WeLinkTalentBlog

7 Reasons to Use a Recruitment Firm for Your Growing Start-up

Kathleen Lee — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 06:05:37 GMT

The world of start-ups is endlessly exciting. From an energetic work culture to accelerating growth, the potential of start-ups is endless.

According to CB Insights, 70 per cent of upstart tech businesses fail, usually about 20 months after the first round of fundraising. Among the many reasons, 23% of start-ups cited an inadequate team as a causative factor to their failure. Start-ups are notorious for being poor at retaining their staff, with most employees leaving within a year or so. That is unsurprising. Most start-ups are working with limited cash flow, limited time, and a limited amount of built-in hiring expertise. With these problems on hand, start-ups need to find the best team possible to accelerate their growth. Here are the top reasons why start-ups can benefit from using recruitment firms to build and consolidate their expanding team.

1. Domain Expertise

Always work with a specialist recruiter. That is what many top-level managers would tell you. A specialist would possess a great depth of knowledge in their sector and have the inside scoop about other start-ups and different individuals. If you want to hire the best talent, you need to start by hiring the best recruiter in a particular speciality. Recruiters can also leverage their wide industry networks for your recruitment case and search for the best executive for your team.

2. Team Building

Recruitment specialists must be passionate about building the actual company and scaling the team. That means they need to care about everything from employer branding to the entire recruiting process, from the first touchpoint to close and through onboarding. They would have experience growing a start-up and finding the right person for your phase of growth.

3. Organizational Design

As your company expands, the structure and hierarchies must change to adapt to bigger operations. A recruitment specialist who understands reorganizations well can consult with your management on creating new structures and roles in anticipation of new demands in the future. Recruitment consultants also offer a neutral, objective touch as they are not involved in the company. This allows them to see the big picture and identify what the company needs quickly.

4. Phasing

As your start-up grows from a series-B and enters the series-C funding stage, the functions and demands of your company will change. Your board and other stakeholders may have new requests to have more experienced individuals playing different roles in the team. Different people of different skill sets and experience will be required to strengthen operations. For example, at a certain point in your growing company, an experienced CCO is usually required to ensure overall compliance in the company’s commercial strategy and development. Various specialists will also be required to monitor specific aspects of your project.

5. Cultural Match

Finding talent who is a good fit for your company is crucial for your start-up. A good recruiter would spend time understanding the culture and needs of the company before scoping out candidates with shared values of your company. In addition to that, the consultant would spend time with the founders and management of the startup to fully understand their need and mission before beginning the search to find talent that would fit into their company culture.

6. Team Compatibility

Building a strong team is key here. Your team may have an established culture and it is necessary to find a team member with the right personality and working style. A good recruiter would understand your company’s values and culture to find a future teammate who is compatible with the rest of your team. The recruiter should be able to assess talent for the domain that you are trying to fill, which may come from their previous employers, their networks, or both.

7. Recruitment seniority

Different people are needed for different phases of growth. As projects increase, your board and investors will require individuals with more experience to join the management. People of certain seniority and experiences will be required after your funding round to ensure stability and accountability in the next phase of your growth. Start-up founders may struggle at this point as they may lack connections to find an executive with considerable experience to join the management. This is where recruitment specialists come in: their broad connections and knowledge of the talent pool will guide the management in finding the right person for the growing team.

It is not uncommon in startups to have specialised or even existing HR functions in their operations. As a startup continues to grow in its small team, is it essential to have an external HR specialist to consult with and develop its HR functions such as recruitment and talent management for the company’s growth. After all, a company cannot grow without its talent.

Finding the right talent for your team is one of the most key aspects of growing your start-up. With increasing pressure and demands from new projects and the board, there cannot be any missteps in your recruitment process. Leaving the process to recruiters will also eliminate the need for your HR personnel and management to go through the tedious process of searching and interviewing the right talent for your start-up. Recruiters who specialize in start-ups in your industry will dedicate themselves to finding the right people for your organization, in addition to their knowledge of organizational design and connections.

At WeLinkTalent, we specialize in start-up recruitment! We can provide you with a recruitment plan and strategy according to the needs of your start-up. We have proven experience in expanding many start-up companies in Singapore and globally with our expertise in organisational design, phasing and team building when it comes to finding the right people for the phase of growth of your start-up. We partner with venture capital firms to understand your needs of balancing agility, seniority, and accelerating your start-up development. Contact us for more information.

What is Talent Mapping and How It Can Benefit Your Business

Kathleen Lee — Tue, 18 May 2021 16:00:00 GMT

All hiring managers can agree that identifying key candidates from your competitors is the key to understanding what talent is needed to achieve future business growth in your organization. This is where talent mapping comes in.

Talent mapping is an internal assessment to evaluate the readiness and performance of your current workforce against future developments. The goal is to identify high-potential employees whose future development aligns with your strategic priorities. It is a systematic and effective way to identify specific needs or speculate about unknown future ones and how they may be met through training and development.

Talent mapping is important to an organization’s talent management strategy because it looks beyond the current staffing and organizational structure to envision what will be needed at various future points. To be ready to meet future challenges, the type of assessment provided by talent mapping is vital.

Ultimately, the aim of external talent mapping is to build a talent pipeline. Those engaged during the talent mapping project can be contacted over several months and years, meaning when an immediate need arises, the hiring manager is not solely reliant upon building new relationships or selling opportunities to the market.

Gathering market intelligence and insight into competitor capabilities is another objective of an external talent mapping process. Talent mapping can be the start of a deeper analysis of competitors’ teams and the different professionals working on certain projects. This can involve the formation and organisational structures, investigating compensation and benefits trends, as well as training and development plans of other teams.

The process of talent mapping also brings agility to your business continuity plan and asks critical questions about the future of human resources in your company. Are succession plans established? Will the organization adapt in the face of unforeseen circumstances? How is your industry changing and what type of talent do you require to adapt to those changes? How do you improve retention within your company? Talent mapping will provide you with market intelligence and a clearer picture of your competitor’s abilities and their strategies.

Who would benefit from talent mapping?

You are thinking strategically and would like to find great talent for your business’ medium to long term requirements
There is a specific role you are trying to source for, and you would like to identify a wider selection of candidates for the role in your industry
Your business has identified gaps in its capabilities or has been consistently losing out on projects to key competitors, so you need to identify the strong players within those companies
You are experiencing significant growth in a specific area or considering acquiring another business, so you need to map teams and companies

To analyze your human resource needs, a highly methodical approach such as Talent Mapping is immensely useful to illustrate your industry talent and market conditions as part of the recruitment strategy. Furthermore, having a shortlist of different talents in your industry will guarantee a higher quality of hire for the delivery of your next recruitment campaign. Talent Mapping provides bespoke real-time market intelligence and ensures the best employment strategies are selected whilst delivering cost-effective talent acquisition for your organisation.

At WeLinkTalent, we can map all available talent in specific geography and market without the need to engage actively. We conduct methodological research to look for talent with a mix of current performance and future growth potential that will indicate a long-term match for your company.

Our talent mapping report will produce a shortlist of the best talent in the industry and assess their eagerness to change roles with the goal of understanding the available talent in the market.

We provide a highly consultative and tailor-made recruitment strategy based on the needs and goals of your organisation, which will be crucial in developing your human resource strategy.

Why You need the Expertise of a Recruitment Specialist in Your Hiring Process

Kathleen Lee — Tue, 04 May 2021 16:00:00 GMT

Let’s be honest: recruitment is a painstaking, time-consuming process that requires significant resources and effort, and often without guarantees. The process of filtering through countless resumes, interviewing and selecting the best-fit candidates is tedious and may not even promise results. The hiring process of a high-level executive is even more crucial to the organization as the risks of losing operational efficiency are high. Therefore, a recruitment strategy must be carefully established to form a clear process that will ensure a successful hire.

Here are some key points a recruiter can offer to your company.

1. Industry Insight

A recruitment specialist will have significant expertise and provide job market insight, internationally, regionally and nationally, which employers can tap into as they plan their recruitment strategy. Recruitment consultants will understand employer needs, candidate expectations, and the impact of supply and demand on the jobs market as a whole. The job market is volatile and constantly changing and the recruiter will have the best insight from the industry they specialize in. Thus, they are ideally situated to help employers make educated decisions, which have a positive impact on the process.

2. Ability to Identify Talent

As experts in the field, recruiters would possess the knowledge of avoiding hiring a bad candidate, who is looking for work, their relevant skills and even identify hidden talents that may be applied to certain roles. Recruiters who specialise in certain industries will also be connected with the best talent in the industry and understand the current nature of the job market. Recruitment specialists also use tools such as talent mapping to scope out your competitor’s talent before approaching them. They will also be able to assist the hiring manager in negotiating salaries according to market rates and the skill level of the candidate.

3. Advertise Jobs

Tailoring your job adverts and your external value proposition is an important first step in appealing to the right talent. A recruiter would know how to best word and describe the role and advertise them on the right platforms. Then, they would sieve through the mountain of applications to shortlist suitable candidates for the next round. A good job advertising strategy also brings brand awareness and positivity to your company.

4. High-Quality Clients

Using a recruitment firm to hire your next executive would filter out hundreds of irrelevant applications and shortlist a list of high-quality candidates. As your company grows and changes, your HR team may need to conduct complex interviews for positions they are not necessarily familiar with. A specialist would be able to begin the tedious process of shortlisting, referencing and interviewing candidates before presenting them to the company. This ensures the highest quality candidates by the time the company interviews them and will save a great deal of time and effort.

5. Specialist Knowledge

As recruiters specialise in scoping the best talent in the industry, they possess extensive knowledge about individual segments of the jobs market and the talent that is available in particular localities. They may also take a consultative approach and dive deep into understanding the organisation’s requirements and goals. This is especially important in an organisation that is undergoing major restructuring or requiring a new brand new specialist team with newly defined roles and responsibilities. An experienced recruiter would be able to guide the organisation in finding the best people for their team in their expansion.

6. Extended Reach

There is a lot of passive or highly selective talent in the industry who will not even look up job advertisements. A good recruiter will have a vast network of contacts and knowledge of where to find the best talent. Firms will also have professional partnerships with international recruitment federations, which will provide them with extensive, exclusive networks of talent all over the world. The consultant would be able to leverage their networks to find the best talent for your company.

7. Retain your hires

Bringing a new employee on your payroll is a substantial expense and risk. The cost of hiring someone new is high and the cost of turnover is even higher. Hiring the wrong person will waste training resources and greatly affect the operations of your organisation. Besides securing the best fit candidate for your company, recruitment firms often provide additional services such as consultative services to ensure the smooth transition of your new executive. The recruiter will act as the middleman and assist in negotiating salaries, expectations and responsibilities. Some firms may even provide an onboarding program to ensure the smooth transition of the candidate to guarantee the retention of your new employee.

Recruiting a new employee is a risky and time-consuming process. Using their vast business networks and expertise, recruiters will be able to reach out to the best talent will ensure smooth recruitment. Using a recruitment firm instead of your in-house HR team is also much more time and effort efficient, allowing your HR to focus on employee wellbeing instead. All in all, using a recruitment firm to hire your next executive would mean a smoother, easier, and more successful recruitment process for your company.

Are you looking for your next hire? With our methodological process, our recruitment specialists at WeLinkTalent would be glad to share their market insights with you, evaluate your recruitment strategy, support team development and search for your next talent.

5 Steps to Keep Your Hiring Process Efficient

Kathleen Lee — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 16:00:00 GMT

Hiring the wrong employee can incur heavy costs (between 5x up to 15x the annual salary of the incumbent). Make a poor hiring decision, and it may cost you more than that—your customers may start leaving you for good. A good hire starts with recruitment: which is often a time-consuming and process that requires strategic decision making and systematic selection.

Here are 5 steps to keep that process efficient:

1. Effective Candidate Sourcing

Effective hiring starts with a good pool of candidates, and that requires clever advertising, attractive job descriptions and a pleasant application process. It all starts with advertising the role: the job description needs to be accurate, attractive and informative to eliminate irrelevant applications. Use clear and inclusive language and promote your company and its values. Advertisements then need to be posted and disseminated on the right platforms and seen by the right in the industry. Enhancing the application process is essential, as applicants are much more likely to not complete the application if the process is complicated and take over 5 minutes to fill. A very important source comes from passive candidates, who may not be actively looking for jobs but are highly qualified and have high negotiating power. To engage this group of potential candidates, recruiters should build a talent pipeline with techniques such as employee referrals, networking events, connecting with past candidates and HR software.

2. Evaluate Candidates Effectively

An improved recruitment process revolves around screening methods that help you select the most qualified candidates. This process should be systematic and aim to quickly eliminate unsuitable candidates. Standardized skill or knowledge tests, for example, can be a good tool to evaluate candidates’ aptitude. Personality tests on the other hand evaluate their personality to see if they have personality traits that align with the job description. Referencing work samples from candidates’ portfolios or asking candidates to complete assignments should also give the recruiter a good picture of their skills. Most importantly, the recruiter needs to seek references and review their work and experience history as it may predict future behaviour.

3. Streamline Your Referencing Procedure

Many companies are streamlining this recruitment process by shortlisting a list of candidates before screening the final candidates. This allows the recruiter to focus their job capabilities first, then further understanding their character and other soft skills. This order allows recruiters to reduce the amount of effort needed to reference candidates. The screening process also needs to be tailored to the needs of each position. For example, management roles often require meticulous screening procedures and extensive background checks as in certain roles soft skills are more important than hard skills.

4. Collect and Analyse Feedback from Candidates

After their interview, candidates may have a lot to say about their experience, especially the candidates you have turned down. Turn this into an opportunity to optimize your recruitment process! This will equip you with valuable insight into how applicants perceive your hiring process and tell you what needs to be changed and why. Automation tools such as online surveys can speed up this process. This also engages all past candidates into your pool for future hires.

5. Use a Recruitment Specialist

Recruiters know recruitment best: they do that for a living! In fact, most of the processes mentioned above are commonly used by recruitment specialists. Professional recruiters would know best how to advertise, scope and attract the talent you need with their extensive business networks. They would also have a systematic evaluation process to screen candidates efficiently. They have resources and expertise that will far exceed your in-house recruitment team as they are focused on one task. This is even more important when the company is going through major transformations, hiring a new higher executive or building a new team with new roles that even the organization may not know how to describe! A recruitment firm would be able to ensure a smoother and easier process, a wider pool of candidates and contribute to the success of the recruitment.

At WeLinkTalent, we believe in linking talent to the right organization. Our team is committed to sharing recruitment expertise and our market insights with you. We have designed a sourcing methodology that suits your search, to attract the talent that suits your project while ensuring that you attain the ideal match. This goal is based on the assessment of the skills, potential, and personal ambition of our talents as well as the mutual benefits of joining your organization. Besides looking for the right talent for your organization, we propose a genuinely consultative approach for organizations with a mid to long-term strategy. Our onboarding program is also guaranteed to maximize the positive impact of your new talent acquisition.

We link the right talent to the right organization.

6 Ways COVID-19 Has Changed the Job Market

Kathleen Lee — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 16:00:00 GMT

Kathleen Lee
- 5 min read

6 Ways COVID-19 Has Changed the Job Market

Updated: Apr 13

As Covid-19 rips through the economy, all of us are left thinking: what will this hold for jobs in the future? Will we ever be the same again? However, the reality prevails: change is the only constant amongst a world of uncertainty. Singapore’s jobless rate had shot up to a 16-year high, at 3.6 percent, in 2020, while retrenchments - at 20,450 so far - were nearly double those for the whole of 2019. (Labour Force Survey, Ministry of Manpower Research & Statistics Department) Retrenchments, furloughing and downsizing have defined the job market since the beginning of 2020 and will continue to plague the economy until the pandemic resolves itself.

However, while many businesses have downsized or disappeared altogether, others have greatly accelerated their growth, depending on their adaptability or the nature of the pandemic on their business. In this transformation, new opportunities have presented themselves in the technology, service, and medical sectors. As the economy in Singapore recovers and bounces back, one cannot deny that many irrevocable alterations will continue to challenge our ability to adapt and reshape our way of working. The speed of change has also altered executives' opinions on working and hiring. These are six ways the job market has changed, permanently or not.

1. Lowered wages, but the situation is improving

A Randstad Singapore survey in 2020 found that over 50 per cent of respondents were willing to take on jobs with a lower salary. With the economy in a state of emergency, the job market was driven by necessity. Businesses who were not deemed as ‘essential’ had to temporarily close during lockdowns all over the world while their employees faced being furloughed or retrenched. "Generally, people are more flexible with salaries now as they recognize that it's difficult to get a job and also that in trying out a new industry, taking less pay than their last (salary) may be necessary as their previous experience is not as relevant,” said FastJobs general manager Lim Hui Shan.

However, as Singapore adapts and recovers from the crisis in 2021, companies have continued to hire and search for talent. In fact, certain border measures created a higher demand for talent in specific jobs, increasing their salaries in certain industries.

2. Remote Work

Before Covid-19, working in person was a necessity and the norm. As we quickly adapted to remote work, companies continued recruiting and people started jobs remotely. This presents a new concept to companies: if you can work from home, you can work from anywhere in the world. What does this mean for the future of recruitment?

We have seen global completion for talent for the most strategic jobs for a long time, but not for every job. For most jobs, there has been a limited local talent pool. A global job market could mean that there could potentially be thousands of applicants, and they could be from anywhere in the country, or in the world.

3. Working from home

Before Covid-19, most employers would be adamant to allow employees to have a more flexible work from home arrangement. However, this pandemic has forced companies to adopt new working arrangements, communication channels, work protocols, and schedules. Companies adapted quickly than they would have possibly expected of themselves and tried their best to work in different settings. New dynamics formed as parents navigated homeschooling their children while working from home and colleagues communicate with one another in an entirely new setting. Employers had no choice but to trust their staff -- and everyone adapted. Working from home has revolutionized what everyone thought working had to be, and it will be likely that companies will continue to adopt these new flexible models for their employees.

However, there are two flip sides to this:

The first one is that most executives are facing a lack of ideation and creativity as difficult decisions are usually discussed and made in person, not through a screen. Hence, there is a stronger push to get teams to gather and work together in the same room for strategic discussions, ideation and risk assessment.

Secondly, flexibility is seen in different ways depending on if you're an employee or an employer. Most senior executives accept to allow employees to work from home 20% of the time, whereas most employees enjoy the WFH structure greatly. The definition and management of flexibility need to be aligned with all parties in the days to come.

4. The technological boom

The pandemic has accelerated the adoption of technology in all aspects of life -- videoconferencing, telemedicine, e-commerce, online education, and financial technology. Companies and their services that were virtually unheard of before the last year have household names: Zoom, Disney+, and other online platforms.

According to a 2020 McKinsey Global Survey of executives, international companies have accelerated the digitization of their customer and supply-chain interactions and of their internal operations by three to four years. Another McKinsey survey investigated the impact of Covid-19 on consumer sentiment and stated behavior had respondents saying that they were three times more likely to say that at least 80 percent of their customer interactions are digital in nature. With companies unable to market and network in real life, experts have agreed that it is now necessary for B2B or B2C companies to connect with their customer base digitally. This process has accelerated the growth of digitalization across all sectors and is a determining factor of survival in the post-COVID-19 world.

In Singapore, COVID-19 has caused a lack of new talent coming from abroad, on top of the increasingly stringent regulations for the employment pass. This has increased the demand for talent in tech, increasing salaries for most digital and tech jobs. (ie. Software developers, tech leads, digital marketing, etc.)

5. New opportunities in different sectors

While COVID-19 devastated many industries and forced many organizations to downsize their workforce, some other industries are seeing the exact opposite effect. Industries such as health care, food, and pharmacy retail, and supply chain industries have faced a huge sudden need for their services. Tech companies especially have experienced a boom and increased demand for their services, resulting in expansion and hiring.

While some businesses have developed diversification strategies in an emergency response to help weather the economic storm, others have made fundamental strategic changes and transformed their business processes completely. Companies had to transform their organizational structures out of necessity, provide alternative services and set different goals. The pandemic forced organizations to rethink HR goals in the long run and adapt their hiring strategy in anticipation of change.

6. What's in it for us in the future?

Which of these changes will impact us indefinitely? No one can tell for sure. In mid-2020 where lockdown and border closure measures were in full force, many managers and executives lauded the WFH structure and the use of technology in the workplace. Interestingly, many of them have different opinions now, a year after the pandemic struck us. A survey we conducted in late 2020, revealed that most executives stated that they would only accept employees to work from home 20% of the time in the future. Ultimately, while WFH may work for routine, backend office work, working remotely present more obstacles for jobs that are more complex and require creative team problem-solving.

The discussion of flexibility is still ongoing. After having a taste of working from home, most employees would agree that they prefer a more flexible arrangement. However, most of the upper management agrees that there is a lack of value creation with this arrangement. Balancing employee's needs for flexibility and the management's goals is now new challenge executives face, and will continue to change as the world adapts to this crisis.

While the economy recovers gradually and many business processes return to normal, there is no denying that this pandemic has inevitably changed the job market. As the business demands change and economic conditions develop, it is compulsory for organizations to adapt and adjust their hiring strategies for survival and longevity.

At WeLinkTalent, we have 15 years of experience in finding the key people for different levels of a restructuring organization. We specialize in finding the best talent to build the right team for your growing organization and offer a comprehensive consultative approach to enhance your recruitment strategy. Learn more.

#jobmarket #organizationaltransformation #digitaltransformation #HRstrategy #Covid19 #workfromhome

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Recruitment: Is interdependency and trust the new norm?

Emmanuel White — Sun, 28 Feb 2021 16:00:00 GMT

Have you ever hired someone without a physical meeting, no real human interaction? This is our new reality and we quickly faced many issues we had to adapt to in our recruitment process.

Firstly, most employees were confined. Even for essential businesses, the number of attendees was rarely over 30%. By employee, they were defined as every seniority layer of the company, from the workers, PMET up to the C-Level suites. All of us had to work from home (WFH) or limit our attendance from complying with strict regulation. No gatherings and physical meetings were allowed and this greatly impacted our mindset from top to bottom.

Secondly, trusting that your employees were doing the best of their abilities to make things happen became the norm, whether your business was negatively or positively impacted. In spite of having to divide their time between childcare and working from home, computer timeshares, the lack of physical connections and many other disturbances at home, everyone played their part in the community and adapted to a novel situation. On the other hand, time saved on commuting, colleague lunches, and the need to stay focused and disciplined has urged companies to reconsider a Flexible Work Arrangement (FWA). (we will tackle this in another post).

Geographic Boundaries and Role Relocation: Later, people quickly realised that virtual hiring is an opportunity to recruit anyone anywhere. In the case of MNCs, the hiring manager began to get used to the idea that most of them were already in a remote location. Why couldn’t this specific role not be the same? Even though business trips were impossible in Singapore, the idea of having people collaborating in different locations could enhance geographic coverage remotely.

Chemistry and Personality: Remote recruitment that relied on video conferencing also prevented people from getting a feeling of their personality and building chemistry. The amount of information gleaned from a video call is much, much lower than you would in real life. Will this candidate fit our culture, our DNA or the way our team works.

Reference Checks: Another way to check the soft skills of a person, such as personality, reliability, teamwork ability, was to assess people of trust who knew the candidate professionally. Networks became necessary, as of company or school alumni networks, past colleagues, clients and auditors were called for a reference check to vouch for these human beings we met only on screen. The goal was to offer a role, responsibilities and sometimes a team in a new environment without meeting face to face- We needed to trust others' opinions to compensate for our own feelings of uncertainty.

Reference checks are now more crucial than ever and networks have become highly leveraged. Despite all these reinvented changes, it has been proven that we can still recruit people without meeting with them physically. Still, this is impossible without the reassurance of the network that were built on and based on human interaction; this is called trust.

Job Offer Management: Assuming you were convinced and offered the job to the successful candidate, many offers were still rejected. Despite all the risks our clients were taking in offering the job, it was still unsuccessful. The process was very frustrating on the client’s and our end. To prevent this, we had to map, screen, assess, sell, and conduct video interviews several more times to understand their intent.

So why were job offers not accepted? It turns out that their families were the root of their hesitation. Are you willing to get relocated for an uncertain time frame, with so much uncertainty on even moving in the first place? Are you prepared to move your whole family to an unknown country based on a video interview done three weeks ago? Are you sure? It was not an option for many in this pandemic. The risk was extremely high to move away from their family or relatives in this climate. Was the risk even worth taking? We needed to build trust with the family too and it was not as easy as bringing them around for a sightseeing tour. Candidates were also asking around for feedback from friends of the company and jobs in some networks in the region. Again, it was based on trust and interdependence. We are now faced with unprecedented uncertainties that we attempt to compensate with other resources, but ultimately we had to trust our own instincts and most importantly, other people we were collaborating with.

Recruitments processes were profoundly impacted in the last four months as most companies were working at saving cash flow and jobs. However, some companies were still recruiting actively, and we had to reinvent processes. Recruitment firms could no longer meet candidates face to face; hence video interviews became the new norm. Everyone became experts on Whatsapp, WeChat, Zoom, Whereby, Microsoft Teams, Chime, Meet or Enablex. This brought about a world of adaptation and considerations for everyone: what backgrounds, how to dress, and how to articulate your ideas efficiently. The 3 C rule of communication applied: Be Clear, Concise, and Consistent. We even used video shortlists of candidates to get a feeling of the personality behind the skills. The feedback we received from candidates was interesting: it takes time, rehearsal, and thought processes had to be carefully planned and written down with the right timing. Employers were positively surprised, but unwilling to spend too much time on a recorded video. Therefore, we gave candidates 10 minutes to present themselves to explain the why and how they could add value in the role. This helped companies to select the candidates for the proper video interviews.

Since the end of the circuit breaker, many processes have gone back to normal, but many of these changes will remain. Video shortlists have been incredibly useful as it immediately gives insight into the level of energy, motivation, and eagerness of this candidate about the role. Virtual shortlisting is also much more time efficient as we are now able to sort out dozens of applications in a much shorter amount of time.

Nevertheless, in the last few months, physical interviews have returned. Meeting face to face will always prove that human contact is the most natural and efficient way of understanding one another. However, new recruitment processes such as the video presentation will be requested from us from now on out of convenience, clarity and efficiency.

Ultimately, this pandemic has brought out that interdependence in our networks is inevitable in difficult and changing times. It has also further highlighted the need for everyone to maintain quality, trustworthy relationships with our partners as we will possibly have to rely on their opinions and resources in times of uncertainty.

WeLinkTalent is a HR Consultancy specialising in executive search, startup recruitment and other HR consultation services. Follow us on LinkedIn to read ourminsights about the HR and Recruitment industry.

How to Explain Gaps in Your Professional Career

By Nathalie White — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 16:00:00 GMT

Explaining an Employment Gap in your CV

1. Listing Older Experiences When Gaps Are Irrelevant

Scaling back the detail, especially if you have held a number of different positions, is an easy way to take care of a few employment gaps that will appear but are irrelevant to the current situation.

In general, if you have been in the workforce for many years, there is no need to include all your experience in your CV. As a rule of thumb, we tend to find it acceptable to limit the years of experience you can mention on your CV to 10 years whether for high-tech and technical positions or managerial and professional jobs. Those last ten years should be detailed about your responsibilities and mention your main achievements.

2. Through Formatting – Be transparent

Although quite tempting, listing only the year, rather than the full date (month+year), when you started and ended your employment, as a means to hide a gap is not recommended. Instead, be transparent. If, for example, you have taken some time off from February 2013 to March 2015 to take care of your family, do mention it on your CV.

Many job seekers also extend their period of employment in a previous position to hide their employment gaps(s). This is something an interviewer can easily find out by simply calling the previous employer so why put your candidacy at risk for no good reason?

Finally, make sure you start your CV in a way that highlights your accomplishments and skills, while also mentioning your motivations and reason to go back to work if your gap was recent.

3. Through Mentioning Experiences Gained During the Gap

List other experiences you have gained while you were unemployed. Did you take up a volunteer position? Relocate abroad as a following spouse and learned about a new culture and habits that helped you become a great bilingual speaker? Consulted? Freelanced? Took a class? Any experience is a good experience!

If, for example, you took a break in your career to take care of your kids, you can say that it was planned and that you wanted to put maximum effort into your children's education. Maybe you took the opportunity to learn something during this time, perhaps work-related. Include all this information in your CV just like you would do with any other job (with job title, job descriptions, company name, etc.). They emphasise positive aspects of your time off.

4. Use Your Cover Letter Wisely

Briefly explain the employment gap in your cover letter if necessary (i.e. you took some time off work to raise a child or complete coursework). However, the cover letter is of better use to demonstrate your motivation to join and to project yourself into the job.

5. Honesty Matters

No matter what you do, do not lie. Recruiters and employers have a way of verifying both your education and work history. So, if you misrepresent yourself in any way, chances are it will come back and haunt you at some point.

Simply explain exactly what happened during your gaps (see #2), based on your skills, competencies and potential. A recruiter will help you articulate those gaps in case you are asked during your job interviews.

Tip: Avoid any negative characterisation of your previous employer. Prospective employers might project your comments about them and will not value this as a positive reason.

How to Explain an Employment Gap During your Job Interview

If you are presented by a recruiter, you can ask him for some feedback and tips on turning this gap to support your candidacy. The recruiter will be interested to make sure you sound professional during your interview hence will give you all pieces of advice needed to secure this meeting. Other than that, you need to:

1. Be Prepared

If your CV is successful, you will most likely be offered an interview. Inevitably, you will be asked about the employment gaps in your CV during that interview. Practice your response so that you are not caught off guard when the question comes up. Just make sure it is short and relevant.

Also, you should research the industry and company as a means to prove to the hiring manager that your passion for the profession has remained intact by your absence and that you have always made sure you stay up-to-date with the latest industry trends.

Note: Try to put a positive spin on the gaps in your professional career and make sure you do not sound apologetic.

2. Be Forthright

Being straightforward and direct is probably the best approach. Provide the hiring manager with a clear rationale for the reasons behind your break, especially if you left voluntarily. Make it clear that whatever reason made you take time off from the workforce now belongs to the past and that you are 100% ready for full-time employment.

In case you have been dismissed, which is something that happens quite often considering the fact that many companies have to “right-size” teams to keep competitive during economic uncertainty periods, don’t blame yourself for it, and ensure you have good references from your colleagues and past clients to rely on.

Having a gap in your professional career is not unusual. Explaining it while also demonstrating readiness and enthusiasm to re-enter the workforce is what the overwhelming majority of employers want from you. And, don't forget that honesty, paired with confidence, are qualities that will speak volumes about who you are and what you stand for; qualities that no hiring manager can overlook, without a doubt.

Seeking to make a career transition after a break? With their expertise in recruiting for a variety of companies, our recruitment specialists can offer you personalised coaching and expert advice for your next career move.

Career Transition: Important Tips

By Nathalie White — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 16:00:00 GMT

By Nathalie White
- 3 min read

Career Transition: Important tips

Changing careers is a significant milestone in one's professional life. Although it is among the most challenging risks you can take, given that you must compete for a job with people that already have the required experience to hit the ground running. It is also an excellent opportunity to broaden your horizons and take your life to the next level when you feel that it is time to turn the page and start a new chapter in your professional life. If you are on the verge of a career transition and need to make sure everything will go as planned, you may find the following tips helpful.

1. Choose the Right Time

Try to go ahead with a career change when your personal life is stable enough so that you can solely focus on this significant shift. There is increased stress involved when changing careers considering the uncertainty of your future role and having a secure environment will give you the confidence to take the bold steps you need to take to be successful in the professional transition you wish to go for. So, avoid making important decisions when, for example, you are in a negative mindset, or if you face personal issues or when you are about to relocate. The key is to keep your mind open to new opportunities that would not have appeared naturally in other circumstances.

2. Look for Mentors

They say that if you want to be a success, you need to surround yourself with the right people. In our case, try to seek out experts belonging in the field of your oncoming career change and ask for their advice and coaching. You will have a lot to learn when you change careers and working with mentors and people that come from different backgrounds will help you gain valuable insights into the requirements of your future role.

You can also talk to people currently employed with a company in your chosen sector to understand the internal culture of the business (and whether it accepts career changers), including their recruitment process. Network with anybody from senior to junior employees to get a good grasp of how things work.

3. Be Confident

Do not let yourself be let down by the thought that you only have one chance to change career. Also, try not to limit your potential by defining yourself by your job title such as "website designer", "accountant" or whatever. Instead, consider this career shift as an opportunity to try something new, and believe in yourself that you are more than capable of working and succeeding in your new sector.

Think about:

The kind of skills you are good at
The things you naturally enjoy doing
The kind of people you wish to work with
The environment you would be happy in
What energises you the most work-wise

Then narrow down your options to 2-3 areas so you can do a more targeted research and start looking for job openings at specific job roles and proceed with confidence.

4. Don't Rush it - think of the trajectory

Working towards a new career over time is much more preferred than radically reinventing your career instantly. Take your time to, say, learn a new skill or study a course that will make yourself more attractive to hiring managers. Or, instead of taking one giant leap, you could opt for baby steps and gradually move into your new career through a series of jobs. This will also allow you to have a constant flow of income without having to go back to entry-level salaries. However, if you do find a position at a great company that will eventually position yourself for future success (even though it may not be the perfect role for you), go for it without sweating the details. Chances are the experience you will gain will be valuable.

Are you ready to embrace new challenges and set yourself up for long-term success?

#mentor #careeradvice #careertransition #changejob #changelife #jobmentor #CareerAdvice #JobInterview #Interview

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Do's and Don'ts for job seekers

By Emmanuel White — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 16:00:00 GMT

What to DO to Get Hired

✔️Use the full power of LinkedIn – With millions of active users already, all there for business, make sure you use its full potential to boost your job search and help grow your career. Feel free to ask for our help if you are in uncharted waters.

✔️Use a job search engine – This will allow you to search all major online job sites by location and keyword, at the same time. You may also search for jobs based on specialised criteria, such as the industry, career field, jobs posted on Twitter and other social media websites, and type of position. Some of the job search engines you could consider are Indeed.com, SimplyHired.com, and LinkUp.com. Of course, you can include offline job search resources to maximise your chances to get hired.

✔️Customise your cover letter – Choose the most appropriate type of cover letter and make sure it is well written and customised for the job you are applying for. It should also be grammatically correct, concise, clear, and error-free, and have the right format, salutation, and closing. If you are sending an email cover letter, ensure you follow the hiring manager's instructions on how to submit it.

✔️Keep your resume short – Interviewers know that you love teamwork and are motivated so do not waste time during interviews and space on your resume by listing non-specific traits about yourself. Instead, keep your resume short and allow recruiters to know where to find you. Thanks to technology, this is easier than ever before so add your blog/website and social media accounts to let recruiters see what makes you unique besides the skills listed on your resume. Needless to say, you must have made sure your online presence reveals the best of you.

✔️Connect with the right people – Make sure you research a company with a position you are interested in to see their culture, what their values are, and whom you should be connecting with to give yourself leverage and help bring your name to the top of the interview pile. All your interactions with key people should be meaningful, though.

✔️Leverage internal referral schemes – Most multinational companies have put in place referral schemes to incentivise employees to introduce new people to the organisation. This is for you a great opportunity to get your cv in front of the right person in no time. All you need to do is to connect with an employee part of your network and ask him to endorse you.

Basics but worth mentioning dos:

✔️Use professional language.

✔️Be punctual.

✔️Build a unique personal brand.

✔️Search for jobs within your skill level.

✔️Walk-in an interview with a positive attitude and confidence

✔️Make sure you look neat and dressed appropriately.

What NOT to DO when Searching For a Job

❌Go unprepared for the interview – Know everything you can about the company (history, mission statement, locations, etc.) making the hire. Also, check their LinkedIn page and determine which of your qualifications are most relevant to the position.

❌Badmouth past employers – If you can speak about your previous employer disrespectfully, chances are the interviewer will think that you will also speak that way about his/her company if you leave on not the best terms.

❌Apply for jobs you are not qualified for – This is just a huge waste of time so try not to expand your job search. However, this does not mean that you can only apply for jobs that meet your exact criteria. Better have an open mind when you go through the job ads.

❌Forget to follow up – Recruiters may need a “push” or a gentle reminder of your candidacy. Following up with a thank-you note, even if you are not sure you have aced the interview, reiterating your interest in the company and the position will help bring you at the front of the hiring manager's mind again (and make a good impression, too).

❌Contradict yourself – Be honest and straightforward, be it during an interview or crafting your CV. If you tell one thing to one recruiter and something different to another interviewer, you reduce your chances to get the job significantly. Imagine if they know each other and happen to talk about you!

❌Show you are desperate – No matter what, do not give an inkling of your desperation. You need to “sell” yourself as an asset to the company, not as a person that needs to get a job to pay down their mortgage.

❌Give up – It might be difficult to carry on your job search after you have sent your CV to several places without getting much of a response. Keep your hopes up and a positive outlook.

Good Luck in your job search!

Need help with your career switch and job search? WeLinkTalent's C areer Accelerator Coaching is a one to one consultation for professionals who are looking to optimize their career strategy. Our senior executive search specialist will assess your situation, discuss your goals and guide your job search strategy based on new management trends, new business models and current job market offerings. During the consultation, their expert opinion will provide you with interview tips to optimize your interview performance and offer insider advice on job market requirements. This consultation is personalized and confidential and will equip you with lifelong career development skills and confidence for the next phase of your career.

Hiring Tips: How to reference check

By Emmanuel White — Sun, 12 Jul 2020 16:00:00 GMT

Before you make a job offer and finalise the hire, though, it is essential to conduct a thorough reference check. This will help verify the employment and educational history of the candidate, validate information that they have provided during the interview, gain a better insight into their strengths and development points, and learn about their work habits, work ethic, and personality. Below are some pointers to help run consistent reference checks, every time, and make the best hiring decisions.

1. Ask for work references

The candidate's previous and/or current manager are the most preferred references, as they are the most appropriate people to vouch for the candidate's work. If this is not possible, then do ask for indirect managers, team members, co-workers, volunteer coordinators (if the candidate has limited work experience) or professors (if you are hiring a student) with whom the candidate has worked. You can either check with stakeholders working in a different company of your candidate: if you are recruiting in sales, ask for a key client, if you are hiring for your procurement team, ask for a strategic supplier and so on. Ideally, go for, at least, three references from each candidate you are considering for hire and arrange a phone meeting with each reference (timewise, at least, 15 minutes per reference).

Do NOT: Focus on obtaining personal references. Chances are they will be biased and come from people that will most likely have never worked with the candidate. Besides, personal recommendations will, in most cases, provide you with a character reference, when you need a work reference based on observation. So, make sure you ask how they know each other.

2. Ask the right questions

Think back to the job description. What core skills and competencies are required? Then, ask both the candidate and references the same questions. If for example, you asked the candidate questions about time management, decision-making, and communication, you should also address the referee the same questions. That way, you will get the candidate's actual past behaviour and experiences.

Open-ended questions are the best type to consider. Some examples:

How did the candidate contribute to the success of the organisation?
What are their strengths and areas in which they could improve?
Would you (the reference) re-hire this person, given the opportunity?
Elaborate a bit on the (i.e. product development) team with whom the candidate interacted.
Where there any soft or technical skills required for the position?
Can you please describe a challenging project the candidate had to manage? What issues did they run into? How did he or she resolve them?

Matching what the candidate said to what the reference told you will allow you to identify whether the candidate has overstated their role in the particular organisation or not. An excellent way to determine what questions need to be answered is to carefully list doubts that have arisen during the interviews.

Do NOT: Stay only on opinions. Instead, remain grounded in the facts. Ask for measurable results, such as new systems put in place, profit levels generated, and sales volume. Facts are a far better predictor of future behaviour than opinions of a former colleague or employer.

3. Be prepared for unexpected answers or obstacles

If the reference offers an unfavourable perspective or does not sound willing enough to provide feedback about the candidate, then investigate what has driven them to shape such an opinion about the candidate.

If the candidate has not offered up-to-date contact information, it might be a reflection of their lack of attention to detail.

If the company of the reference has a policy of not providing references for past hires, ask if they could provide a personal recommendation instead.

If the reference is in a different time zone or too busy and cannot talk over the phone, you can ask your candidate to email your questions to them and have the candidate email response back.

Do NOT: Put the reference check off. First of all, you run the risk of finding out crucial information that will make the candidate a poor match for the job in question, after you have decided to hire them, which is not good news. The cost of a mis-hire, meaning an employee you must let go because they are not up to the required standard or an employee that leaves because they feel they are not cut for the job, can be as high as 9 times their monthly salary. Secondly, the chances are that if you have already hired them and then talk to a reference, you will utterly hear what confirms your decision.

Once you have evaluated your reference checks and are definite that the information provided by the references confirms your initial impression of the candidate, you can offer the job and feel confident about your decision.

Whatever your talent acquisition needs are, WeLinkTalent can help you find the right candidate and provide guidance as per what needs to be done to face challenges during the recruitment process and help you add value and maximise efficiency. Talk to us today.