This is mobile recruiting technology, which are recruiting apps which you install on your phone that can help you perform certain aspects of the recruiting process.

This new wave of recruiting technologies has just broke on the shores of America, (actually it originated largely from Silicon Valley). In September of last year San Francisco held the inaugural Annual Mobile Recruiting Conference and it was attended by big players such as Monster and Careerbuilder. Despite this, even US recruiters are playing catchup as figures show that while almost 70% of jobseekers would love to use their mobile phone for job and career search purposes, a mere 3% of employers are using mobile recruiting apps.

Well, as the old saying goes, what is popular in the US, will soon be popular in the UK (barring Private Health Services of course!), so mobile recruiting is set to hit the shores of the UK imminently. And so I thought it would be useful to give you a run down of some of the leading mobile recruiting apps on the market today and to explain how you might be able to use them.

1.) HireVue

This Iphone app has received a lot of good coverage in the marketplace. It allows you to prepare standardized interview questions and then send them to candidates, who can record a video response via their Iphone, at their own convenience. You are able to then watch the video at your own convenience from your mobile or from a PC. You can rate and share the candidates data with other managers via your phone.

2.)  Jobscience

This Iphone app is also being warmly received by US recruiters. It brings applicant tracking technology right into the palm of your hand. Candidates can be invited to submit their CVs to your applicant tracking system (cloud based), from your phone or PC and you can search your candidate database from your mobile phone, using powerful CV parsing technology.

3. Tungle

This is a simple but powerful app which can be used for quick and efficient interview scheduling between recruiter and candidate using their mobile phones. Its easy; recruiter sends candidate interview invite, and candidate accepts and both calendars are automatically updated. It  works with all the main mobile OS calendars.

4. Google Power search

This is my personal favourite. Why bother paying to access commercial CV databases when you can search the google database, (maybe the largest candidate database in the world?), for individuals who have voluntarily posted their CVs on-line for career advancement purposes? This is what I do all the time to find new recruits, however, it can be cumbersome as you have to use complex boolean strings to do more sophisticated searches. Google Power Search Utility is a mobile phone app with a simple interface, making it incredibly easy for you to search the google database for CVs.

5. Job Speek

You can use this app to create job listings and then post them automatically to the top job search engines like Simplyhired and Juju. You are also able to add a 60 second hiring message  to your job posting.

Several proposed changes to UK employment legislation were announced in last week’s Queen’s speech, and much of what was mentioned did not come as a surprise to many of us in the HR community. These changes are designed to reduce legislative burdens on businesses and thereby drive economic growth and have become more urgent since the UK sunk back into recession during the 1st quarter of 2012.

These proposed reductions in legislative burden are likely to be welcomed by small business leaders, but what exactly are they?

Overhaul of workplace dispute resolution system

The government is looking to makes changes to workplace dispute resolution law. These changes are supposed to enable businesses to settle employee disputes in a “more efficient and streamlined way’ than is currently offered by the tribunal system, the latter of which I believe can operate as a bit of a blunt instrument.

In practice, this will mean that potential employment tribunal claimants would make their tribunal claims to ACAS, enabling both parties to engage in conciliation ‘early on’, hopefully removing the need to go into a lengthy tribunal investigation. Compromise agreements will be renamed “settlements”.

Reforms to the Children and Families Bill

The proposed changes to the Children and Families Bill will have a significant on small business continuity. Parents will be able to swap parental leave , (currently 13 weeks leave per child under five), following the birth of a child and mothers will be able to come back to work earlier after maternity leave by transferring remaining time off to their partners.

Clearly, from an overall economic point of view this should not lead to any decline in output or staff availability, but individual businesses may lose or gain from this, despite it probably balancing itself in the long term. For example, firm A could benefit by its female staff member returning from maternity leave earlier, but firm B could lose out because its male employees elects to take maternity leave, which was previously unavailable to him.

While I do think this change is for the overall good of society, I accept this may have a negative impact of some of your small businesses, and I will be of course happy to provide consultation and advice to your business in the area.

I also think there is a plus side to reform to the Children’s and Families bill in terms of addressing issues with discrimination against women/pregnant mothers. While it may not actually change attitudes against pregnant women and work continuity, male employees will no longer be a ‘safe harbour’ when it comes to the perceived risk of going off on maternity leave. It will move towards equalling the playing field, so while not removing discrimination, both men and women may be discriminated against more equally, thereby cancelling the effect of discrimination. I hope this makes sense, and buzz me if you need clarification!

Please do contact me if you would like help in reviewing any of your HR policies.

1. Inform other employees

One of the first things you will need to do is to inform co-workers and staff ensuring to show sensitivity and compassion. This should be done relatively quickly as you do not want it to be communicated via gossip. Business Link recommends that you be as honest as you can about the cause of the death. In terms of how you might communicate the bad news, you should ideally tell those closest to the employee first, and try to inform people in a private environment.

2. Grievance

Consider allowing the employees time off to grieve or attend the funeral.

3. Funeral

Ideally, a manager or senior member of the company could consider attending the funeral, assuming the family are OK with that. Of course, co-workers may wish to attend and they should be allowed time off to do this.

4. Counseling

Encourage employees to attend bereavement counseling if necessary. You can find Bereavement Councillors on the Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy Website. Let employees know that they are free to discuss the situation with their manager or HR at anytime. You could go as far as arranging for a bereavement counsellor to be made available.

5.Dealing with the family

I recommend sending a letter of condolence to the family along with flowers and providing a contact name within the organization with who they can liaise. The letter should ask the family if they would like to come in and collect the employee’s possessions at a quiet time and it should also include an offer for someone to take it to their home/post it.

6. Handling any outside contacts or clients

Business link recommends that you contact customers and suppliers – and anyone who dealt with the deceased employee to inform them of the death. This can be by phone, e-mail or post, depending on the relationship that your business has with each external contact.

7.) Memorial Service

Business Link suggests that in some circumstances a memorial service may be appropriate but you should always consult the next of kin first. Another idea which I have seen suggested on my professional HR forums is to consider setting up a memorial book or a web page, but once again this should be done in consultation with the next of kin.

8.) Practical Steps when an employee dies

The employees final pay settlement should be paid to the employee’s personal representative, usually the executor of the estate. Pay is taxable as normal. If the employee has a pension and or life insurance you will need to inform the provider and they will inform you of the steps to take in the event of a scheme members death.

More information can be found on the Business Link Website – When an employee dies

Please note, that this proposal is very much in its early stages, and as part of the consultation process, the government surveyed 1,000 businesses – as part of a ‘call for evidence’ due diligence process.

Surprisingly, they found that ‘dismissal’ was not one of the top ten reasons cited by employers for not taking on staff.

The top ten regulations that are deterring employers from taking on staff, (as shown by the survey) are:

1. Health and Safety. 13 % of employers cited this as a top reason to not hire new staff.
2. Maternity/Paternity Leave. 10% of employers saw this as a top deterrent to hiring
3. Tax was cited as a top deterrent to hiring by 8% of employers.
4. National Minimum Wage was cited by 6% of employers as a top deterrent to taking on new staff.
5. National Insurance was considered by 6% of employers to be a top reason not to hire new staff.
6. Employers Liability Insurance. 5% of employers saw this a chief deterrent to hiring.
7. Working Time Regulations was a key hiring deterrent for 5% of employers.
8. Sickness Absence was also a key hiring deterrent for 5% of employers.
9. In 2010, employees were given the right to request time off to train and this was considered a deterrent to hiring for 4% of employers.
10. Discrimination. Overall, 3% rated these as the top barrier to taking on staff

Comment

These findings suggests that the ‘no fault dismissal’ proposal may not be introduced, since there is no evidence that it would actually encourage recruitment if brought in. Instead, it suggests that government should focus reforms around Health and Safety, Maternity Leave and Tax as these are the top three deterrents to hiring.

As employers, you should be aware that the government is already looking at reducing the health and safety burden and has announced plans to cut the health and safety regulation by half over the next 10 years.

As a HR professional, I would like to point out that several areas of perceived regulatory risk, namely: Discrimination, Sickness Absence, Working Time Regulations, and Health and Safety, can be effectively mitigated by some good quality HR management.

Please get in touch if you would like to expand your business/hire new staff, but are deterred from doing so due to concerns about any of the following regulations: Sickness Absence, Working Time Regulations, and Health and Safety. I will show you how to introduce HR systems to ensure that your business is able to comply with regulations with minimal disruption to the continuity of your business.

For employers who have developed an official leave policy, the most popular approach, unsurprisingly is a ‘first come – first served’ approach. Interestingly, a small minority have simply disallowed leave on specific dates during the Olympic period.

Employers are not advised to overlook the potential impact of the Olympics as an earlier survey by Badenoch and Clark in July 2011, revealed that 16 per cent of employees would consider ‘taking a sickie’ to watch their favourite Olympic events.

If you don’t plan for the Olympics you could find you are faced with employee discontent, confusion and maybe even empty desks – the combined result of which may be a reduction in business continuity and output. The whole situation will be compounded by the fact that Olympics will be occuring right in the peak of the holiday season – when employees will traditionally be taking their annual holidays.

I have four recommendations for employers who are looking to put in place an official Olympic Leave Policy.

1.) Allow employees to work flexibly – which might include things like split shifts, staggered starts, swing shifts, flexi-time, compressed weeks – so that employees can be at home in order to watch their favourite events or can even attend events and then make up the time later.

2.) Allow people to work at home, (this is not so they can watch Olympic events on home time), but rather that they can avoid spending excessive time stuck in transport congestion , a lose-lose situation for employer and employee. This is of course mainly only applicable to London based employees.

3.) Consider rationing holiday during the Olympic period to enable more people to take leave during the Olympic period.

4.) Arrange for a TV to be set up in the social area so employees can watch and experience the unique atmosphere of a home Olympics during lunch-time and breaks.

If any managers or staff have any more novel ideas for managing the potential disruption to the workplace during the Olympics, I would be keen to hear it.

However, the CV is still the most readily available personal document about a candidate and so a picture on a CV is arguably going to have the most viewings and therefore exert the most influence on a recruiter’s thinking.

It was therefore interesting to see the results of a study by Bradley Ruffle at Ben Gurion University and Ze’ev Shtudiner at Ariel University Centre (as shown in the Economist), who looked at what happens when applicants include pictures in their CVs, which is not the norm in the UK, but certainly is in Germany, France and parts of Asia.  As part of the study they sent 2,500 fictional applications to over 2,500 real vacancies.  They sent two very similar CVs to each job, one with a photo and one without a photo; having previously graded each subject for their attractiveness.

Men

What was interesting was that the results differed significantly between male and female applicants. As expected, good looking men were more likely to be called for interview if they included a photo, whereas ugly men were better off if they did not include a photo.

Women

But, the trend was reversed too some degree when they looked at women, where they found that attractive females were less likely to be invited to interview if they included a photo. Also, when applying directly to an employer (and not via an agency), an attractive women had to send out 11 CVs on average before winning an interview, but an equally qualified plain looking women only need to send out seven CVs to secure an interview.

The study highlighted that 93% of those responsible for selecting candidates were female and the researchers concluded that the reason for the discrimination was jealousy which led the women to discriminate against pretty candidates.

The researchers believed that the practice of including photos in CVs should be altogether discouraged. Fortunately, this is not such a problem in the UK as photos are not normally included in CVs, but countries like Germany and France expect to see photos in CVs.

One such initiative is the UKSP which was recently established by People 1st – the sector skills council for hospitality, passenger transport, travel and tourism. It is a not-for-profit site providing young people with an avenue to find out more about working in the industry, and includes information on jobs, necessary qualifications and career tools.

The timing of the UKSP is impeccable, as with the Olympics being less than 100 days, the UK hospitality sector is set too boom, meaning there has possibly never been a better time to start out in a career in hospitality.

But, good timing aside how exactly can this site help youth to start and develop their career in hospitality? There are several tools and features on UKSP which enable this, and the first of these is the Industries and Roles section which provides a detailed and easy to read description of 14 different industry areas within the hospitality sector.

The next tool is the Career Map which is a powerful tool which plots out the potential career path for virtually every type of role in the hospitality sector – it then displays this in an easy to read info-graphic. This is an excellent career planning tool.

It also includes a Personality Tool, which is an essential career planning aid, and which will help job seekers to choose a more rewarding career that will suit their  personality.

The final career planning aid is the Skill Assessment tool which can match individuals to jobs based on their skills and qualifications. The tool will also identify any skills gaps and recommend any remedial training or qualifications.

Of course, we should not forget that the fundamental aim of a career site is to help people into work, and, unusually for a careers site, it has its own inbuilt jobs boards, making this site a unique one stop shop for careers planning and job hunting in the hospitality sector. I advise you to check it out.

An apprenticeship is one way for a new employee to earn a salary while gaining essential skills in the workplace. It’s also a way for businesses to provide training to harness fresh talent across all sectors of their trade, from reception to sales to manufacturing.

From a learner’s perspective, apprenticeships are valuable because they provide key benefits including paid holidays and salaries (although there is no set rat of pay for apprentices, all employers are required to pay no less than minimum wage). Apprenticeships also offer job-specific skills, training and qualifications that may open doors to future employment.

In many companies, as an apprentice’s skills develop, his or her pay increases accordingly. Apprentices may also receive additional funds for textbooks, transport or equipment, and they’ll likely be able to claim employee benefits such as pension contributions, the use of canteen facilities, parking or insurance.
But aside from benefits, apprenticeships provide essential support for trainees from experienced industry professionals. While many differ in their length and content, most end in nationally recognised qualifications that are also transferrable to higher education institutions.

There are many apprenticeships available in a wide range of industry sectors from accountancy to customer service to management with different types of employers ranging from large national companies to smaller local businesses. The one you choose will depend on your career goals, experience and the opportunities available in your home town.

Begin by signing up with an apprenticeship network and researching options that suit you.

Each year, in April, and in order to coincide with the start of the new tax year, some of the most important changes to UK employment law come into effect. This year is no different and the government have made several important amendments to UK employment – several of which have been signposted on this blog – and these changes relate to tribunal procedures, unfair dismissal, maternity and sick pay. I have outlined the 2012 changes to employment law below.

1. Qualifying period for unfair dismissal has increased

Perhaps one of the highest profile and most eagerly awaited changes (by employers that is), is the increase in the qualifying period for making a tribunal claim (in most situations), from 1 to 2 years, taking effect from the 6^th April.

Employers should be aware that this change only applies to employees who start employment on or after the 6^th April 2012.

Also, the qualifying period for the right to receive a written statement of reasons for dismissal, on request, has also increased from one to two years.

2. Employment Tribunal Procedure Has Been Reformed

In order to more accurately reflect the cost to companies of defending tribunal claims, from the 6^th April, the maximum amounts of deposits and cost will increase. Also, to reduce the cost of tribunal costs to the taxpayer, employment tribunals have been granted new powers to order the parties to a dispute to pay witnesses’ expenses, and to enable employment judges to hear unfair dismissal cases alone.

And finally, to speed the tribunal meeting up, ‘witness statements’ will automatically be taken as ‘read’, e.g. the claimant and defendant will not have to read out their statements on the day as these will have been supplied the opposing parties in advance.

3. Statutory maternity, paternity, adoption and sick pay increase

From the 1 April 2012, the weekly rate of statutory maternity, paternity and adoption pay increases from £128.73 to £135.45.

From the 6^th April, the weekly rate of statutory sick pay also increases, from £81.60 to £85.85.

From the 6 April 2012, the lower earnings limit for primary Class 1 national insurance contributions increases from £102 to £107, the income tax personal allowance increases to £8,105, and the threshold at which employees pay the higher income tax rate of 40% is reduced to £34,371.

4. Change in Accident-reporting requirements

From the 6 April 2012, the required period of incapacity following an injury caused by an accident at work, which triggers the employer’s requirement to report the accident to the enforcing authority, increases from more than three days to more than seven days. The deadline by which the employer must report the accident increases from 10 days to 15 days.

5. Calculation of staging date for pensions auto-enrolment

From October 2012, employers will be required to auto-enrol eligible employees into a qualifying workplace pension scheme. The date from which employers must auto-enrol employees (known as the “staging date”) is based on the number of employees in their PAYE scheme on 1 April 2012.

Employers should check how many people are in their PAYE scheme to determine their staging date.

You can learn more about Pension Auto-enrolment by following this link

It appears that the somewhat controversial practice of requesting an interviewee’s or employee’s social media password is being increasingly deployed within US businesses. It is likely therefore that if it isn’t occurring already in the UK, it soon will be. In fact, just this week, the Telegraph has reported a genuine case of an individual, called Lee Williams (not sure if this is his real name) who was allegedly asked by his MD for his Facebook login details because he (the MD) , could not see any personal details about the candidate due to his privacy settings being locked. The MD thought that the employee might be hiding something, because his profile was not publically available.

But, what is the legal position on this? As an employer, are you allowed to request this information and as an employee or candidate are you allowed to refuse to provide this information?

According to Paula Whelan, an employment partner at Shakespeare Law Firm, employers are allowed to ask for logins to social media but employees have the right to refuse to provide you with that information, without recrimination. This is because you are requesting access to personal information which has nothing to do with that candidate’s capability to do the job.

It is also worth highlighting that Facebook considers the action of sharing or soliciting a Facebook password as a violation of their user’s policies.

Ed Goodwyn, a partner from the employment team at Pinsent Law, has drawn a distinction between interviewees and employees, suggesting that it would be a ‘breach of the implied duty of trust and confidence” between employer and employee, if employers asked a current staff member for their facebook password or continued accessing a social media account after interview without disclosing this to them.

This is a big topic which I cannot fully address here, but from a HR point of view I would have to question to the reliability of a facebook account for determining the performance potential of an employee – and for this reason and at this time I do not think it has a legitimate place within a good quality, recruitment process