We work with our clients to help them recruit and often act as the point of contact for people who are interested in applying.  Not only does that give us the opportunity to ensure that the customer’s employer brand is well looked after by keeping in touch with the applicants, answering their queries, acknowledging receipt of their applications etc, but it also means that we are usually the first ones to read the CVs. 

Having received a CV this morning with the candidate’s photo on, I posed the question on Twitter as to how people feel about CVs with photos.  The responses ranged from “off-putting” to “should be mandatory”, both of which are rather extreme. 

From experience of having seen a number of CVs over the years, I’d say that the ones with photos are much less frequent than ones without. 

I’m very excited to be one of the first people to use a brand new service called Plugin Recruiter so I thought it would be useful to record my experiences as I go through the process. 

I help clients with their recruitment processes to find the right people.  That starts with the basics of who is that right person, what does their job look like and what skills do they need to do that job.  Once we’ve done that, we then look at how to advertise the role and where that advertising is best placed.  Depending on the position, there are various options around advertising and I certainly don’t advocate a “one size fits all” approach. 

I’ve never been able to justify the costs associated with newspaper advertising so always look at online job boards as an alternative.  However, I find it a nightmare to juggle lots of different online job board accounts so the idea of using a service that allows me to post a job on lots of different job boards through one master account is very appealing. 

As HR professionals, diversity should be our watchword. We are taught to abhor discriminatory attitudes, take umbrage at the slightest hint of prejudice and fight for the rights of disadvantaged employees and candidates. We are scrutinised at every turn for unfair practices or unreasonable behaviour.

Interesting then that the latest statistics via XpertHR tell us that the HR profession in 2011/12 is three-quarters female. How diverse, non-discriminatory and fair can that be? Just how have we got into the position where we’re writing diversity policies but not for us?

These questions formed a fascinating conversation on Twitter recently when I happened to remark to Michael Carty, Benchmarking Editor of XpertHR that these statistics were borne out by my own experiences. I attend a number of events where HR professionals gather and always notice the distinct lack of men in the room. At a recent CIPD event, male attendees formed less than 10% of the numbers attending. This seems to be the experience of many others in the profession.

Absent without leave. It happens more often than you’d think.  Your employee goes on holiday and “forgets” to come back to work.  Your employee on maternity leave or sick leave doesn’t communicate with you regarding their return to work.  You’re left trying to figure out what’s going on and what to do next. 

In these circumstances, it could be seen as reasonable for you to consider that the employee has effectively resigned and to act accordingly.  However, Employment Tribunals tend not to agree.  You cannot assume that an employee has resigned and must instead go through the proper disciplinary process.

Not turning up for work and not having a good reason for being absent generally constitutes a breach of contract.  You are perfectly entitled to dismiss an employee on that basis, having first followed the correct procedure.  Before moving to disciplinary proceedings, you must have made a number of attempts, via all available means, to contact the employee.  Having received no response, you must then write to the employee inviting them to attend a disciplinary hearing, ensuring that you send the letter recorded delivery to verify whether or not it has been received.

So, you’ve made a job offer.  It’s been accepted.  Everything’s going great until you discover that the work you’d been banking on hasn’t come in.  Or your biggest customer has gone belly up, without paying your last invoices.  Suddenly, cash flow is a major problem and you can’t see how you’re going to pay your new employee.  It would just be easier to retract the job offer, wouldn’t it?  That way, they don’t start working for you and you don’t have to pay them.

Here’s the bad news. 

Once you’ve made an unconditional job offer and it’s been accepted, a binding contract of employment comes into force.  That’s even if the job offer has only been made and accepted verbally and the employee hasn’t started working with you yet.  If you then withdraw the job offer, in the eyes of the law you are in breach of contract.

Yesterday’s post covered things employers should know about apprenticeships.  The key message was that apprentices are not exploitable labour and if you’re going to take on an apprentice, you really do have to support them through their training.  Jo Evans of Emerald Frog Marketing asked the very valid question – what obligations does the apprentice have?

 The official apprenticeships website informs would-be apprentices that:

“…competition for places with employers can be fierce, so you will need to show that you are committed, and aware of your responsibilities to both yourself and the company who would employ you. You also need to be happy to work as both part of a team and individually, and be able to use your own initiative.”

As an employer, there are some key things you need to be aware of when it comes to apprenticeships.  You need to understand what they are, what you can use them for and what’s in it for you.  You also need to understand your obligations – what does the apprentice expect and need from you?

The basics

Apprenticeships are work-based training programmes designed around the needs of employers, which lead to national recognised qualifications.

  Sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it?  Lots of lovely free labour and in return, you show them exactly how to do the job you’re not paying them for.  You’ll pay them their expenses, won’t you, to make sure they’re not out of pocket.  In the meantime, you’ll moan about clients who expect you to put design briefs together, attend numerous meetings and generally carry out work for which they have no intention of paying you.  Oh.  Is that the sound of the proverbial penny dropping?

No one likes doing work they’re not going to get paid for unless they’re a volunteer.  Normally if that’s the case then the person volunteering does so for a good cause, not solely to line someone else’s pockets.  Most people consider that to be exploitation. 

Unfortunately, we appear to have gained a culture of unpaid internships here in the UK.  I’ve heard stories of airlines having pilots work for them for free as they need to keep up their flying hours for their licences while they look for work.  It’s well known that  unpaid internships are rife in the publishing industry and also in the fashion industry.  I’ve heard that some employers use excuses for free labour like “you must be self-employed” and “we only pay expenses for work experience”. 

I’m often asked for a quick way to work out people’s holiday entitlements so here goes.  Please note that this applies to people working fixed hours only.

 Every employee working fixed hours is entitled to 5.6 weeks holiday (this includes their Bank Holiday/Public Holiday entitlement).

 To work out exactly how many days each employee is entitled to per year:

Today, the story that’s caught my attention is this one about the HR Executive “forced out of his job” over his LinkedIn CV and, judging by the number of times I’ve seen it mentioned on LinkedIn and on my Twitter stream, it’s a story that’s getting a lot of attention. 

In a nutshell, the company disciplined the employee for his use of LinkedIn, specifically for ticking the “interested in career opportunities” option and also for disclosing confidential information about the company.  The dispute led to the employee resigning and taking a claim for constructive dismissal. 

I’ll be following the case with interest because I think it has wider implications for employers and the usual attempts to “control” social media use by their employees.  I wonder if the Tribunal will consider the employer’s actions reasonable in this case?