Improving Labour Laws To Promote Growth

The term ‘business confidence’ has taken on a new meaning over the last couple of years, however for a lot of small and medium size businesses in New Zealand, there is still a big step between seeing an improving horizon and employing additional staff.  Even with encouraging signs there are still too many barriers for businesses and this is hurting job prospects.  The process needs to be freed up for the benefit of both employers and those in the job market.

Extending the 90 day trial period across the board has been a good start in giving both parties flexibility in ensuring compatibility.  Where the unions are coming from on this change I do not understand as any opportunity to open the market up should be welcomed, and I am also of the view that both parties should share some of the risk.

Nervousness coming from pressure on the minimum wage does not help.  There is not a New Zealander who would not like to see the minimum wage increased but it cannot be done to the detriment of general or youth unemployment; confidence has to rise first.

Lastly restructuring and performance management processes need to be clarified quickly.  An employer can have the best of intentions and run a thorough process; however they can still end up with costly claims for minor flaws in process.  Without the help (and additional cost) of external consultants most small to medium companies cannot carry out these procedures without high risk.  Personal grievance grounds need to be tightened, and either clearly documented procedures and consultation periods need to be defined so that they are easy for the average person with good intentions to follow successfully, or the process needs to be less specific.  Many companies have been burned in this area when they have worked to what they understand the requirements to be and this is a huge barrier in employing extra staff to meet projected future growth.

Let’s hope the reforms keep coming.

^DB

The Art Of Saying No

One of the more difficult parts of any recruitment process can be the bit where you have to say no.  In the recruitment world this is a daily occurrence and in the early stages of a process, as long as you handle it in a timely and respectful manner, that is usually all that is required.  The more challenging part is when you’ve been working closely with a candidate for a period of time and there have been lots of hoops (multiple interviews, phone conversations, skills or psychometric testing, medical checks... the list goes on!) and then for whatever reason the final outcome is not in the candidates favour.

I often find that through-out the recruitment process I build up a strong relationship with candidates and in the process get to find out a lot of personal information about people as they entrust you with their confidence that you are working to find them a role that works for them as much as for your client.  This is a double-edged sword.  On the one hand, it makes that deep breathe I take before I pick up the phone to say “no” be accompanied by a little flutter in my stomach – as I have a sense of how important this news is to them, what their response might be, and the implications for them professionally and personally. On the other hand, if you have built this trust with them it can make the feedback more palatable for them, knowing that you have the best possible outcome for both parties at heart.

In any recruitment process I am a part of, I want candidates that deal with me to have a great experience and take some learning’s and useful feedback away from it – no matter whether the final outcome is in their favour or not.  Part of this requires being brutally honest with specific feedback.  Is this easy? No. Our overly-PC environment does not help.  Do I get it right 100% of the time? No – I am often working with people during a very vulnerable time.  How many times are candidates brushed off with “you were over-qualified” or “there was another candidate with more ‘xyz’ experience”?.  When a candidate has jumped through the many hoops that have been put in front of them and invested their time and energy into a process, isn’t the least we can do to give them the honour of some specific on-target feedback that will help them in their future applications?  Things like: what is the area that they need to get more experience in and why wasn’t the experience they had enough? How might they go about getting it? And more importantly, if the reason was something else, tell them.  If the business felt that the culture fit wasn’t right, tell them about the differences that were observed.  Yes, giving diplomatic, specific, compassionate feedback is an art – but I believe it is one that all those involved in recruitment need to develop.

^JY

Decision Making – The Measure Of A Man?

Businesses are simple beasts.  A focused team delivering to satisfied customers who return with their friends. The age-old overused cliché is that a business is as only as good as its people.  I worked with a lady a few years back who happened to sit next to a prominent New Zealand businessman on a flight whose business had failed.  What he said to her has always stuck in my mind -his words of wisdom were ‘I told average people that they were great’.  For me leading teams is always a balance of carrot and stick within a positive environment. One of the great ironies of managing businesses and teams is the fact you do it with very little feedback and support. Two traits come in handy - confidence and robustness – neither of which help avoid the odd sleepless night.

With the last few decades being focused on soft skills within the workplace you can easily fall into this trap of over-motivating an average team into thinking they have reached greatness.  While this can give a cosy ‘feel good’ feeling within a business, ultimately the customers of the business are being let down due to poor decision making. Performance has to measured based on effectiveness to deliver to customers.  Graham Henry talks a lot about the All Blacks turning players into better young men.  Come September this year, as a customer of the All Blacks this is not the outcome I am looking for!

We live in a time where decision making has never been more important tactically and strategically for businesses. Not only are the decisions more important but they need to be made in shorter periods of time involving the dissemination of huge amounts of data.  Customers now not only have more choice when purchasing products and services they have a bigger range available on where and how these are purchased.  The move to online internet business models has challenged most business and their decision making, many are worrying that they are not ready.

The temptation has always been to look externally when there is a shortfall of knowledge and we have all done it hoping for the answer to ride in on a large white horse.  A true great team will already be there having understood the trends, identifying the short fall and gaining the required knowledge. Nobody should know your business better than you do - simple to say in a paragraph, harder to do when sitting at your desk.  I really admire a friend who has started her own online business Bubbalino and faced all the challenges around establishing a new market with the adoption of new technology. With the resources most of us have available we really have no excuse

How do we avoid telling average people that they are great?  Easy… judge them on their decision making.

^DB