Skye Recruitment named Australia's 12th fastest growing company

Celebrations all round for Skye Recruitment this week, as we were named Australia's 12th fastest growing company on the BRW Fast 100 2010 list.

The BRW Fast 100 ranks companies with up to 200 staff according to their average annual turnover growth over three years.

To be listed as the 12th fastest growing company in Australia is a massive achievement for us, and we're excited about taking another step closer to our goal of being the number one technical agency in Australia.

We are continually striving to provide the highest quality service to our customers, and to add value in all our business dealings.

We love to hear from you, so let us know what else you would like us to be doing! You can contact us on info@skyerecruitment.com

How to write a good online ad

A recent ANZ survey showed that job advertising on the internet rose by 0.8% last month, compared with a 1.9% decline in job advertisements in major metropolitan newspapers in Australia. The internet has become a great resource for companies looking to hire, and is often a first port of call for job-seekers considering a change of job.

It is relatively cheap and easy to advertise on most of the generalist job boards and most recruitment agencies, along with many major companies, have rolling contracts for bundles of advertisements that they can place with the boards each month. As any job-seeker can attest, the quantity is there but the quality is often sadly lacking.

So how do you make your ad stand out from all the others? How do you make it searchable, attractive, and of a high enough standard to encourage people to apply? The following can be taken as a guide to increasing the value of your ad, and decreasing the risk of damage to your brand.

Proof read before you submit

Sounds obvious? Take a look at any one of the major job boards and it is apparent that not everyone is doing this. Poor spelling and grammar not only damages your brand, but can also prevent your job from appearing in candidate searches.

Don't abbreviate words

Candidates search on complete phrases and job titles. If you have "Snr Eng Mgr" (for example), then your job will not appear if a candidate types in "Senior Engineering Manager" as a search.

Always list salary

Statistics show that you will get more applications if you do. Often advertisers are afraid to do this in case they put people off with a salary that doesn't meet their expectations. Often salaries are flexible, and a company is willing to pay more for someone with great experience. However, if you want to maximise your chance of people applying then you need to at least put a ballpark salary range in your ad. You can use the main text of your ad to explain that the salary is flexible, and that higher rates may be considered for candidates with higher levels of experience.

Don't be cliched

Avoid phrases such as ‘think outside the box’, and ‘dynamic’ - be original. Studies from MyCareer have shown that application rates decrease when an advertiser uses the word 'exciting' in their advert. Try to be a bit different.

Break it up

Job-seekers will not be inclined to wade through hefty paragraphs of text (especially if they are having a quick browse from their desk while at work). Keep it short, use bullet points, and get to the point.

Don't be too specific

Try to change your 'must haves' to 'nice to haves' in order to widen the pool of applicants you will receive. E.g., instead of "You must have experience working on $200m projects, and be degree qualified" try "You will have experience working on high value projects, and a degree would be advantageous."

Does this mean you will get applications from hopelessly unqualified people who will waste your time? Yes. But you will get those anyway. You are trying to include the Project Manager who has worked on (say) $150m projects, has a nearly-finished degree, with lots of great experience, who is otherwise perfect for your company.

Of course there will always be some essential criteria for your role, and I am not suggesting you ditch these. But review each item carefully - would you consider someone who was perfect in all regards other than possessing Skill X/ Qualification Y? Could you train them/ get them qualified if everything else was perfect? If so, that item is not a 'must have'.

Use the summary section wisely

The summary section is common to most of the major job boards. It's a 150 character snapshot of what your job is about, and job-seekers then click through to find out more. The only purpose of this section is to attract a job-seeker into clicking through to the main body of your advert. So think about what will make them do that! They need information about the job, so they know if it's (roughly) relevant to them, and they need to be tempted in with something appealing.

Often advertisers are very vague in this section, and summaries can get littered with over-used adjectives that reveal nothing of the job or the company, e.g., "Exciting opportunity for dynamic individual. Career progression!" This does not stand out in a list of similar summaries, and the job-seeker could be wasting their time by clicking through further. By being specific you will be more likely to attract the person you want. E.g.,"$2b infrastructure project. Roads and drainage experience needed. Opportunity to advance to lead role."

Get with the times

Gone are the days of the dry position description doubling up as an advert. Your advert should not feature a series of hurdles that the successful candidate has to be able to navigate in order to apply. If you want to attract good applicants then don't put them off! Remember who you are writing to. Don't make it all about you and what you need! Tell them what they get out of it too. And benefits don't have to just be salary related. What about training opportunities, ability to travel, the chance to mentor junior staff? There are lots of things that will appeal to a potential applicant. What do you love about that company? Why are you there?

Be legal

Be careful to ensure that your ad does not feature anything that could be viewed as direct or indirect discrimination. You cannot (for example) advertise for Australians only, or state that you need "a young go-getter". There is more on avoiding discrimination here.

Finally...

Treat your applicants nicely. One of the biggest complaints from online applicants is that they never hear back about their application. Ensure you have a system in place that will acknowledge receipt of all applications (either automatically or personally), and will advise applicants of the next step. This may be as simple as telling applicants that if they have not heard by a certain date then they were not successful, and providing contact details if they want feedback.

It can be difficult to manage high volumes of applications, but ensuring that all applicants are acknowledged and are not left in doubt about their success (or otherwise) will leave a good impression. The person who is not right today may be great tomorrow, and may know others who are great. Ensure you leave them feeling good about your company, and with no reason not to recommend you to others.

Should you be friends (or more) with your co-workers?

We spend much of our lives at work, and often spend more hours per week with our co-workers than we do with family or friends. Some say that being friends with colleagues helps the day pass faster, and creates a nicer work environment, but others swear that mixing personal and professional lives is a recipe for disaster.

I once worked for a company that had a policy banning inter-office relationships. The company even went as far as fining couples who had been found to offend, with a direct deduction from each pay packet that was then donated to a charity of the offender's choosing. A violation of all sorts of ethical (not to mention legal) rights? Sure! But, dubious company policy aside, should you become friends (or more) with your workmates?

My opinion, as someone who met her (now) husband at work and subsequently co-founded a company with him, is absolutely yes. But with some caveats.

Below I have listed the most common objections to personal relationships in the workplace, and my replies to them:

Staff will spend all day chatting/ gazing romantically at each other, and not do any work.

Well - maybe. But this is a behavioural issue, not a relationship one. Staff who never meet outside of the office can still spend all day gossiping about their terrible boss/ partner from hell/ crazy weekend, and flirtatious behaviour/ staff getting distracted by the attractive person in Accounts are also highly possible without a relationship needing to exist. If there is a problem with the way in which staff are behaving then this needs to be addressed as a separate issue. Staff should behave professionally at work, and do their jobs properly, regardless of relationships outside of work.

Other staff members may feel excluded by a relationship, or may feel that there is favouritism at work.

Again this comes down to how the situation is managed. I would agree that there are situations where it would be inappropriate for there to be a close relationship between a manager and a direct report - particularly when it comes to performance review times, pay rises, and disciplinaries. If a relationship evolves between two such people then the best solution would be for those involved to sit down with another manager and discuss how this should be handled in the office. It may be decided by all parties that the best solution is for one person to transfer to a different department or, in some cases, to move on to a new company.

If the hierarchy is not an issue, but it is the case that others are feeling put out, then you (as manager) need to review the situation. Are the friendly pair/ group behaving professionally and maintaining pleasant working relationships with other staff? Yes? Then perhaps this is just a case of office gossip that needs to be ignored, or the complainants dealt with. Are the friendly pair/ group behaving in a cliquey way/ excluding or singling out others, or giving each other preferential treatment? Yes? Once again the behaviour (not the relationship) needs to be dealt with.

They will bring their arguments/ pet names into the office.
Why would they? Again this is down to you to ensure that staff know what behaviours are acceptable and what behaviours are unacceptable within your workplace.

When the relationship breaks up then one of them will have to leave.

Not necessarily. There are numerous reasons as to why a relationship or friendship breaks down, and not all of them are acrimonious. Even if they are, then it may be possible to transfer a worker to a different area where they will have less contact with that person. You may be thinking that this would be highly inconvenient, and exactly WHY you don't want the relationships forming, but the bottom line is that you cannot control every person's feelings toward each other. Colleagues with no relationship at all can form a dislike for each other, and these are issues that will always need to be dealt with when you employ human beings. And if someone leaves then that may be the best thing for them and for you. You cannot stop someone from making a decision based on personal reasons.

I don't want my colleagues/ employees to lose respect for me if they get to know me outside of work.

Ah yes... You have spent many years crafting a carefully styled image of the professional version of you. The professional you has great hair, dresses well, is intelligent, articulate, and emanates a quiet authority wherever you go. However, after dark, the personal you emerges. This person wears trackie pants, and slobs on the sofa eating pizza and watching trashy TV. This version of you gets drunk and sings karaoke, and says silly things. You are convinced that if your colleagues/ boss/ employees ever saw you like this then they would lose all respect for you straight away, and realise that you are not the slightly intimidating career dynamo that they first thought.

Well... So what? Maybe they would be a bit surprised at first, but maybe they would then realise that you are human too. Maybe they would like you better for it. Maybe they would feel that they knew you better. There is, of course, a limit here. I am not suggesting that all behaviours are a good idea in front of your boss/ staff/ colleagues. I am simply saying that maybe you should relax a little, and that it doesn't always hurt for people to get to know you - ALL versions of you - better. Just because you like a few glasses of wine at the weekend, it doesn't mean that you're not excellent at your job. The only time I would have a problem with an employee's extra curricular life is where it impacted on their behaviour and reputation at work. I consider several employees to be friends, but we all know when we are at work and when we are at play.

I don't want to be friends with colleagues on Facebook.

Well then don't! Tell them that you have a policy of not friending work people. But I would also suggest that you take a good look at your Facebook page, and make sure you are not posting anything that you would mind work people/ bosses/ customers seeing. Nothing is private on Facebook, so only publish information or photos that you are happy for the world to see. Oh - and don't invite junior workers/ direct reports to be your friends on Facebook. It puts them in a horrible position. Many people are reluctant to be friends with their boss on Facebook, but how do you tell the boss that you've ignored their friend request? If you're the boss then it's nicer to wait to be asked.

So, to sum up - I say go for it. Be yourself at work, but be the best version of yourself that you can be. Be friends with your co-workers, because we could all use more friends, and it does make the working environment nicer when people know and trust each other. Fall in love! But don't throw your judgement out of the window. Be professional, treat people nicely, and never forget that you are at work. Don't put co-workers in a difficult position by telling them confidential info. Don't say anything that you may regret on a Monday. Treat your company with respect. Apply common sense. Lastly, behave!!