The Great Resignation – Why You Could Lose 18% of Your Staff

Jun 10, 2022 | IT, Tips

The Great Resignation is well and truly here! According to a recent survey conducted by PwC, 18% of workers cited that they are “very or extremely likely” to change jobs within the year. Plus a further 32% saying they were “moderately or slightly” like to move on. So, what’s causing this great revolt? It’s not just driven by pay, despite this being one big reason due to the cost-of-living crisis. In fact, the PwC study also found that 72% of UK workers are planning to ask for a pay rise in the next 12 months. But another important factor is job satisfaction that now scores high on an IT candidates wish list.

So, let’s look at what you can do to survive the great resignation in your company –

Review your salaries

There’s no getting away from the fact that it’s costing more to get to work than ever before. The cost-of-living is increasing at an alarming rate and people are looking for ways to cope. By reviewing your salaries across the board, you may be able to secure more staff. Get your teams together and ask about their concerns about the cost-of-living crisis. Taking a proactive approach in this situation may create more loyalty from your team. Also – acting early may mean that you actually save money. The increases we are experiencing are not likely to go away for a while. In fact, it’s more likely that they will continue to increase. It’s possible that your team will expect a more significant pay rise the later in the year you deal with it. It’s certainly something to consider.

If you are looking for guidance on salaries, we can help. Each month we produce an IT Salary Guide that shows you the latest average salaries for the most popular jobs in IT.

Look at your company culture

Was your company culture affected during lockdown? What steps did you take to ensure that the culture was still attractive to your teams? There have been some significant changes to the way we work together. By speaking to your teams and listening to what they have to say about the culture, you could save yourself having to replace as many people. What does your team want? Don’t assume! There’s no getting away from the fact that creating a culture in the world of hybrid working isn’t an easy task. But getting it right can make all the difference.

Flexibility can help you through the great resignation

Right now, around two-thirds of people are working remotely. This is either on a full-time or part-time basis. But it’s important to remember that offering remote working isn’t essential to a happy IT team. Flexibility is the key. Everyone will have different needs and it’s important to meet these where you can. It may be that you are more flexible with the working hours. This is particularly helpful to staff with children. Allowing later starts, or even giving time off for the school pickup, for additional hours to be completed from home. These things can make a big different to retaining your team. Think about what can work for you.

Are you offering the right rewards?

It’s more than just a strong basic salary that will secure your team. What else are you able to offer? This may be bonus payments of completion of projects. A bonus for achieving KPI’s on a helpdesk. Whatever your business will benefit from, attaching a reward is likely to not only increase productivity but also engagement too. We appreciate that not every company has a bottomless pot to keep paying out to keep their team. But some rewards don’t have to cost you more. You could offer additional holidays, memberships to platforms like PerkBox, or even a monthly social event. Again, the best way to find out what will be best received is by talking to your teams.

Learning and development

This is something our IT consultants are hearing a lot at the moment. Great candidates are considering leaving their current employer due to lack of skill building. Most candidates in IT are passionate about learning new skills. What can you do to help facilitate that? Are there courses that your teams can attend that will benefit your company? Or maybe some on the job training will help? It’s not only a great way to keep your staff engaged, it’s the ideal way to up-skill your team. This could develop into clear career progression plans. Another area that candidates are particularly interested in right now.

Start pooling candidates – no one will be unaffected by the great resignation

Despite your best efforts, it’s unlikely that you will survive without losing any of your team. But this doesn’t have to be a bad thing. It can be your opportunity to really think about the skills you want. What personality fits best with your team and company culture? But to prevent too much disruption, it’s important to be prepared. Recruiting the right candidate is taking longer than normal. Finding good candidates can be tough, but that’s not all. Counteroffers are happening more and companies are competing for the same candidates. By working with a specialist IT recruitment agency, you will be able to not only interview candidates quickly, but you’ll also know about their other opportunities and gain insights on how to secure them for your company. Get in touch with our team to see how we can help.

The Exit Interview Questions You Need to Ask

May 28, 2022 | IT, Tips

Exit interviews will be more commonplace. With one in five employees expected to change jobs this year, you may have already lost some of your team. Did you hold an exit interview? If you didn’t then you could be missing out. It’s your opportunity to find out things that need to be actioned to help improve your retention rates. No matter the size of your company, it’s likely you don’t really know how your employees are feeling. So, utilising the exit interview for an insiders view is invaluable.

But how do you make sure that you get the best out of your time? You need to carefully consider what you’d like to find out. And more importantly, what you’ll do with it.

First, let’s cover some exit interview do’s and don’ts

Exit Interview Do’s

It’s always best practice to get a member of the HR team to conduct the interview. Your employees may be more honest with HR than with a line manager or director. Your employees will need to feel comfortable that their honesty will be appreciated. It’s important that they don’t feel judged. Reassurance is also key when it comes to confidentiality. An employer is likely to share more if they know it’s not going to be widely shared.

Exit Interview Don’ts

You know the well-known phrase about making assumptions. It’s important not to assume anything. Keep an open mind and don’t allow bias, or even disappointment to creep in. Don’t email a list of questions and expect an honest response. Exit interviews should always be conducted face to face if you are to really benefit. And finally, don’t forget to say thank you. Thanks the employee for their time and their honesty. Remember, they are likely to share some of their experience with their colleagues.

Questions to ask

It’s key that you approach each exit interview individually. Having a set list of questions that you use for every employee isn’t going to give you the answer you need. However, here’s 10 examples to get you started –

• What was it that made you start to look for another role?
• Was it the salary or the culture that attracted you to this new role?
• Do you feel that you were supported in your role?
• Did you feel that you could cope with your workload? – Burnout is on the rise. This is a key question to determine if it’s a problem in your workforce
• Have you been given extra training?
• Did you receive regular feedback from your line manager? – If so, it’s good to ask if it was predominately positive or negative
• Do you feel that you have all the tools you needed to do the role?
• Is the company culture what we promote it to be?
• Do you feel that your contribution was recognised?
• What would be one thing you could change about your role?

Looking to recruit?

If you are performing an exit interview, it’s likely there’s also the need to hire. The jobs market isn’t what it used to be. With more vacancies than ever before, it’s getting harder to find the right candidates. That’s where using an agency comes in. In times like this, it’s important that you are still able to secure the best people for your role. Working with an agency can make it all a lot easier. When you choose to work with Langley James, you get to benefit from our decades of experience and network building. This is where your next hire can be found.

So, if you are looking to recruit into your IT team, get in touch with our IT recruitment experts today and let’s help you to recruit someone worth recruiting.

6 Tips to Conduct a Successful Remote Interview

Mar 4, 2022 | IT, Tips

The remote interview is here to stay! Despite final restrictions now being lifted, remote interviews are still the first choice for hiring managers and candidates. Not only does it give more flexibility to the candidates, but it also allows you to screen faster and in a more structured way. With the current IT skill shortage, reducing your time to hire can make a big difference when it comes to securing the best IT talent.

So how do you make sure that your remote interview structure is geared for success?  Here’s our guide –

Make sure your remote interview has structure

Just as you would in a face-to-face interview, it’s important to have a structure for your remote interview.  The advantage of a remote interview is that you can have an out of sight prompt to assist.  Decide what’s important and what you would like to discover from each interview stage.  Creating a defined structure will not only ensure that you stay on track.  It will also help you communicate the process with your recruiter prior to the interview.  We’ve created guides on effective interviews before and some of those tips do still apply. However, when it comes to a remote interview, there are some additional things to consider.

It’s all about communication

It’s not just the interview where communication is key.  It all starts beforehand.  When arranging remote interviews, it’s important to communicate what to expect.  You need to share some key information with your recruiter to make sure that the candidate is prepared.

• Who will be in the interview?  Will it be a team interview or individual 1-2-1`s?
• What will the candidate need to prepare?  What tech will you be using?  Are there any tasks to complete?
• Will you be expecting a screen share?

Making sure that the candidate is prepared in advance will allow them to showcase their skills to the best of their ability. Your recruiter should be asking you these questions as a matter of cause.

Be flexible when arranging a remote interview

When arranging remote interviews, it’s important to still be flexible.  There are lots of people still working from home.  But, whilst that may make you think that they are more freely available, this isn’t always the case.  Companies have implemented new remote working practices and monitoring.  It’s important to be mindful of this when arranging interviews. However, regardless of this, there’s no doubt that remote interviews are the quickest way to secure the best IT talent.

Test your tech

You’ve no doubt seen this discussed for candidates, but the same applies for companies – probably even more so – and especially in IT! You may be an expert at Zoom or Teams meetings now but testing that everything works before the interview is still good practice.  Make sure you are in a quiet area with no interruptions.  Check your battery if you are not plugged in.  Simple checks can save lots of embarrassment.

Dealing with issues during the remote interview

We’ve probably all been there.  We are in a virtual meeting and something really important is being said.  And that’s when the connection drops out.  But how do you deal with this in an interview?  Whilst your connection may be working fine, sometimes you’ll be in a situation where the candidates’ connection is poor.  This can be a stressful situation.  Not only is the candidate nervous and trying to perform the best – they don’t want to have tech issues to deal with too.  If connections are poor, then don’t waste too much time.  Suggest that the interview is rescheduled for later in the day.  Maybe the candidate can arrange to be somewhere with better connection?

The next steps

If you have stuck to the structured plan for each interview, then you should be able to score the candidates fairly.  Identify which areas are more weighted than others.  How did each candidate perform? This will help you create a shortlist for a hiring decision or a final interview. But what can you do on the second stage if it’s still a remote interview?  Why not assign a task?  Something that fits with a key competency for the role.  Or maybe even a live task – something they will be required to do if successful.

How Langley James can help

We have been helping companies to recruit the very best IT talent for over 20 years. During this time, we have learnt lots of tips that we can share with you when it comes to interviews, attraction methods and more. If you want to work with a recruiter who really knows their market and can help you recruit someone worth recruiting, get in touch with our team today.