polkadot press - November 2011
Posted 17.11.11
Agency Worker Regulations (AWR) 1 Month On...
As an employment business polkadotfrog have spent several months of this year counting down to 1st October 2011 the date that the Agency Worker Regulations (AWR) came in to force.
The date was prepared for in anticipation of what the new regulations would bring in terms of change to the way the temporary recruitment process has worked previously.
What have we learnt one month on?
Our view is that recruiters and hirers will not see the full impact of the regulations until we get into December and January when the first group of qualifying temporary employees request information and make claims.
We have spent much of the last 12 months trying to ease the disruption of that initial post-qualification period for our clients and candidates. We are confident that the information we have provided on our website and via our newsletters, blogs, mailers; as well as the advice offered verbally by our team of Account Managers will have informed our clients and candidates in advance of the changes that lie ahead.
Comparator rates have been arranged with clients for any temporary candidates that will fall in to the qualifying period and holiday allowances have been reviewed to make the transfer as smooth as possible.
If you have not yet fully implemented a process for the AWR regulations you are not too late. Although government whispers suggest there will be an early review of the regulations, it is likely we will have to work with them for some time. You therefore need to look now at how best to work the regulations in 2012 onwards.
Understand your profile of spend on agency workers
How long do temporary workers stay in particular roles and particular locations? It may be that as a hirer you largely offer short temporary assignments of less than 12 weeks, in which case your exposure to the regulations will be limited.
Manage your relationship with your recruiter well
AWR has made it necessary for hirers and recruiters to work together. Whatever your approach to AWR, hirers must now have a good joined relationship with their recruiter to ensure the regulations are adhered to.
If you need some advice on AWR and how best to regulate this within your business or if you wish to discuss individual temporary contractors we currently have working for you please call your Account Manager who will be more than happy to help.
Prepare Your Business For Winter
Winter is on its way, which means the milder weather we have been experiencing this Autumn is likely to be soon be replaced by ice and snow. Here's how to prepare your business for the winter and ensure continued productivity:
1. Plan ahead
Sit down with your management/team and make plans for bad weather.
Consider how can you ensure the business is kept running efficiently when employee numbers are down due to bad weather and poor access to work.
2. Read up on employment policies
Make sure you read up on employment policies that relate to severe weather conditions so you know what is reasonable to expect of your staff and what is not. These policies will cover issues including entitlement to time off, entitlement to paid/unpaid leave, working from home, flexible working hours to avoid rush hour traffic. Proper consultation with staff is a requirement and creating a framework early on allows you to manage the issues more efficiently when the bad weather hits.
3. Working from home
Make the most of those staff that are unable to get in to the office. Home workers are often more efficient than office based workers and are certainly more efficient than those who turn up after a 3 hour journey and spend an hour discussing how bad it was and how soon they should leave to get home.
With the right rules and technology in place you can make sure work gets done and staff will be grateful too.
4. Having the right technology outside the office
Consider.do staff have laptops or blackberrys? Do they have a good internet connection? Can they securely access work servers remotely and do they know how to?
Forward planning and investing in this technology in advance will sustain productivity and may save your business money when the bad weather hits.
5. Having the right technology inside the office
In order for staff to be able to work from home effectively you need to make sure your network can be accessed remotely. You will also need to ensure you have every member of staff's mobile and home numbers so that you can contact them if needed. This information will need to be accessible remotely should you not be able to get in to the office.
6. Communicate
Keep in touch with staff throughout the course of the bad weather. If staff feel involved they will be motivated to work productively away from the office.
7. Encourage staff to plan ahead
Employers will need to clarify how employees can assess the travel situation and make a call on whether they will travel in to work. It is important to consider the advice of the emergency services; if police have advised not to travel unless absolutely necessary then this should be seriously considered.
It is crucial for employers to assess what is reasonable to ask of your employees and advise accordingly.
Writing The Perfect Job Advertisement
MyJobGroup a leading UK job board has conducted an analysis of its own database of more than 220,000 vacancies and has discovered that word count and language are most important when it comes to generating the most applications.
Analysis of the most applied for jobs found that 140 words was the optimum length for a job specification. The least applied for jobs had an average word count that was 55% higher, at 217 words.
The analysis also revealed that word choice was paramount to job seeker interest. 'Booster' words common amongst the most applied for jobs were 'position', 'service' and 'opportunity'. In contrast where words such as 'must', 'responsibilities' and 'knowledge' were used less applications were generated.
The job board also revealed that sector-specific language is necessary to drive applications demonstrating that employers and recruiters need to tailor their job adverts accordingly. For example: 'ambitious', 'team' and 'organisation' were key words found to attract the best sales applications.
Crafting the perfect job advertisement is a difficult task and is a balancing act between including all of the relevant information to attract the best candidates whilst not going in to too much detail and boring job seekers. MyJobGroup's findings show that employers and recruiters need to linguistically tailor job advertisments to the correct sector in order to attract the largest number and highest calibre of candidates.
In conclusion the findings show that using guiding principles all employers should be able to craft a job advertisement to attract the right candidates for their position.
MyJobGroup's formula:
1. 140 words maximum
2. 3 general 'booster' words
3. 3 sector-specific 'booster' words