Recruitment

Attention employers!

Tom Miles Associate Director, Accounting & Finance

Kristine Rosales Recruitment Consultant, Sales

Do you need someone to hit the ground running (BIG), or is it better to hire for future development (SMALL)? This is the question that all senior leaders are pondering at the moment, especially when they have to pay well above market for talent . Three conscious factors decide whether hiring BIG or SMALL is better: Money, Resource and Time. It’s a complex balancing act of weighing up Risk vs Reward and certainly far from a perfect science. Now try looking at this through a slightly different lens. A Managers objectives: Most senior leaders are typically on a three-year roadmap. Year 1 - establish and build; year 2 – results; year 3 - succession and continuity planning. If you are at the start of this roadmap, you may be more likely to hire for the future as you have time to develop others. If you are towards the end of the roadmap, you may be more inclined towards succession planning in your absence and therefore looking for someone who can impact quickly. Your Financial horizon: Your financial objectives may be to get immediate results, or they may be stretched over a medium to long-term horizon. This is a significant factor in deciding to hire BIG or hire SMALL. The loss in productivity while you develop someone and the cost impact on your own time should never be overlooked. If you measure productivity over time, how long will you wait before you hit break even and start recouping costs? Every headcount is a cost, some more than others. Planning around your financial horizon is essential in every hire you make. Retention: Retention is the final consideration. What if you sacrifice your time and effort to develop talent, and just as they hit their stride, they get poached? Would you have been better off just hiring BIG from the start and maximising the immediate return early to free up your time to focus on your short-term objectives? My advice to any hiring manager is simply know what you need to deliver and by when, and build the profile of your perfect candidate from there. Decide if you want to invest upfront (and how much) or over time (and how long). There is no perfect science to this, but if you state these objectives honestly and clearly to candidates , you will hire the right people. If you would like to have a conversation about recruiting the right people for your organisation, please reach out to me at Morgan Consulting via: ✉️ rshukla@morganconsulting.com.au 📱 0406 772 286 For more insights, news, career opportunities and job vacancies, follow us on LinkedIn .

For obvious reasons, recruitment can be quite stressful for any hiring manager. Still, there are actions you can take to make it a much more seamless process and ultimately save you a lot of unnecessary headaches!

This article originally appeared on the RCSA website and has been reproduced in part with their permission. The full article can be viewed here . When the global pandemic struck Australian shores, it gave many businesses like 25-year-old recruitment agency Morgan Consulting an opportunity to reflect on how their business operated. From working at home to hybrid working arrangements, it soon became apparent as COVID restrictions eased that the five-day week was at risk of becoming antiquated. Morgan Consulting, which has offices in Melbourne CBD, Sydney and Scoresby , learnt a lot from working through the pandemic and decided to forge a new path – introducing a work four days, get paid for five model. What began as a formal trial has quickly been adopted as the company’s work model. Speaking to The Brief, Morgan Consulting Managing Director Marc Richardson and CEO Andrew Aston spoke about their company’s refreshed approach to the work week and revealed how staff have reacted to the new, unmandated work model. “We came out of the COVID lockdowns with some very clear opportunities for change; so, we used it as an opening to not only refresh our business brand and technology but also started to think what the ideal recruitment agency would look like,” Andrew said. As part of the company’s mental health initiatives during the peak of the pandemic, reduced work days were offered to staff, an offer Andrew said was well received. When the office was in full operation again, being paid for Friday but taking the day off, was offered as an option for staff – with no strings attached. “I think today people are looking for greater integration between life and work, so before we implemented the four-day work week we looked at different business models in Australia and overseas,” Marc said. “Research tells us working four days and getting paid for five actually led to an increase in productivity.” Even though a long weekend is now an option, not everyone has signed up to the idea. Marc said this wasn’t a surprise. “You’re always going to get people who will work five days a week and that’s the way they like it. Our approach is not a mandatory requirement,” he said. “The key to our methodology is an option and our staff have a choice on how they want to utilise their Friday as they wish.” Andrew echoed Marc’s sentiments. “We allow our staff to plot their own course – it’s a choice and they have really risen to occasion,” Andrew said. “They feel empowered and feel trusted to be able to position the hours however they want.” While introducing flexible Fridays has been an overwhelming success for the Morgan Consulting team , there were a few wrinkles to iron out. “When we first started doing this, there were things that we didn’t think about and naturally it came to the surface – not really challenges or issues but things we had to work through,” Marc said. “For instance, if you are taking annual leave – a week is five days not four days per se.” When asked whether they would recommend the work four, paid five model to other businesses, the duo acknowledge ‘it may not work for everyone’. “It worked for us because we are an outcomes focused business,” Marc said. “In my opinion, a four-day week is not suitable for every business. It will need to be considered on a case-by-case basis; but I think it’s certainly worth reviewing if it will suit your business model and staff.”

We all know that you have to have the right people in the right roles to achieve great success.