In today’s competitive business world, companies tend to be more willing to hire people that can bring future growth to the business rather than just increase its productivity.

That’s why the majority of companies are inclined to hire those who come with more desirable work skills that can match the targets and requirements of the organisation. For those who want to get the job they have always been dreaming of, it is very important to be familiar with the skills that the organisation is looking for.

Deciding what you should do in life is a real challenge. This has never been truer than nowadays, given the variety of opportunities and with every career looking more attractive than the last. This makes it difficult to know precisely what it is you would like to do.

Your skills should complement the right job

Skills are about what you can do effectively. The true secret to finding the best job in any company is knowing your skills, in addition to communicating their value to a potential employer, both in written and verbal format.

The majority of workable skills are those that can be widely used. In many different work settings. You should find out exactly what these types of skills are. Can you match your skills to the right job?

Determine your abilities and competencies. This could lead you to becoming the frontrunner to get the position. Having a specific skill doesn’t mean that you have to have used it in the workplace. If this is your first search for work and you haven’t had much experience up to now, your skills are likely to be what provide you with a way in.

You can group most skills, such as those which are knowledge-based, transferable, acquired through being a volunteer, a student, a homemaker, or as part of another activity. The relevant skills that you’ve used for these types of activities certainly have the potential to be transferable to your ideal job.

When you organise and list your individual skills, it can help you quickly complete job applications, provide helpful details for job interviews, and enable you to put together high-quality résumés.

First, it is best to categorise skill sets by separating your hobbies and aptitudes from your work experience.

Aptitudes, interests and hobbies. Included in this are your hobbies and interests, activities you’ve been a part of and everything which interests you. Simply by listing these, you are able to identify the skills that you have that you can use to get the right job.

Employment history. This includes all of your freelance, volunteer, part-time, full-time and summer jobs. After you have detailed all of your previous employment, analyse what skills you have needed to use in order to perform well in each job role.

Ask for support. Once you have prepared your list, you can head to the job agencies or centres that can help you get your ideal job. However, you may choose to look for a job yourself. Even so, never forget to match your skills and abilities to those required in the jobs you apply for.

At this point, you might have submitted a general job application or a skills profile on the Internet, or even applied for a number of roles you have seen listed.

But hang on a minute, perhaps there are other things that you can do to find the right job? In reality, the more varied and general your job searching strategies are, the more successful you are likely to be. 

First, you need to get in touch with the professional companies in your chosen industry. Specialist local and regional jobs establishments and/or agencies can be found in many cities. They help people with career improvement and also job searches. Several of these establishments also provide up-to-date, industry-specific job listings on their Internet sites or in their published materials.

Next, check out lots of businesses and company websites. Many companies and organisations publish their job opportunities directly on their sites. A far more direct way is to apply directly to the companies that interest you. You can deliver a well-crafted cover letter straight to the recruitment department or to the person responsible for recruitment selection. 

Networking is important to successful job searching strategies. It is claimed that close to 85% of job opportunities are filled by way of networking. You should speak to your acquaintances. Remember when one job application fails, there are many other job openings.

In many instances, those who search for work are intimidated by job titles. This really should not be the case. Provided that your skills and abilities can match the specifications of the job requirements, your chances of finding the right job increase.

The rate at which staff leave the workforce can cost some businesses millions of pounds each year. The cost of sifting through CVs, lost work days, completing paperwork, interviewing applicants, checking references, and training a new employee is in many ways a lot more expensive than creating a workplace where workers are happy and would like to stay.

You have the option of providing attractive employee benefits if you’d like your company to retain its staff. Although this is far from compulsory, most employees will probably look at your company’s benefits package, meaning that you may need one in order to attract and keep staff.

Great organisations attract great workers. When the business offers great reward opportunities for workers at all levels, employees won’t want to look elsewhere for new job opportunities.

In case you are concerned about a fall in employee morale, here are a few things you can do to keep your workers happy and productive.

The four brilliant benefits to offer your employees are:

1. Provide bonuses. Even a very small bonus can often mean a lot. Bonuses boost morale and enhance productivity. Check out what constitutes great bonuses; these may include sales bonuses, holiday bonuses, training bonuses, and even hire date anniversary bonuses.

2. Employee retreat plan. This is a perfect time to unwind and get to know your co-workers in a social setting. The result is improved teamwork and a more productive workforce. Nevertheless, workers may not wish to spend a weekend break away from loved ones even though you put them up in a great hotel.

If this is the case you might consider one-day employee retreats, possibly twice a year. You could close your place of work and spend the day playing golf, at a health spa, eating out, at a theme park, at the zoo, watching a movie or even mountain climbing.

 3. Develop your workers. Many training centres offer reasonable and affordable coaching classes that can help workers in areas such as leadership and management skills, language skills, or computer knowledge. If a worker is happy to spend time taking one of these classes, compensate them by offering to cover a part of the training costs or providing them with a completion reward. The desire to improve and learn new skills is an attribute of a great worker.

 4. Pay for time off work. Even though you are paying your workers’ salaries, you should not count on them to do the job every single day of the year. Pay staff for sick days, to take breaks, or for emergency days off when necessary.

In reality, there are several other benefits that businesses can provide for their workers, including:

Flexible working plans. If at all possible, offer workers flexible working plans that support their needs and reduce commuting times.

Health club subscriptions. Provide subscriptions to a fitness club or even pay a yoga instructor to come in once a week after work. This can be a really pleasant way to motivate workers to keep in shape.

Include their families. An annual holiday get-together or picnic during the summer is a powerful way to bring staff together with their family members. Even a barbecue and rounders tournament can be an enjoyable experience for the whole team and their families.

Invest in new office furniture. Show your workers that you care about their safety and comfort. Who wouldn’t appreciate a top-of-the-range ergonomically adjustable office chair?

Value your staff. Apple is a good example of a company that cares deeply about its employees as well as their families. They are always thinking about new and innovative approaches to employee well-being to keep their workforce happy and motivated. They support more benefits for women with their new extended maternity leave policy, for example, along with the preservation of eggs for women who wish to focus on their careers whilst still retaining the option of starting a family.

Allow casual days. We all know that casual Fridays are great. Nevertheless, you can always select a specific casual day every month. Allow staff come to work in jeans and comfy footwear and they're bound to be in a much better mood. Try it!

Free of charge provisions. Many companies supply free coffee for their workers. You can bring in nutritious snack foods on a weekly basis, such as fresh fruit baskets, mini salads, or even bagels. Having meals delivered once every couple of weeks is also an excellent gesture and workers will appreciate the cash they save. Another idea is to have your staff make lunch every month. Involve both men and women from different sections of the organisation and make sure that top management are also involved. Workers will learn how to prepare different dishes from other staff and they’ll have a great time cooking too. And everyone can enjoy the results!

Technology is everywhere and it makes our lives so much easier in so many respects, from heating food in seconds in the microwave (considered old in technology terms these days!), to being able to talk to, and see, friends and relatives on the other side of the world, all in real time. Within milliseconds, a message can be transmitted around the globe via email. 

And the applications for this technology seem endless. Within business, technology has revolutionised so many processes and now it seems that the recruitment field is next in the long list of business tasks that technology can change the face of. With websites and companies such as Staff Bay leading the way, it is no surprise. 

Moving away from the traditional

From shopping to studying, banking to reading, technology is making life simpler and easier. Recruitment can, for some businesses, be a thorn in their side. Think back decades when companies used to advertise vacancies in shop windows… then they started to place adverts in the press… and now, the Internet is making job vacancies open to an ever-increasing audience of prospective candidates. However, it can be as much of a curse as a blessing. 

But technology can help here too. Recruitment, essential as it is, is a drain on time, money and effort – the exact three resources that are often in short supply. For micro, small or fledgling businesses, they may not have the luxury of time, effort or money to spend days advertising, processing and interviewing prospective candidates. Opting for the first person through the door is a risk; it can either backfire spectacularly or you can have an amazing success on your hands. 

But you could use technology to take away this risk – how?

• Skype Interviews

Interviews can be fun and are still a great way – in all honesty, the only way – to meet and find the right people for you. But they can be time-consuming; candidates will need to take a day or more off work, especially if there is travel involved. Businesses will need to set time aside, not just for the interviews themselves, but for the planning of them too. 

Skype could be the answer and, with most people and places having a secure and reliable Internet connection, what is there not to like about conducting an interview via Skype?

What is Skype?

It is an Internet-based telephone service that allows callers to make free or very cheap calls; this includes national and international calls. It is also possible to see the caller and recipient too, making it an effective and reliable real-time interview tool. 

• Can Google Hangout work too?

Yes, it is a similar platform to Skype that offers both instant messaging and a video chat function. Many experts see these types of platforms as being the future of telephony and the great thing about both of these services is that the majority of people already know how to access and use them.

They are free to set up and are reliable too; so if you are interviewing people from far and wide, why not experiment with either of these two real-time video chat services? You can set up your account several weeks prior to the interviews, and practise by calling your colleagues.  

However, it is not just about logging on and dialing; you will need to bear in mind the backdrop and room that you are showing to your prospective candidates. Interviewees will also need to treat it as a ‘real’ interview, dressing and acting accordingly.

• Being organised

The interview process is the final stage in what can be a long process, and it can be an organisational nightmare for some small- and medium-sized enterprises. 

Again, technology can help here with a system such as an ‘applicant tracking system’, although this does have one drawback: cost. It’s a significant investment, and unless you have plans for world domination, might be a little too heavy to invest in. 

However, there are solutions with websites such as Staff Bay. The ability to monitor and group prospective candidates means that an influx of CVs and resumes clogging your inbox is a thing of the past.

• And don’t forget social networks

The social platforms that we are all a part of can also be a technology to help many an SME effectively sort through the recruitment process, and end up at an interview process that is useful for the company – and the candidates too.

Technology can help in so many ways, and it need not be complicated or difficult to use either. Take another look and harness its true potential when it comes to the all-important interview process. 

The job market, as we know, is a competitive place. But it is not just about you attracting the right candidate with the right advert, placed in the right place at the right time; it is also about creating a positive experience for all candidates, regardless of whether they are successful in getting the job or not. 

There is also something else you want to create and that is a buzz around your company; the ‘I want to work for you’ attitude so that you really do get the cream of the crop when it comes to choice.

A positive experience says it all… even when someone doesn’t get the job

You would think this was nigh on impossible - after all, no one enjoys or goes out looking for rejection, which is essentially what happens if your quest for a job at a certain company is unsuccessful. 

But if you do give a positive experience to an unsuccessful candidate they are still highly likely to carry on liking ‘you’, with the vast majority of these people (88%, in fact) also likely to go on and buy from your company.

However, the good news doesn’t stop there; if people do have a positive experience with you they will also refer your organisation to other people – that’s a whopping 97% of them! And, if another suitable role did come up, 95% of these unsuccessful candidates would apply again. Over half of those questioned during this survey carried out in 2014 also said that they thought their experience was very good.

Why it is important to make the experience of applying for a job at your company or business a good one…

The benefits simply outweigh any disadvantages but, there are, of course, variables that can stop this experience from being excellent or very good; pressure and time constraints have their part to play. How many times have you read in a job advert, ‘if you have not heard from us in three weeks, you have been unsuccessful’? 

This is probably the worst sentence to write in to a job advert! Effectively, a company might as well say ‘we will have so many applications that we do not have the time or the resources to respond to you all’.

And so, what are the five simple steps to make a candidate desperate to work for you?

I. Communication

The survey found that communication is key. And there is no excuse for not taking part in conversation with prospective candidates in the modern technological age we live in. Social media can play its part here, as can your own website and, depending on where you advertise your company and vacancies, you can also use social media as a way to engage in conversation. 

II. Simplify

The survey conducted last year by Monster also concluded that the job application needs to be a lot simpler. The days when lengthy application forms were the norm have gone (again, probably due to the technological age we live in). Candidates are more likely to click, drag and drop!

III. Transparency

Increasingly, high calibre candidates are looking for transparency from a company regarding their culture and values. On average, did you know that candidates will spend up to two hours researching a company before they apply for a vacancy? The key information they look for is not only company values, but an indication of why they would want to work for you. They also like to know exactly what it is you do or make, and why people stay with your firm (or not, as the case may be). 

IV. Managing the process

With an average of 204 people applying for every vacancy (2013 figures), if you do advertise a vacancy, you must expect to be deluged. This is no excuse for not making contact with a prospective candidate and it is suggested that there are four interactions that fill people with confidence:

• Receiving an immediate acknowledgement when they apply

• Telling them how long the process could take

• Information on the steps of the process 

• Candidates also like to be informed that their data will be kept safe

V. On boarding – the crucial first few weeks and months

When someone new starts with your company, research suggests that if things do go wrong – in other words, the new employee leaves dissatisfied – it is the on boarding process, also known as job initiation, that has gone wrong. Many candidates who were dissatisfied during this settling-in period were quite clear as to what had gone wrong: the people who hired them were not seen during this period. There was no personal touch.

Knowing what makes a good experience is one thing, but how to create it is another:

• Rather than going for the scatter-gun approach to advertising vacancies, try to target your adverts specifically at the pool of people you want to attract.

• The right people need to be involved in the hiring process, so include the manager who will be working with the candidate when they are successful.

• Every candidate must be treated with respect and given an experience that is also high quality; after all, some of these people could also be your customers.

• A long hiring process is also highly likely to impact on how satisfied people are with your company; don’t make the process overly complicated or lengthy.

• Feedback is important for unsuccessful candidates; they have, after all, placed a lot of time and effort in applying and preparing for interview, why shouldn’t they have comprehensive and honest feedback?

Your hiring process speaks volumes about your company – what does yours say about you?