead with solutions to issues, or are you the person that solely offers roadblocks when others suggest changes or alternatives?
Exposure: Who knows about you and what you do? Do you senior colleagues know what you do? Do others inside and outside your organization know anything about you?
You won’t be surprised to read I believe that “E is the key” to success in bigger organizations. It’s called internal networking. The book was published in 2010 but I believe the message will live on forever.
For more information on Will’s networking services, visit https://www.kintish.co.uk , call +44 (0)7939 205719 or email will@kintish.co.uk.
Case Law Update: Disability Discrimination: procedure leading to dismissal relevant when assessing proportionality of that dismissal
Contributors: Simon Bloch, who is a Partner at JMW Solicitors LLP and Shelby Munn, Trainee Solicitor.
In Department for Work and Pensions v Boyers [2022] EAT 76, it was held by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) that an employment tribunal were correct in finding that the Claimant’s dismissal was discrimination arising from disability. The EAT found that the dismissal was not a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim as the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) had not properly evaluated a trial that Mrs Boyers had previously completed in a different role and location which may have resulted in her not being dismissed.
Facts
Mrs Boyers was dismissed by the DWP by reason of capability due to unacceptable attendance levels in January 2018. Prior to this, in 2013, the employer had received an occupational health report which established that Mrs Boyers was disabled for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010 as she suffered recurrent migraines and had done so over the previous four years.
At the end of 2013, Mrs Boyers felt as though she was being bullied and harassed by a colleague, but her requests to move desks were denied. As a result of the behaviour she was being subject to, Mrs Boyers informed her employer that she was suffering and being treated for depression, panic attacks and stress. Mrs Boyers subsequently requested to move to a different floor during 2015 and 2016. Upon these further requests being denied, Mrs Boyers broke down whilst at work and only then was she moved to a different floor and a stress reduction plan put in place.
In early 2017, Mrs Boyers was absent from work due to stress and, whilst she was off, she submitted a grievance in relation to the way her complaint had been handled by her managers. Following an investigation, the grievance was rejected. Later that year, Mrs Boyers asked to work from a different office upon feeling ready to return to work and undertook a six-week trial at an alternative location. However, the DWP advised that the trial had not been successful. Following this, Mrs Boyers advised the DWP that she did not feel able to return to her previous office, and she was subsequently dismissed.
First employment tribunal and EAT decisions
Upon bringing various claims to the employment tribunal, including disability arising from discrimination under Section 15 Equality Act 2010, the first employment tribunal held that Mrs Boyer’s dismissal was disproportionate and discriminatory and therefore contrary to Section 15.
After the DWP appealed this decision, the EAT found that the employment tribunal was wrong in focusing on the procedure that led to the dismissal without assessing whether the ultimate dismissal was justified. The EAT held that the employment tribunal should have conducted a balancing exercise between the DWP’s legitimate aims and the discriminatory effect of the dismissal.
Second employment tribunal decision
The case then went back to the employment tribunal whereby it reached the same decision as before and held that the dismissal was, in fact, disproportionate and discriminatory. This decision was once again appealed by the DWP.
Second EAT decision
Sitting in the EAT, Judge Barry Clarke dismissed the further appeal and found that the employment tribunal had properly carried out the balancing exercise that it was required to and, as a result, had accurately found that Mrs Boyer’s dismissal was disproportionate. In determining the matter, the EAT held that it is relevant to examine the procedure leading up to a dismissal when assessing proportionality in a disability discrimination claim. It was highlighted, however, that a tribunal should be focused on whether the outcome of the decision-making process is capable of justification rather than the actual process itself.
Although this case involved Mrs Boyers working at an alternative location and the DWP not adequately evaluating her six-week trial, the EAT held that an assessment of proportionality by a tribunal is not to be constrained by terms of an employment contract relating to matters such as place of work. For example, there may be something that is not typically included within an employment contract (such as redeployment to an alternative office) which may offer an alternative to dismissal which is less discriminatory, but may be only one factor to consider in the balancing exercise.
Finally, the EAT also held that it is possible for a dismissal to be a disproportionate response where there is no corresponding duty to make reasonable adjustments. If claimants felt as though they had to put forward reasonable adjustments arguments in cases such as these, this would conflict with the tribunals’ overriding objective by making it difficult for those individuals to make such claims.
What can be taken away from this?
When determining disability discrimination cases, the employment tribunal should factor in the balancing exercise the procedure that an employer followed when dismissing an employee on potentially discriminatory grounds.
The EAT highlighted how it will be difficult for an employer to prove that they have acted proportionately where they aren’t able to put forward any evidence as to how they believed their actions would achieve the legitimate aims being relied upon. Furthermore, it will also be difficult for employers to prove that they acted proportionately if they have dismissed a disabled employee without considering less discriminatory alternatives to dismissal. As such, employers need to consider all of the circumstances and ensure that they do not act prematurely when dismissing a disabled employee.
This article is for general guidance only and should not be used for any other purpose. It does not constitute, and should not be relied upon as legal advice.
This article was prepared by Simon Bloch, who is a Partner at JMW Solicitors LLP and Shelby Munn, Trainee Solicitor. To contact Simon, please email simon.bloch@jmw.co.uk or telephone 0161 838 2628 to discuss any matter in this article or any recruitment issue at further length.
What's new?
Here's a link to our latest open course training schedule . Our next Two Day Introduction To Recruitment course runs on July 20th and 27th.
Remember that we can come in-house to you via Zoom or visit your offices to deliver face-to-face training in a Covid-secure environment. It just needs a bit of forward planning, so do contact us as soon as possible to discuss your potential requirements.
We continue to welcome subscribers to our FREE pre-recorded online training programme ku.dos to help provide further support for you in your recruitment career.
If you think that mentoring or consultation via telephone, Skype or video conferencing could work for you, please contact us to have a chat about your options.
Looking to hire? If you have any recruitment requirements, check out our RPO and RPR services.
For more information on all our courses and our other services and products, visit www.recruitmentmatters.com, email info@recruitmentmatters.com or call Ken on 0800 0749289 or, if you’re overseas, 0044 1529 410375.
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