<h4>An interview might be largely about your potential employer finding out more about you and whether you are the best fit for the role they are trying to fill, but it is also an opportunity for you to find out more about them and whether they are going to best help you to progress in your career.&nbsp;</h4><img src="https://d3jh33bzyw1wep.cloudfront.net/s3/W1siZiIsIjIwMTcvMDIvMTQvMTAvNTcvMDMvMjU2L0tpbGxlciBRdWVzdGlvbnMgSW1hZ2UuanBnIl0sWyJwIiwidGh1bWIiLCI2MDB4NDAwXHUwMDNlIl1d" alt="W1siziisijiwmtcvmdivmtqvmtavntcvmdmvmju2l0tpbgxlcibrdwvzdglvbnmgsw1hz2uuanbnil0swyjwiiwidgh1bwiilci2mdb4ndawxhuwmdnlil1d">The chance for you to ask questions will usually come at the end of your interview, and it is good practise to have at least two questions prepared that you would like to ask. Your questions should reiterate your interest in the role and your desire to succeed within it, and show that you have done your research. If you do not have any questions ready to ask, you run the risk of your interviewer thinking that you are not that interested or committed. Truly dedicated candidates will think of additional questions that they would like to ask, just in case some are answered during the interview itself.You should bear in mind that really strong questions to ask will be focused and open-ended. Try and avoid those that have simple “yes” or “no” answers and also those that are so wide-ranging that they are difficult to answer. Remember that you are still trying to develop a good relationship and build up a rapport.If you are unsure of what it is a good idea to ask during an interview, we have some tried and tested examples:1.)&nbsp;Why did you choose to work for this company?This may seem like a relatively simple question, but asking your interviewer for their own personal insight will give you a greater feel for what the company culture is like. Hearing a first-hand account will really help you to decide if the position/ the company is right for you. You could even ask this question during the interview, as it is very common for interviewers to ask candidates why they have been attracted to their company over others (just make sure you ask AFTER having provided your answer!).2.)&nbsp;What are the greatest opportunities that the department/ company currently has?Asking this may help you to discern where and what the company will be focusing on and developing in the immediate future. It will also demonstrate your drive to take advantage of any opportunities that you may be presented with.3.)&nbsp;What are the greatest challenges that the department/ company is currently faced with?Opposing this, it might be helpful for you to enquire about challenges. Doing so can make you more aware of any issues and trends in the industry. Additionally, describing them as “challenges” rather than “difficulties” automatically puts more of a positive stance on it and show your potential employer that you see it not a negative thing, but as an opportunity to improve, and that you can assist in them doing so.4.)&nbsp;How do you measure the performance of someone in this role?This question will display your eagerness to work hard and prove yourself and gives a good example of the fact that you will work hard. A candidate who is already looking to grow and improve within the company will always be looked upon favourably.5.)&nbsp;What do you think this company will look like in 5 years time?This will show your interviewer that you are genuinely interested in the company itself, not just the role you are interviewing for. It will also further solidify your commitment to them in their minds. If you are hoping to be with the company for the long-term, you want to make sure that the company will continue to grow and develop so that you can grow and develop with it.6.)&nbsp;What would you expect from someone in this role in the first 30 days/ 6 months/ year?You will be particularly glad of having asked this question if you are successful, as you will know what your employer expects you to achieve after starting. It will also show your interviewer that you are the type of person who plans ahead and works towards clear goals in an organised manor: a desirable trait in a potential new employee!7.)&nbsp;What do you think are the most important qualities needed to excel in this job?Asking this can give you an invaluable insight to what the expectations are for not only the role, but the team you will be working within as well. You will most likely glean information that is not in the job description and this can then help you to further show that you are a strong fit.8.)&nbsp;Could you describe what the company culture is like?It is one thing to know that you are a good fit for the company in terms of skillset and experience, but it is also important to know that it is a good match for you on a personal level as well. Try and gain an understanding of whether you will be happy and comfortable with the dynamic and the culture of the business, so you know that both you and they will be a good fit across the board.9.)&nbsp;What concerns would you have about progressing my application further?This is a very direct question that not everyone will feel completely comfortable and confident in asking, but in the majority of situations, your interviewer will both appreciate and respect your direct approach. By identifying any concerns they may be having, you can take appropriate measures to target them and try to dispel any doubts. Even if you end up being unsuccessful overall, having an answer to this question will help you to improve moving forward.10.)&nbsp;What is the standard route of progression for someone in this role?Asking this will give you some insight as to whether the company generally tends to promote from within and how internal advancement works. It will show your interviewer that you have a genuine interest in growing and developing within the company and that you are seeking something long-term. Just be careful that you don’t phrase it in a way that could make you sound arrogant! (So don’t ask when you can expect a promotion and a raise!).Remember: this is the part of the process where the power exchanges hands and is now held at least partially by you. Ideally, by the time you leave the room, they should have a great overall impression of you and you of them.Interviewing can be stressful and it is not always easy to know how to respond to every situation you are faced with. For further advice on preparing for and dealing with different interview scenarios, you can&nbsp;<a href="https://www.parkstreetpeople.com/campaign-3-test/master-every-interview" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(182, 0, 80); background-color: transparent;">download our FREE e-Book</a>.

10 Killer Questions to Ask Your Potential Employer By Jenny Hargreaves, 14th February 2017

<h4>The support of someone who holds a certain level of expertise within their&nbsp;field will be a huge benefit when it comes to finding the perfect hire, so it is well worth giving careful consideration to the recruiter you work with&nbsp;</h4><img src="https://d3jh33bzyw1wep.cloudfront.net/s3/W1siZiIsIjIwMTcvMDYvMjAvMTEvNDgvMTAvNDgvRW5nYWdpbmcgd2l0aCBhIHJlY3J1aXRlci5qcGciXSxbInAiLCJ0aHVtYiIsIjYwMHg0MDBcdTAwM2UiXV0" alt="W1siziisijiwmtcvmdyvmjavmtevndgvmtavndgvrw5nywdpbmcgd2l0acbhihjly3j1axrlci5qcgcixsxbinailcj0ahvtyiisijywmhg0mdbcdtawm2uixv0">When looking to make a new hire, you undoubtedly want to find someone who is the best fit for the role, the team and your organisation. With more and more candidates joining the global workforce on a daily basis, finding the right individual can sometimes seem like an arduous task. Recruiters are here to do their best to make the process much quicker and easier for you, so that you can get on with what needs to be done in your day job. The need to hire the best possible person in the market should be your top priority: adding value and quality to every team gives the business the greatest chance of success!Engaging a recruiter can be highly beneficial for your business: it gives you the opportunity to work with someone who has a vast width and depth of knowledge, it removes a great amount of stress from your shoulders and it is also a way of ensuring that you are meeting with the best candidates available. It is of utmost importance, then, that the recruiter you are supported by is an expert within their respective field. Therefore, before you engage, there are certain questions that are worth assessing:1.) Do you know exactly what you need in the person you are looking to hire?Time is the most precious resource of all, and spending time interviewing people who will not add value or whom can’t be hired makes no sense at all. The entire process will be sped up tenfold and made much easier if you have a clear idea of the sort of individual you want. Some employers may think that giving a recruiter such a detailed and specific list of requirements will make their job a lot harder: whilst this sometimes is true, in the long run, you will have a much higher success rate if they know exactly what they are searching for. It is counter-productive to be ambiguous about what you need, and it will be frustrating for both parties if you are being sent multiple candidates who are then rejected. Not to mention the job satisfaction is far greater when a unicorn is found!2.) Have all stakeholders involved in the hire agreed what is required?Whilst it’s positive that the right role is identified, all parties involved in the hire need to be onboard with the key qualities and skills which are needed. Teamwork really does make the dream work, so it is imperative that everyone involved is in harmony as to what is needed in a new member of staff. For team to work together successfully, there needs to be a sense of synergy, and this can only be achieved through good communication and shared goals.3.) Do you have a framework to interview from to create consistency?Having a structure to work around before starting an interview process is key to consistently analysing who is the best suited candidate for a role. From a candidate’s perspective, if the hiring process feels disorganised or non-committal, they are going to have doubts about joining the organisation. Furthermore, if multiple candidates who are all up for the same position are not being assessed in the same way, you will struggle to get a true and realistic indication as to whom is best suited.4.) Have you looked internally first?All companies should assess internal talent first; this creates a culture where people know they will be given the opportunity for progression if they are performing well. Staff retention is important in any business: you will struggle with this if strong employees feel they are being overlooked for opportunities. It is always good to advertise internally in the first instance, as you open the role up to people who are already a good culture fit and who know the business model and ethos well.This could also mean looking in other teams and departments: skills are often transferable. There may be excellent talent hiding in plain sight, don’t overlook it! The majority of soft skills are interchangeable and there is a good chance that there will be people in other departments who are keen to broaden their horizons and explore other opportunities within the business. If you discount this possibility, you may well find that your staff start to look elsewhere.5.) Analyse your current market to assess how challenging it will be to engage with the right talent externally.Never go into a search blindly: if you know a market is competitive, it will allow you to adapt your methodology of how you look to source to ensure you get to the right talent quickly. As an example, if you are hiring a German Internal Sales Rep and typically always advertise first, analyse the market you are advertising in and for. If you see that a lot of your competitors are looking for the same skills but are getting few to no applications, this won’t be your best route to market.6.) Create an external strategy to ensure you are engaging with all candidates&nbsp;in&nbsp;the market not only the ones&nbsp;on&nbsp;the market.A blended recruitment strategy is required to ensure you don’t miss the right talent to take your business forward. Having one specialist recruiter managing the entire process for you means that they will truly get involved and will quickly become familiar with how your individual process operates and what character traits will and won’t work well for you.In addition to this, engaging with the right specialist recruiter can give your hiring process momentum. They will have a network of people that can quickly be utilised to your advantage, from candidates that they know are looking, to following up on head-hunting leads, to pursuing great recommendations made by others within their network.7.) Before speaking to a recruiter, do your due diligence to ensure you are speaking to the right supplier for your company.A niche recruiter should always have a deeper knowledge and network in their specific area. Utilising a company such as this may be more expensive, but it significantly increases your chances of identifying the right calibre of person in the quickest possible time. I like to use the analogy of choosing to go to a restaurant: whilst going to a fast food restaurant is quick and generally cheap, it’s more likely your food’s not going to be the best quality. If you go to a fine dining restaurant, you go with the expectation that the meal is going to take longer and will be more expensive, but that the end quality will always be of a much higher standard. Ultimately, they both serve food but it’s a very different experience.8.) Meet with the recruiterA dedicated recruiter will always want to meet their client before starting an assignment: we want to get under the skin of what makes you tick, what type of profile will genuinely make a difference to your business and most importantly, get a feel for the culture and the type of personal qualities that are needed to really compliment your team. This is much harder to analyse over the phone! An hour spent conversing face-to-face with a recruitment partner is likely to save many hours of unnecessary interviewing further down-the-line. In addition to this, we also want to represent your business in the exact manner you would when we speak to a prospective employee on your behalf: if we are not doing this, great talent could be lost from the hiring process, which will be detrimental to the quality of your shortlist.In short, it is key that the recruiter is a strong match for the client, and vice versa. When you are looking to make a new hire, it is important to know exactly what you are looking for and to have all involved parties in agreement with regards to this. The support of someone who holds a certain level of expertise within their respective field will be a huge benefit when it comes to finding the perfect hire, so it is well worth pursuing your options and giving careful consideration to the recruiter you choose to engage with.&nbsp;

8 Key Steps to Take Before You Engage a Recruiter

<h4>Many great organisations understand the importance of having a plan in-place when the worst-case scenario happens; your top performing employee or manager leaves the company.&nbsp;</h4><img src="https://d3jh33bzyw1wep.cloudfront.net/s3/W1siZiIsIjIwMTYvMTEvMTgvMTYvMzYvMDMvMzE1L1NvdXRoYW1wdG9uLVdhbGxwYXBlcnMtSEQuanBnIl0sWyJwIiwidGh1bWIiLCI2MDB4NDAwXHUwMDNlIl1d" alt="W1siziisijiwmtyvmtevmtgvmtyvmzyvmdmvmze1l1nvdxroyw1wdg9ulvdhbgxwyxblcnmtsequanbnil0swyjwiiwidgh1bwiilci2mdb4ndawxhuwmdnlil1d">This can leave a gaping hole in the business which at best can slow down business / team performance and at worst, rip the heart out of the company causing many other people to leave.Football (or soccer for any US readers) is possibly one of the worst sectors for retention with managers / coaches being fired at the first sign of trouble and players breaking contracts on a consistent basis. Worse still, it is incredibly rare to see clubs having the foresight to put together a clear, concise succession plan to not only cope with the loss of key personnel but to then thrive off the back of it.The excellent BBC article on&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37954971" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(182, 0, 80); background-color: transparent;">Southampton FC</a>&nbsp;demonstrates a business which has identified its position in their market. They understand they are not the biggest name who don’t pay the highest salaries or will win awards and trophies. They also know their manager and players are likely to be targets for those with bigger budgets.Despite this, through using a highly analytical approach, they have adopted a long-term succession plan which ensures they always have numerous, well-researched options who will fit to the style of their team and the culture of their club.In the commercial business world, there are companies who have fantastic internal teams who know their sector like the back of their hand. The crucial part though is how much are you engaging with your future employees before you actually need to bring them into a formal interview process? If your employer brand is not as well known, it is critical you are building that pipeline of engaged talent who will be knocking on your door if you need them. Always be interviewing!Creating a long-term succession plan and building an engaged talent pipeline is definitely not an overnight tactic; it is time consuming and requires a leadership team who are consistently looking ahead. To prevent this becoming as much of a necessity, focusing on employee retention and engagement strategies will help to reduce staff churn.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.parkstreetpeople.com/campaign-2/9-key-tips-to-improve-your-employee-retention" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(68, 32, 47); background-color: transparent;">Please find our latest report on nine key areas to implement for a successful employee retention strategy.</a>

A first-class lesson in succession planning and talent pipelining (from the world of football)

<h4>In a recent blog, we looked at the true costs of poor employee retention. Before looking to implement wider, employee retention strategies, it is crucial to analyse the current state of play within the organisation.&nbsp;</h4><img src="https://d3jh33bzyw1wep.cloudfront.net/s3/W1siZiIsIjIwMTYvMTEvMDcvMTAvMzAvMjYvODI5L3N0YWZmIHJldGVudGlvbi5qcGciXSxbInAiLCJ0aHVtYiIsIjYwMHg0MDBcdTAwM2UiXV0" alt="W1siziisijiwmtyvmtevmdcvmtavmzavmjyvodi5l3n0ywzmihjldgvudglvbi5qcgcixsxbinailcj0ahvtyiisijywmhg0mdbcdtawm2uixv0">Without knowing the business challenges which impact retention, you cannot guarantee that anything you implement will actually add value.<h5>Creating a simple five&nbsp;step analysis plan</h5>Following this straightforward planwill&nbsp;give&nbsp;you an outline to use when looking to analyse the current retention challenges within your entire organisation however its is just as suitable if you wish to focus&nbsp;within a segmented team or&nbsp;division.&nbsp;1.&nbsp;Assess the overall business to ascertain staff turnover levels<ul><li>Knowing these figures gives you a benchmark to work from across the whole business</li><li>Analyse over a consistent period; every 12 months over 3 years is a good timeframe</li></ul>How to calculate staff turnover<ul><li>Decide on the period you will assess for (typically annual but can be any length of time)</li><li>Find out the average number of employees within the business during this period</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Eg. 120 staff at beginning &amp; 136 staff at end (over 12 month assessed period)</li><li class="ql-indent-1">120 + 136 / 2 = 128 (average staff size)</li><li>To calculate the staff turnover of the business, you now divide the amount of leavers by the average staff size</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Eg. 24 leavers in 12 month / 128 staff = 18.75% staff turnover</li></ul>2.&nbsp;Segment every department / division and then assess each specific team’s current turnover levels<ul><li>This is critical; without assessing each department, you cannot address retention issues which are specific to an isolated group within the business</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Every team is different and an organisation could be stable around the 10% mark in all departments except one which hits 40%</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Having this information allows for a targeted retention strategy specific to the team which is having problems</li><li class="ql-indent-1">It also allows deeper analysis to be conducted to assess why other teams are stable but this one is not</li></ul>3.&nbsp;Analyse who are the top performers within each department<ul><li>How long have they worked within the organisation?</li><li>Identify why they have been committed to the organisation?</li><li>What has their career path looked like so far?</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Your aim with this task is to know the strengths and weaknesses of a team and to assess who are key members of staff within your retention strategy</li><li class="ql-indent-1">A great retention plan will motivate those who are succeeding to want to commit to the business on a longer-term basis but will also inspire under-performers to want to improve their own performance to show their value to the organisation</li></ul>4.&nbsp;Critically analyse old employee exit interviews (start conducting these if they are not being done)<ul><li>What specific issues did they highlight in their reasons for leaving the company?</li><li>Have these issues been addressed since that meeting?</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Ex-employees leave a trail of information to glean from; if you are serious about improving retention levels, knowing and then acting on their feedback can have a significant impact to your existing team</li></ul>5.&nbsp;Create an anonymous employee satisfaction survey and aim to get feedback from all departments<ul><li>This task is designed to get to know how all your current employees are feeling</li><li>It should be anonymous to allow employees to give feedback with confidence so as not to impact their current standing in the organisation</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Simple surveys can be created for free using services such as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">SurveyMonkey</a></li><li class="ql-indent-1">Most importantly, do not take the feedback to heart; negative comments are almost more useful than positive ones when assessing employee satisfaction. If you do not know the issues you currently have, how are you supposed to resolve them?</li><li class="ql-indent-1">Collate survey feedback to create a master list of ‘areas to improve’. Even working through this list before implementing wider-reaching retention strategies will immediately improve your work culture, which in turn will drive down long-term recruitment costs.</li></ul><h4>Where are you now?</h4>If you have conducted this five step plan, you will now have all the following information:<ul><li>Your overall staff turnover levels</li><li>Departmental staff turnover levels</li><li>A hierarchy of performance on a divisional level</li><li>A list of historical business issues highlighted by your old employees</li><li>Critical feedback from your existing team (positive and negative)</li></ul>This data is invaluable in assessing many areas within your organisation. From the overall business culture to specific team issues, you will now be able start identifying why you are losing key employees which is driving up your total recruitment spend. With this information, you are now ready to start creating an employee retention strategy which can be focused on a micro (departmental) or macro (companywide) scale.<h4><a href="http://www.parkstreetpeople.com/campaign-2/9-key-tips-to-improve-your-employee-retention" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(182, 0, 80); background-color: transparent;">Download our latest eBook on 9 key areas to focus on to significantly improve your employee retention levels</a>.</h4>

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10 Killer Questions to Ask Your Potential Employer By Jenny Hargreaves, 14th February 2017

8 Key Steps to Take Before You Engage a Recruiter

A first-class lesson in succession planning and talent pipelining (from the world of football)

Analysis of staff retention; a five step plan