Test Owner
Adunola Adeshola Contributor
You might utterly dread going to work every morning despite having a decent job that looks good on paper. Or, even though you’re ready to land a new job somewhere else, you might hate your job some days, while other days aren’t so bad. Regardless of where you fall on the spectrum, hating your job might be hurting your job search and costing you job offers.
Here’s how to know if your feelings about your current job are impacting your job search:
You can’t separate your skills from your experience.
When you’re unhappy at work, it’s easy to focus on everything that’s missing. Maybe your current company isn’t as up to speed on the latest technology as your previous companies. Maybe every new idea you suggest seems to fall flat because leadership likes doing things a certain way. Maybe your current team is known for starting but never finishing anything, and it makes you want to flip a table.
Still, while all of those things might be true, your dissatisfaction with your current job might be hindering your job search if you have a hard time seeing the skills you’ve gained and the results you’ve brought to the table in spite of your less than pleasant experience at work. You may not like how things have panned out, but if you’re an ambitious, driven high-achiever, then odds are you’ve found some way to make an impact and deliver great work. But, if you aren’t able to communicate that in your resume because of how much you hate your job, then it’s costing you job offers.
You don’t have high hopes for your next job.
This can sometimes occur when you’ve been at the same company for so long you’ve forgotten better companies exist. It can also happen when you’ve worked at a string of companies that have repeatedly disappointed you. Either way, because companies have let you down, it can be tempting to assume that all companies are the same.
Of course, there are no perfect companies. Not to mention, there are plenty of companies that could care less about their employees. But, there are just as many companies that do care about their employees and that have healthy work environments their employees enjoy. However, if you let your poor experiences at past companies stop you from even trying to find a company that matches your values and career goals, then you’ll be stuck accepting opportunities that aren't any better.
Your interview presence is giving it away.
By this point, you’ve likely heard of how unprofessional it is to speak ill of your current or previous companies, and you might do your best to not say anything negative about your current employer. Still, if you feel strongly about how much you hate your current job, your words might say otherwise, while your body language might show it.
On top of that, if you haven’t been able to acknowledge the skills you’ve gained while working there, then you may be tempted to brush over or downplay your contributions in your current role when you could be highlighting those skills to further add to why you’d be a great fit for the next position you desire. These mistakes aren’t necessarily detrimental, but it certainly isn’t helping you stand out ahead of other candidates who aren’t letting how much they hate their job get in the way of landing a new one.
You might not have even noticed that you were making any of these mistakes. But, as a career coach who’s worked with high-achievers in dozens of industries, it’s a common issue that tends to fly under the radar. To fix this, the first thing you need to do is make peace with how things have panned out at your current job. Then, decide not to let anything you’ve experienced stop you from getting a better job than the one you want to leave. Once you do, you'll be in a better place to make better choices as you pursue the next opportunity in your career.
Adunola Adeshola coaches high-achievers on how to take their careers to the next level. She is the author of the guide https://employeeredefined.lpages.co/free-guide-zero-interviews-to-job-offers/" aria-label="How to Go From Zero Interviews to Dream Job Offers" style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(0, 56, 145);cursor:pointer;background-color:transparent;text-decoration-line:none">https://employeeredefined.lpages.co/free-guide-zero-interviews-to-job-offers/" style="box-sizing:border-box">How to Go From Zero Interviews to Dream Job Offers.
03-15-22 WORKPLACE EVOLUTION
BY STEPHANIE Lovell
How to prepare for job interviews in the metaverse
Even in a virtual environment, communicating your experience, qualifications, and skill set clearly and presenting yourself articulately will continue to be paramount.
If you ask 10 people to define the metaverse, you’ll likely receive 10 different answers that vary wildly from some sort of virtual haven to an Orwellian nightmare. While large swaths of big tech have already signaled their intent to help shape this digital landscape—look no further than Zuckerberg playing space poker—what exactly the metaverse turns out to be and, more importantly, how we use it, is still anyone’s guess.
While this immersive digital world may still be in its infancy in both development and understanding, it’s clear companies with footprints of every size have already turned an eye to how it could potentially impact employee engagement, retention, and attraction. The pandemic era has undoubtedly accelerated our adoption of virtual recruiting, with the simplicity, efficiency, and safety of tools such as Zoom or Slack largely replacing in-person interviews. So, it’s natural to assume the metaverse will simply be the evolution of our virtual methods to find, gauge, and onboard talent.
As Joel Baroody, head of recruiting at fintech startup Brex, recently shared at the first-ever metaverse hiring event and career fair:
“The last two years have gone by really fast, and we’ve forgotten some of the pains pre-pandemic what interviewing was like. We were thinking through the mess that it was to find conference rooms, the mess that it was to coordinate schedules and to get people into Ubers to find the office. We were flying people from all around the country and spending thousands of dollars on airfares so someone could come into the office for two to three hours. So the immense efficiency that virtual recruiting has provided, I think it’s here to stay.”
Here’s what can job seekers do to best prepare themselves for this new frontier of recruiting, and how they can continue to put their best virtual foot forward during an ever-evolving hiring process.
COMMUNICATION WILL STILL BE KING
Even in a virtual environment, communicating your experience, qualifications, and skill set clearly and presenting yourself articulately will continue to be paramount. In fact, in a space where you’ll no longer be physically in front of a hiring manager and avatars aren’t advanced enough to depict complex, subtle body language, there may be even more room for ambiguity or miscommunication. You are your own biggest advocate, so if something is unclear, ask for clarification. This starts by approaching any interview (in the metaverse or not) with a pocket full of research on the business, the specific role you’re applying for, and even the representative you’re speaking with. Bring tailored questions that get to the meat of salary/compensation, work culture, direct reports, daily responsibilities, short-term KPIs, and anything else that’ll help you make an informed decision.
PATIENCE, PLEASE
What the metaverse looks like today will be incredibly different three, five, 10 years down the road. Will it be a singular, interconnected realm à la Ready Player One, or a series of closely aligned but separate platforms? Who knows, but if the progression of the internet and social media tools have given us any sort of roadmap, it will grow into an easier, more productive, aesthetically functional space. Graphics will improve (think Wii or Sims versus today’s CGI) and services will expand that will make interactions more comparative with a real human-to-human experience. For now, job seekers should recognize the functional limitations of this early version of the metaverse and understand there will be growing pains when it comes to the hiring process within it.
REDUCE UNCONSCIOUS BIAS
One of the greatest challenges in the larger hiring space is that of unconscious bias, which is forming a judgment of a candidate based on something other than their professional credentials. In the metaverse, there’s potential for this bias to be reduced through avatars or other digital representation where virtual characters can look like whatever you want. That said, while a job seeker interviewing in the metaverse may be able to so in their lucky Metallica T-shirt from the Summer Sanitarium tour, that’s not to say your avatar should rock it, too. Your avatar is a representation of you and should be dressed/styled appropriately for the role, sector, and business you’re applying to even if they look nothing like you.
KEEP UP WITH TRENDS
Just as any job seeker should do a tech check before any virtual interview, the same goes for the metaverse. Before you immerse yourself in a particular platform for an interview, familiarize yourself with it. If you’re logging in from a laptop, make sure you know the keyboard controls to customize your character and navigate the virtual space appropriately. If you’re using a virtual reality (VR) headset, like Oculus, give it a trial run to understand its nuances and see if you get motion sick. Most importantly, keep up with the latest metaverse news and trends. The more comfortable you are interacting in the metaverse, the more confidence you’ll be able to project during an interview in this space.
The metaverse will continue to expand talent pools exponentially that will benefit both companies and candidates. Job seekers, once restricted to single geographic areas, can meet with any company, anytime, anywhere instantly. As more businesses embrace the demand for remote roles and greater work flexibility, the metaverse will allow candidates to still have comprehensive, immersive interview experiences for positions on the other side of the country, or world, from the comfort of their own homes.
https://www.fastcompany.com/90731166/how-to-prepare-for-job-interviews-in-the-metaverse
Dawn Mitchell Forbes Councils Member
Forbes Human Resources Council
Vice President of HR at Appian, she is responsible for developing and retaining talent while enhancing the culture and talent brand.
When the Covid-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, it ignited significant change in the way we all live and work. As the workforce moves forward in finding what will become the new normal, employers' wants and needs have changed, as have their relationships with employees. Adjustments to roles, routines and priorities have left employees to reconsider how they work, and employers need to follow suit.
As a result of these changes, the job market is more competitive than ever and the talent war is on. Human resources teams must work differently than they did in the past to acquire and retain talent, especially in the midst of "the Great Resignation." Employers must actively support out-of-work interests to prioritize employees and keep them happy. Getting ahead by putting plans in place is critical for all companies to win the talent war.
The Rise Of Remote Employment Relationships
In the past, human resources was responsible for handling day-to-day workplace functions. However, this role changed as the pandemic highlighted the needs of employees outside of the workplace. The new era requires HR to be more proactive in understanding how to support employees as “whole people,” attuned to employee needs both in and out of the office. As employees demand a hybrid or remote employment relationship, how companies successfully build and retain a talented and engaged workforce is different than it once was.
The concept of a culture-driven workplace has been around for many years, with top companies such as Google implementing enticing perks for employees. This used to include company merchandise, luxurious office spaces, team happy hours and more.
As the new normal shifts to fully remote or hybrid work, investments outside of the office are becoming a top priority. Employees want to work for companies that keep work-life balance top of mind and prioritize wellness during and outside of work hours. Today, that looks a lot like remote options, flexible work arrangements, investment in wellness and mental health and more time with family. Employers are expected to keep up with new demands to attract and retain talent.
How Employers Can Get (And Stay) Ahead Of The Curve
Employers need to remember that the workplace and employee needs are continuously evolving. To prevent employees from becoming casualties of the Great Resignation, employers must anticipate how people are adapting to the new normal and strategize to support their workers.
It is possible for employers to have a successful hybrid relationship with their employees while still fostering a high-growth environment. Companies have to ask themselves, what is going to enable our workforce to stay engaged? This can be influenced by an emphasis on wellness and training, defining and respecting boundaries, focusing on clear company goals and giving them work they are excited about.
Employees are attracted to purpose-driven work. They want to work for organizations that bring meaning into their everyday lives. In a survey from McKinsey & Company, nearly two-thirds of U.S.-based employers said Covid-19 caused them to reflect on their purpose in life. Nearly half said they are reconsidering the work they do, and Millennials were three times more likely to say they were reevaluating work. Feeling a genuine connection to work drives investment in the company’s success. A culture of purpose-driven work should be on display in every aspect of an organization.
Hybrid Work May Lead To More Women In Leadership Roles
The shift to remote and hybrid work during the pandemic created more challenges in the delicate work-life balance for women. As a result, many women are taking on junior roles or leaving work entirely because they no longer have the bandwidth to balance careers and their homes or families. According to CBS, nearly three million women left the U.S. labor force over the past year.
The pandemic highlighted a significant need for support and care in the workplace. Flexible workplace relationships can bring more women back to work by offering parental leave policies, childcare support and elder care assistance.
Another large part of this shift is career development and progression. Supporting a path to their future can bring more women into leadership positions. To do so, employers need to put greater stress on honesty in the workplace. Even today, women are still not honest enough about everything they do and the sacrifices they make, especially in leadership roles. Increased honesty among women leaders about the choices made to get to their position can lead to a more successful career path.
Employee work-life balance has never been more important, and it is no longer possible for the need to go unmet. As the world reconciles with new ways of doing things, organizations have the opportunity to create the optimal environment and keep employees engaged.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2022/03/18/winning-the-talent-war-means-thinking-beyond-the-office/
When you're searching for top talent who can build on your team's success or fill in the gaps to improve on inefficiencies, there's no way of determining if you'll make the right choice. Only their time on the job will reveal if they'll live up to your expectations and be a good fit for the company.
When hiring managers, it’s best to first identify what their short- and long-term goals are for the role as it relates to alignment with the culture of the business and if they will meet the business’s needs. To help leaders navigate the hiring process for prospective managers and offer better insight into your latest new hires onboarding, 13 members of Forbes Human Resources Council share signs to look out for when you're gauging a candidate's true interest and fit within your organization.
1. They Exude Collaborative Curiosity
Be open-minded and remember that not all candidates check the same boxes. So it's important to focus on the right indicators given the employee's role, geography, experience and other key factors. Great innovation and teamwork come by building teams with diverse skills and backgrounds. A few of the early behaviors we look for are strong collaboration and a willingness to ask questions. - Sundararajan Narayanan, Virtusa
2. They Are Interested In The Company's Growth
There are several initial indicators that an HR leader could use to determine if they've made the right hiring decision. Among them would be whether the new employee expressed interest in deepening their knowledge of the organization. Any inquiries about future development opportunities and their understanding of how their role aids in the attainment of organizational goals are good signs. Milpha Blamo, The Minneapolis Foundation
3. They Ask The Right Questions
During the initial 100-day plan, the employee will do their best as they are cognizant that they are under watch. In my personal view, HR leaders should interact with the respective manager by asking a few quick questions and the responses for these questions shall reveal the chances of success. Also, look at what kind of questions the new employee is asking. What are the colleagues saying about the new employee? - Prakash Raichur, Taghleef Industries
4. They Understand The Business And Key Priorities
Clarity about the role and expected impact and key performance indicators that reflect what success looks like in the role presents a good starting point. Each organization has its own set of success factors that must be incorporated into the search. Understanding the business and key priorities is essential in making a final hiring decision. - Loren Rosario-Maldonado, Claro Enterprise Solutions, Inc.
5. They Are Career-Minded Talent is multi-faceted and hiring with the myopic view of role profile alignment alone is not ideal. You have made the right hiring decision when talent is hired with a future outlook and the talent also realizes how they can build a career within the organization. The proof of the pudding is when they see their vision coming to life to create a win-win scenario for themselves and the organization. - Rohit Manucha, SIH AGH 6. Their Metrics Add Up An HR leader may determine if they've made the right hiring decision through a combination of quantitative (e.g., financial or performance-based) and qualitative (e.g., individualized or crowdsourced feedback) metrics measuring their performance outputs. Each type of metric provides its own value; however, when combined, the two paint a more complete picture for new hires' ROI across a myriad of key areas. - Dr. Timothy J. Giardino, BMC Software 7. They Have Good Performance Levels One very effective way is establishing a quality of hire (QOH) metric. This metric will encompass time to productivity, tenure, performance over time and other relevant data points. Also, QOH is not just for your talent acquisition team as it can give an HR leader and their executive team broader insight into whether you have the right people in place and if your managers are hiring successfully. - Katya Daniel, Golden Hippo 8. They Commit And Contribute To The Company Culture You know you've made the right hiring decision when there is a great return on investment. When an HR leader goes beyond the material requirements for the position and ensures that there is a match with organizational core values, they typically see those individuals not only excel in operations but also commit to adding value to the culture of the organization and contributing vastly to seeing it grow. -Tiersa Smith-Hall, The Hartling Group 9. They Fill Your Department's Needs Know what the goal is before you hire a new team member. Is this person being hired to improve efficiencies? Increase revenue? Lower costs? Retain or hire talent? Whatever the goal is, have a measurement for that and compare the expectation to the result of their presence and performance. If your goal is not clearly defined, you will have a difficult time objectively evaluating your hiring success. -Angela Nguyen, Core Catalyst 10. They Are Transparent There is no universal formula because all organizations have different strategies and values. Hiring is a big responsibility and future employees can lead to success or failure. Trusted conversation and demonstrating understanding could be key to learning more about a candidate. Answers to "simple" questions like "What irritated you about your previous work?" are surprising sometimes. - Evgenia Pavlova, ECM Space Consulting 11. The First 60-Days Have Gone Well We worked with a large organization that launched a clever but quite simple 60-day survey. They would ask both the hiring manager and the employee, "Knowing what you know now, do you feel that you made the right decision?" The responses were striking with roughly 65% of managers and 67% of new hires saying "No." This foundationally reshaped their talent acquisition and talent strategy processes. - Mark Stelzner, IA 12. Insight From Key Stakeholders Is Positive Keep your ear to the ground! Ensure you are checking in with the hiring manager to get their feedback as they are the closest to the new hire. You can also consider an informal 360 review to gather valuable insight from key stakeholders within the organization who work closely with the new hire. - Caroline Faulds, Canada Pooch 13 Indicators To Help HR Leaders Hire The Right Job Candidates (forbes.com)
Charles Hipps is the Founder and CEO of Oleeo an award-winning provider of innovative talent acquisition technology.
As the workforce grows more diverse, your business needs to focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) to stay competitive and attract top talent. Implementing a diverse recruiting strategy can improve your bottom line. You might already be hiring with an eye toward equity and inclusion, but you could likely do even more. Here are my top diversity recruiting solutions for 2022 to help you attract candidates from underrepresented minorities.
1. Set SMART Goals
For best results, your diversity recruiting goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound. Setting a broad goal of “hiring a more diverse workforce” won’t help you develop strategies that stick.
Instead, set realistic, measurable goals you can use to benchmark your performance over time. A specific goal might be revising your recruiting process to seek a more representative candidate pool of job seekers. You can set tangible steps to meet this goal, like auditing your process to determine why you aren't attracting candidates of different backgrounds.
Boost Your Employer Brand
Today’s job seekers have numerous tools available—from Glassdoor to LinkedIn—to evaluate your company before they ever apply for a job. Focusing on DEI in your employer branding efforts is key to your diversity recruiting strategy. A strong employer brand will help you attract qualified candidates who want to work for you.
Strengthen your brand by hiring and retaining diverse employees. Show that you value your workers with competitive salaries and benefits. Create a company culture that promotes work-life balance and helps employees reach the next level in their careers. A strong culture attracts talent and retains the best employees.
You can promote your employer brand on job boards and through your recruiting strategy. Make sure each recruiter can competently answer questions about workplace diversity. Use an applicant tracking system and recruiting software to track potential candidates and follow up with those who turned you down to see what you can improve.
3. Attract More Diverse Applicants
Include a variety of people on your recruiting team. People of different ages, ethnic backgrounds, sexual orientations and genders should vet potential candidates to avoid unconscious bias. Additionally, write more inclusive job descriptions by removing words that communicate gender bias.
You can do this by shifting your focus from non-essential requirements. https://www.fastcompany.com/90661349/dear-female-jobseeker-apply-for-the-job-ignore-the-qualifications" aria-label="Studies have shown" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 56, 145); cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">Studies have shown that women are less likely to apply for a job if they don’t think they’re qualified. Instead of writing a job description with a long list of required experience, focus on job training and transferable skills. You can use artificial intelligence (AI) to audit your job descriptions for gender-coded words.
Promote workplace policies that appeal to a candidate pool of people with different backgrounds. For instance, add floating holidays to your paid time off so people of different ethnic backgrounds can spend holidays with their families. Consider flexible scheduling that lets people volunteer and connect with their community.
Think beyond job boards, referrals, initiatives and other typical recruiting tools. Sticking to the same recruiting platforms could restrict your audience. Use different outreach methods to broaden your recruiting efforts and expand your candidate pool. Or use diversity hiring initiatives and encourage diverse employees and hiring managers to share open positions with their network.
4. Reduce Unconscious Bias
Regardless of how objective and impartial you try to be, everyone runs the risk of unconscious bias. There are steps you can take to remove this from your recruitment practices. Start by creating a diverse hiring panel. Make sure your hiring managers represent all ages, genders, ethnicities, abilities, etc.
Train hiring managers to identify their own unconscious biases. You can also counter unconscious bias with a more standardized hiring process that focuses on skill level. Conduct blind resume reviews where you examine experience and qualifications without any identifiable personal information.
Standardize interviews by giving a list of questions to your hiring panel. Make sure they all ask the same questions and give them tools to rank different answers. This way, your hiring managers can concentrate on how each candidate is likely to perform the job and better compare candidates across the board.
5. Optimize Your Results With Metrics
Once you’ve set SMART goals for talent acquisition, you can measure your progress. Evaluate metrics like outreach and recruiting efforts to see what works and what doesn’t. After you’ve developed different goals and have begun implementing your diverse recruiting strategies, you can assess your talent pool.
Assess the quality of your candidate pool to see if your recruitment strategies helped you attract a broader talent base. Look through interview notes and new hires to see if your hiring panel might be influenced by unconscious bias.
It's also important to examine your own DEI policies and interview your employees to see how you meet your internal commitment to DEI. Simply saying that you’re committed to maintaining workplace diversity is not enough. You have to show it by creating a company culture where people of all backgrounds feel included.
Putting It All Together
Across the country, the workforce is shifting, and inclusivity is more important than ever. Companies committed to diversity are more https://www.parking-mobility.org/2021/07/16/how-a-dei-culture-benefits-your-bottom-line/" aria-label="likely to beat their competitors" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: rgb(0, 56, 145); cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none;">likely to beat their competitors and improve their bottom line. To stay competitive, your company needs a diversity recruitment strategy.
Showing your commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion will help enhance your company culture and attract top talent in your industry. Use the steps above to evaluate your current hiring practices and refine them to attract more clients. Employ AI-based recruitment tools to standardize interview questions and remove gender-specific terminology from your job descriptions.
Interview your current workforce and examine how you can improve your internal commitment to DEI. Once you’ve set goals and put procedures in place to reach them, analyze your results. Set and measure your key performance indicators and use what you’ve learned to optimize your recruitment and hiring process.
Five Diversity Recruitment Best Practices For 2022 (forbes.com)
While companies were previously hesitant to re-hire talent that had left an organization, many leaders increasingly recognize the significant benefits of ‘boomerang workers’. These re-hired employees bring a unique set of knowledge and experience from their previous tenure coupled with new skills and perspectives from their experience outside the company.
We can all succeed
In today’s competitive labor market, returning employees can be invaluable hires, say experts GETTY
Sharon Witzrabin, VP of HR at Skai, an advertising technology company, says, “In the past three years we have had 14 employees that have left us and returned, which make up an incredible 6% of our hires during this timeframe.” He continues, “We’ve had people returning to us from the largest and most successful companies in the world, but also smaller startups and other mid-sized businesses.
Some returned after only a few months, and some after a few years, with the main reason for returning being the employee experience.” Witzrabin consequently believes returning employees felt like the culture of working at Skai was something they could never replicate at other workplaces. The quality of the people, integrity, passion and care from the company are appreciated. “Once you find a place with a culture that fits you, it is a very difficult thing to let go of it or to find elsewhere,” he concludes.
A key benefit to hiring boomerang employees is rapid onboarding. Because these individuals have worked at the company before, there are fewer knowledge gaps to fill. Boomerang employees know – at least to some extent – the systems and tools a company uses, the key stakeholders, and the goals of the company. Making onboarding faster is critical, especially now when many companies have various open roles to fill.
It is important to note that engagement and having social connections within an organization is critical, and with a boomerang worker, those have likely already been established. Especially when remote working, it’s been extremely challenging for employees – especially new joiners – to connect and bond with their colleagues. A returning employee often has their tight-knit community already in place, or at minimum an existing community, making it easier for them to reassimilate socially.
Margo Kahnrose, the CMO of Skai, and herself a boomerang worker, comments, “leaving a company gives you better clarity and more perspective on your experience there than you can get while you’re actually on the job day-to-day.” She consequently believes her decision to return was because she appreciated the company’s values-centric culture, visionary leadership, and inherent diversity anew. Moreover, it was an environment Kahnrose was eager to return to from a personal values standpoint. She adds, “The cherry on top was that company was (and still is) on an exciting trajectory, having made an early bet on the new high-growth marketing channel of retail media while reaching profitability from the baseline business, and making forays into data intelligence I found incredibly interesting.”
When asked to consider what is keeping her at Skai now, Kahnrose explained that the company toes a delicate balance between startup culture—and all of its implied ways of working—and established, stable, reputable business that serves thousands of major brands. That means the best of both worlds for ambitious employees because there is little red tape or bureaucracy, loads of energy to move quickly and innovate, and paycheck security and core values that create unity and guide decisions.
“My growth path in the company, from website manager to brand director to CMO is testament to the executive mentors who have invested in me, that good work goes rewarded and potential gets recognized at Skai.” Kahnrose adds, “It’s a bonus that Skai is the most globally and culturally diverse organization I’ve been part of and one that values women in leadership.” She continues, “It’s a place where the work is continuously interesting and where empathy and humanity guide the hard decisions. I’ve gotten to a point in my career where that’s the only real calculus that matters.”
There is no single explanation for the phenomenon of boomerang employees. People leave and return for various reasons: it may be due to pandemic layoffs and furloughs, major life events, or to progress in their careers. But we see that both employees and HR departments are more open to returning/accepting old employees than in the past.
The key to attracting your old employees is their exit experience, according to Christina Gialleli, director of people operations at Epignosis, a leading software house in learning tech. She believes in conducting a successful exit interview, having an honest discussion, showing appreciation for their time with your company, showing that you want to keep in touch and that your door is always open for them. Conducting a thorough exit interview also ensures that you have captured the “eligibility” for re-hiring; for example, someone who profoundly clashes with the company’s work will not work out if they rejoin.
We all approach our professions differently as our careers progress and grow as people. When we look back at past experiences, many of us wish we’d handled a challenge differently, developed a relationship further, or made a personal connection that we never got around to. Being a boomerang gives you the rare opportunity to approach a familiar environment with new perspectives, new skills and experience acquired during any amount of time away, and added confidence. “I can’t think of a richer or more formative professional experience than that,” comments Kahnrose.
Practically speaking, returning to a former team allows you to skip many of the discomforts of onboarding to an entirely new company and get right to work, often seeing things more clearly than the first time around. It’s a chance to leave behind the noise that accumulates over time, assess and test your personal and professional growth, appreciate your evolution and bring all of that advancement to help a company to which you’re already deeply connected win in its next chapter.
Blue Monday: Accounting firms aim to encourage mental wellbeing
With one in four Britons experiencing mental health concerns each year, there are a number of new and renewed mental health measures that firms can implement to create a healthier workplace.
The idea of ‘Blue Monday’ originated as a public relations stunt in 2004, when it was used in a press release to promote a travel firm’s winter deals. However, organisations have since used the opportunity to discuss mental health.
Touted as the most depressing day of the year, the third Monday of every January brings winter weather across Europe. Coupled with the long hours and late working nights common at this time of the year in the accounting sector, there is plenty of opportunity for seemingly-minor mental health problems to escalate from added stress, according to the Mental Health Foundation.
It shows. On accountancy forums such as Reddit’s r/accounting, threads on topics like “I can’t take this anymore” and “If audit is causing my depression, should I quit?” are incredibly popular, with users commiserating over their experiences.
Of course, accountancy does not create depression, but studies cited by the World Health Organisation have shown that difficult work environments, like those found at busy accounting firms, can influence employees’ mental health.
“We know from our research that four in 10 British employees are close to breaking point, meaning that now more than ever, we as a nation need to begin working to look at the causes of stress and to improve our lines of communication and coping mechanisms,” said Kelly Feehan, Services Director at accountancy charity CABA, in a press release.
Is mental health actually a problem?
According to mental health charity Mind, depression is the second leading disability worldwide, and in the UK, one in four people experience a mental health problem each year.
Additionally, the charity reports that one in six people in England experience a mental health problem like anxiety or depression in any given week.
The Big Four have introduced wellbeing measures into their offices, such as Deloitte’s Mind, Body & Purpose programme and KPMG UK’s Be Mindful initiative. Similarly, EY has introduced its EY Mental Health Network and trained over 700 members of staff to provide support to colleagues affected by mental health issues.
“Mental health can impact your life in so many ways and can often go unnoticed by people around you, as behaviour sometimes changes very gradually,” said Chris McCartney, Associate Director at EY, via email. “That is, until it becomes so big it’s not easy to hide and people wonder what happened.”
In addition to his director role, McCartney is also one of EY’s 700-plus mental health first aiders (MHFA). Those trained as MHFAs attend a two-day course, which teaches them how to identify a co-worker who may be struggling, and how to provide them with appropriate support.
“One person specifically sought me out as a MHFA and we spoke for months,” said McCartney. “There had been six months of gradual deterioration in their work and there was something more deep-rooted than underperforming behind this.
“My role as a MHFA was a good bridge for them at an uncertain time; they felt unsure whether this was a situation that they needed to ‘tough out’ or whether they needed to consider professional help. Throughout conversations, I was able to help this individual seek professional support and direct them to resources we have available.”
A new era of mental health support
From international mega-firms to small regional offerings, a study published by the Centre for Creative Leadership showed that a key part of offering appropriate mental health support is doing so in an empathetic manner.
Mental health is a difficult subject for many people to discuss, particularly in workplaces that place importance on professionality. As such, small acts of empathy can be extremely helpful for struggling employees, according to Mind.
The government’s Access to Work scheme recommends allowing employees to work from home when their mental health is poor, and implementing back-to-work schemes for employees who need additional support. Overall, employers should remember that mental health can deteriorate quickly, leaving employees in a suddenly fragile mental state.
Whether an employee just needs a day at home, or a longer-term stay in hospital, the World Health Organisation recommends providing them with the same level of empathy and understanding—letting them know they have a job to come back to.
At the end of the day, firms need to remember that their employees are human, and humans need support.
“When somebody feels they have nowhere to turn, that’s tough,” according to McCartney. “There are often very few outward signs that someone is going through a hard time.
“It’s important to continue educating and training employees to spot the signs and continue efforts to make the workplace a safe place for people to be honest and talk about what’s on their mind
Could the UK and the EU keep negotiating?
The post-Brexit trade talks may be inching towards an agreement - but it is still possible the two sides will run out of time.
The current transition period, during which the UK continues to follow EU rules, began when the UK left the EU, on 31 January, and it ends on New Year's Eve.
If there is no agreement by then, the UK would have no deal with the EU on trade, or on other issues such as security co-operation and fishing.
But could there be a legal fix to allow both sides to keep talking if necessary?
And what would happen if a deal was agreed only at the very last minute?
Could the transition period be extended?
The transition period was designed to preserve current arrangements temporarily and avoid disruption, to allow for negotiations.
But there is no legal basis for extending it.
It's part of an international treaty, the Brexit withdrawal agreement, that said any extension would have to be agreed before 1 July 2020.
And the UK decided not to ask for an extension.
Could there be another sort of extension?
If they wanted to, EU governments and the UK could, in theory, come up with an international agreement outside EU law to give them a temporary extension.
Some international lawyers have also suggested it might be possible to reuse Article 50, the legal basis for the UK's exit from the EU.
But EU lawyers have rejected that.
Any plan for a further brief extension would probably be challenged in the courts.
It could, though, buy a few extra weeks before that challenge was heard.
Again in theory, that could allow the two sides to complete negotiations not quite finished or give more time for parliaments on both sides to examine a deal properly.
But - and it is a big but - the UK has said in the past it would not consider any kind of extension, and the cabinet office minister Michael Gove confirmed that on Thursday.
"If it is the case that we can't secure an agreement by 31 December, that's it," he said.
From a legal perspective, the impossible sometimes becomes possible in negotiations involving the EU, once creative lawyers sit down at the table.
"It's legally tricky," Catherine Barnard, professor of EU law, at the University of Cambridge, says.
"But you should never underestimate the ingenuity of lawyers, particularly when their backs are up against the wall."
Is a last-minute deal possible?
Yes, but the window is very small.
Any agreement would need to be vetted by lawyers on both sides - they call it "legal scrubbing" - and translated.
Most of that has probably already been done - there are only a few areas of disagreement left.
What are the sticking points in Brexit trade talks?
But the deal would still have to be scrutinised and approved - or ratified - by parliamentarians.
And the time to go through hundreds of pages of dense legal text with any degree of thoroughness is fast running out.
If there were to be awkward compromises hidden within the text - and there would be - there are politicians who would like to find them.
An agreement would, after all, form the basis of EU-UK relations for years to come.
In the UK, that scrutiny would happen at Westminster, where the government has a big majority in the House of Commons.
The devolved parliaments and assemblies would not have a separate vote.
Normally, a treaty can be ratified only at least 21 sitting - or working - days after it has first been presented to Parliament.
But in exceptional circumstances, the government has the power to push ratification through in a single day.
What about EU parliaments?
The process on the EU side would be more complicated because 27 countries are involved.
Agreements are described as either "EU only", which means they involve changing things which are the exclusive responsibility of the EU as a whole, or "mixed", which means they also include things which are the exclusive responsibility of individual member states.
Mixed agreements usually need to be ratified by national and in some cases regional parliaments - but not always.
The recent EU-Japan free trade agreement, for example, contained some mixed provisions but it was decided ratification was necessary at EU level only.
And it is widely assumed the same thing would happen with an EU-UK deal.
In those circumstances a deal would need the written agreement of the Council of the European Union, which could be signed off by government ministers or even ambassadors from each of the member states, and the consent of members of the European Parliament (MEPs).
"Both could give their approval as late as 31 December," Georgina Wright, an associate at the Institute for Government, says.
The European Parliament set a deadline for a trade deal to be reached by 20 December, so it could organise a special session to consider it before the end of the month.
But because this hasn't happened, the Chairman of its Foreign Affairs Committee, David McAllister tweeted, "The European Parliament will not be in a position to grant consent to an agreement this year".
Could the agreement be applied anyway?
EU law (Article 218 paragraph 5 of the EU treaty) allows the council to give the go-ahead for an agreement to be signed and applied provisionally, without formally consulting the European Parliament.
That means things such as tariff-free trade - with no taxes to pay on imports - could continue without parliamentary consent.
Reality Check unpacks the basics.
But that's never happened with an EU trade deal before.
And it would be very controversial with some MEPs.
But plenty of MEPs say they need more time to examine an agreement properly.
And this would be another way to give them that time.
The alternative would be to have a brief no-deal period in January before a delayed agreement came into force.
But Michael Gove said the UK would be unwilling to accept that, and insisted that ratification in the UK parliament must be completed this year.
Nevertheless, a provisional arrangement on the EU side would be in line with Article XXIV of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt).
It is a piece of international trade law that allows countries to reach "interim" agreements, so they can offer preferential trade terms to each other before they have signed off a full trade deal.
We've talked about Article XXIV before.
Earlier in the Brexit process, it was incorrectly put forward as a solution to allow free trade even if no agreement was in place.
So it's a race against time?
For now, everything rests on intense negotiations behind the scenes.
"The clock puts us all in a very difficult situation," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told MEPs on 16 December, "not least this parliament and its right to exercise democratic scrutiny and ratification."
The process is unlikely to be straightforward over the next few weeks, partly because this is all uncharted territory.
But if no-deal is the end result, it won't be the process that is responsible.
It will be politics.
What We Know
The Government announced on 2 November 2020 that it will double the level of financial support for self-employed workers in November during the second coronavirus lockdown in England.
The Self-Employment Income Support Scheme Extension provides critical support to the self-employed in the form of two grants, each available for three-month periods covering 1 November 2020 to January 2021 and February 2021 to April 2021.
Who Can Claim
To be eligible for the Grant Extension self-employed individuals, including members of partnerships must:
- Have been previously eligible for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme first and second grant (although they do not have to have claimed the previous grants).
- Declare that they intend to continue to trade and either:
- Are currently actively trading but impacted by reduced demand due to coronavirus
- Were previously trading but are temporarily unable to do so due to coronavirus
What the Grant Extension Covers
The extension will last for six months, from November 2020 to April 2021. Grants will be paid in two lump sum instalments each covering a three-month period.
The first grant will cover a three-month period from 1 November 2020 until 31 January 2021. The self-employment income support scheme (SEISS) would be increased from 40% to 80% of trading profits for the month of November, paid out in a single instalment covering 3 months’ worth of profits. Including the new higher November grant, it means the November 2020 – January 2021 payment will be to an average 55% of trading profits up to a maximum of £5,160 in total (or £1,720 per month).
The Government are providing broadly the same level of support for the self-employed as is being provided for employees through the Job Support Scheme.
The second grant will cover a three-month period from 1 February 2021 until 30 April 2021. The Government will review the level of the second grant and set this in due course.
The grants are taxable income and also subject to National Insurance contributions.
How to Claim
The online service for the new enhanced scheme will open from the end of November 2020. HMRC will provide full details about claiming and applications in guidance on GOV.UK in due course.
SBA Releases Additional Guidance and a New Loan Forgiveness Form for PPP Loans of $50,000 or Less
On the evening on October 8, 2020, the Small Business Administration (SBA) in conjunction with the U.S. Treasury issued additional guidance for small Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans of $50,000 or less, along with a new PPP loan forgiveness application, Form 3508S. This new form creates a more simplified application process for smaller PPP borrowers and also allows such borrowers to still qualify for full loan forgiveness even if they have a reduction in full time equivalency (“FTEs”) or salary amounts.
To qualify to use the new form, the borrower must have received a PPP loan of $50,000 or less. Further, a borrower that, together with its affiliates received PPP loans of $2 million or greater cannot use the new form. The new Form 3508S contains an expiration date of October 31, 2020, thus, it is unclear if the SBA and Treasury intend for this new form to be available for smaller borrowers that are still using the PPP loan proceeds (i.e., their “covered period” has not expired yet) beyond the stated October 31, 2020 expiration date.
Small borrowers meeting the $50,000 threshold can still qualify for full loan forgiveness even if they have reduced either or both FTEs and salary amounts that would otherwise result in a reduction in loan forgiveness (i.e., the SBA and Treasury determined that smaller borrowers meeting the Form 3508S eligibility test should be exempt from the reduction penalties that would otherwise result from a reduction in FTEs or salary levels. The new Form 3508S application form contains certain certifications that the borrower must sign including statements that the PPP loan proceeds were used for otherwise eligible payroll and non-payroll costs. Further, the borrower must still submit documentation such as payroll records that verify the costs included in the PPP loan forgiveness application.