HR Archives | HR Search | HR Recruitment Specialist

Are competency-based interviews a thing of the past?

Are competency-based interviews a thing of the past?

By Jessica Finn|2020-10-28T11:24:53+01:00September 17th, 2020|HR, HR Tips, HR Trends|

I recently assisted a client with hiring a HR Business Partner and when chatting through the interview process and format, they mentioned that they prefer to conduct conversational type interviews rather than competency based interviews. This got me thinking, are competency based interviews a thing of the past? And is it better to have a more conversational style interview? This was music to my ears, and the candidates’, as competency questions and answers can come across as rehearsed and unauthentic. Candidates and clients alike, like to get to know each other on a professional and personal level and by having a more conversational style interview can weed out any uncertainties and is a much more honest approach. Having carried out some research on this, I came across two more personal styles of interviews that I think could be more current and suitable for today’s environment. Soft-Skill Assessments - Soft skills are the non-technical skills needed to do a job. Individuals with soft skills can work well with others, come up with new ideas, and thrive in their environment. Examples of soft skills include integrity, adaptability and communication. As recruiters, we have to find candidates who have both hard and soft skills, but soft skills can determine if the candidate will be a good fit for the position. In order to assess a candidates soft-skills, interviewers should ask behavioural interview questions, such as; Was there ever a time when you saw a co-worker do something wrong? What did you do? Hard skills are evident on a candidates CV but [...]

WFH meetings are becoming VIRTUALLY Impossible!

WFH meetings are becoming VIRTUALLY Impossible!

By Niamh Kennelly|2020-08-20T20:06:48+01:00August 20th, 2020|HR Tips, Remote Working|

While a lot of the strangeness of working remotely starts to become more familiar, the shaping of the new normal is a real focus point for us. We are sharing our thoughts now on what is working for us and what is not and what we want to bring forward and what we want to discard forever. Crisis has always been a catalyst for change and the Covid 19 pandemic has accelerated change at a significant level on how we are working together, not least of all in our meetings. The virtual team meeting is up for a lot of discussion and the word on the web is that it has become a forum of frustration for lot of home workers. From my discussions with clients it seems that Video Team Meetings in the shape of Team meets, Zoom or Google Hangouts are set to recur at least weekly in everyone’s calendars and they rarely have an agenda. They might have a title like ‘Team Check In’ or ‘Update’ but other than that there is no real sense of their purpose. Managing meetings is a skill, most of the meeting leaders already have this skill and have proven their prowess in the office meeting room for years. Why then in their transition to the web meeting have they lost their know-how along the way ? Yes there are few additional technical points to consider and you might need to upskill yourself on screen sharing, polling the group, breakouts and the valuable skill of muting participants but [...]

HR Search’s Guide to Remote Recruiting & Onboarding

HR Search’s Guide to Remote Recruiting & Onboarding

By Niamh Kennelly|2020-05-06T17:03:19+01:00May 5th, 2020|HR, Remote Working, Uncategorized|

Everyone in the world is getting a crash course in working from home now but this is underpinned by a greater business challenge, that of Business Continuity. Initially, for most organisations, the Covid 19 pandemic triggered a hiring freeze and even hiring processes which were mid-way or close to closure were put on hold. However, here in HR Search we are working closely with our client partners and candidates to keep the recruitment assignments moving forward and together we are embarking on an interesting collaborative journey indeed. HR Search has gained real insights from our client partners on how they are making this remote interviewing and on-boarding happen and we wanted to share these with you to help show how it can work. If you would like a full copy of the case studies please get in touch with with us here. Hopefully it will help you navigate through the uncertainty of Covid-19. It may also be an opportunity to trial, what might become the new normal. We hope you find it useful! Niamh & Jess | HR Search Case study findings The most surprising thing for me is the speed of the hiring process from shortlisting, interviewing and job offers! Some previous recruitment projects would have taken 6-8 weeks and beyond, but we have in recent hires, reduced that to 3 and 4 weeks. What systems are HR using to recruit & onboard? We also see our successful hires joining organisations remotely, getting an opportunity to understand the policies, structures and culture at the outset and [...]

The Coach Recruiter

The Coach Recruiter

By Niamh Kennelly|2020-11-05T21:42:01+01:00May 23rd, 2019|HR|

Last year I contributed to a feature in the Irish Times Saturday magazine titled ‘How to Change your Life’. My piece (linked here) was on coaching, how I help clients create awareness around what needs to change for them, to understand what’s getting in their way and to help them take meaningful steps to get to where to where they want to go. At the core of all our decision-making is choice. During the piece Una Mullally, the feature writer, asked ‘so! are you more of a Life Coach or a Career Coach?’ A fair question, as I work for HR Search, a specialised Human Resources recruitment company, but I am also a qualified and practising personal coach. For anyone who has trained to be a Coach and passionately embraces coaching, they will recognise the truth in my answer, I said that “recruiting is what I do, being a Coach is who I am”. Coaching is integrated into how I do everything. “Recruiting is what I do, being a Coach is who I am” As a supportive mechanism, to help people forward in their lives, personal coaching is now widely accessed. Executive and job performance coaching has been a norm in the corporate world for some time and in-house coaching practice is growing in the SME and public sectors. One place that you don’t see a lot of coaching practice, is in the recruitment area. It tends to weigh more on the transactional side by its nature and model. However, to my coaching mindset, it is where [...]

What is HR Analytics?

What is HR Analytics?

By Jessica Finn|2019-05-09T11:51:21+01:00April 12th, 2019|HR, HR Analytics|

Today I attended a very insightful seminar which focused on HR Analytics, the new buzz word or phrase, that is being bounced around the HR market. The aim of the event, held by CIPD and UCD Smurfit Business School, was to enlighten the audience and offer an understanding as to what HR Analytics is, the benefits of implementing this in to your organisation and how to implement. For me, I was keen to attend as more and more of our clients seem to be investing in to this area and it’s important that I’m up to scratch with the lingo and requirements when asked to help them hire HR Analysts in the future! If, like I was, you are unsure about what HR Analytics actually means then hopefully this blog will provide a brief overview for you. According to CIPD; HR Analytics is the use of people-data in analytical processes to solve business problems. In essence, HR Analytics helps HR and their stakeholders to measure and report on key workforce concepts such as; performance, well-being and productivity and thus enables more evidence-based decision making. Why implement HR Analytics? There are numerous reasons why companies should follow suit and consider implementing HR Analytics. Overall the main aim of it would be to improve a company’s performance and analytics can help by; Improving staff retention; as analytics can uncover patterns and predict employees who are likely to resign Improving hiring; algorithms allow companies to identify which traits lead to success and therefore companies can shape who they should [...]

What does the role of HR look like in 2019?

What does the role of HR look like in 2019?

By Caoilinn Taylor|2019-04-17T15:06:29+01:00April 11th, 2019|HR, HR Trends|

What does the role of HR look like in 2019 – Have you positioned HR to allow strategic contribution to the future success of your organisation? On a daily basis, the most common conversation I have with prospective senior candidates is about the content of a role profile and how Operational vs Strategic the role is (in reality). From a recruitment perspective, I decided jot down some of my observations about the direction HR is taking, and what I am seeing on the marketplace currently when sourcing for Senior HR Manager/ BP/ Director roles. It has really changed drastically during my time in recruitment. What is a strategic HR role? This is where HR has moved away from the tactical, hands on work and no longer working in the day to day. It is a true focus on aligning business objectives to the people strategy, an identification of long-term or overall business aims and interests and the means of achieving them through people. It takes shape in an environment where leadership feel passionately about having people number 1 on the agenda to drive the company to success. Strategic HR work involves expertise in talent management, brand values, attraction and retention capabilities, workforce planning, organisational design and effectiveness. There is a huge movement away from a tactical and reactive HR towards being strategic, deliberate people teams who take a fully rounded, holistic view of HR that add value at a C-Suite level. “It is almost impossible to achieve sustainable success without an outstanding CHRO who should be a key sparring [...]

How Disruptive is your HR Team?

How Disruptive is your HR Team?

By Jessica Finn|2018-10-11T16:07:27+01:00October 9th, 2018|HR, Uncategorized|

I was lucky enough to attend the latest DisruptHR event last night, hosted by Arthur Cox in their fabulous Dublin offices. For those of you who are unfamiliar with DisruptHR, it is “an information exchange designed to energise, inform and empower leaders who are passionate about talent”, and last night certainly lived up to that, as I came away with a bucket full of golden nuggets. DisruptHR events have taken place in 86 cities so far, and was the second time it hit the Emerald Isle. As the title suggests, the aim is to be disruptive and challenge to status quo. Therefore, the format of the evening is somewhat disruptive, with 12 speakers each allowed 5 minutes to present on the topic of their choice. It is a fun and different way to keep the audience captivated and interested, compared to those drawn out talks we have all been to! All of the speakers have been recognised in their fields and it truly was a treat to hear them speak so passionately about HR and to be in the same room as such thought leaders. It would be hard (and boring for you) to comment on every speaker, but there were three speakers who’s topics resonated with me the most and who spoke about areas that every HR team/ professional should take on board. Firstly, Clint Clarkson, Founder & Managing Partner of eLearning Alchemy Ltd., presented on his topic titled; Training Guru Says…. During his five minutes, Clint spoke about how your training department can stop being seen as just [...]

Is your hiring process HOT or NOT?

Is your hiring process HOT or NOT?

By Caoilinn Taylor|2018-04-09T09:26:48+01:00August 24th, 2017|HR, Tips for employers|

You’ve advertised a role and have been inundated with applications, great! Surely, you’ll get strong candidates and can pick and choose who you want…right? In an interview process, often we find that it can be the employer who feel they are in charge and leading the interview process. After all, as an employer you are giving a candidate a great opportunity…?Unfortunately, that really isn’t the case, in an increasingly growing and buoyant candidate driven market it is easy to forget that candidates often have several different interviews in a week. These candidates who are in hot demand are being asked to sell whilst simultaneously being sold to. Whilst the interviewer can sell the perks and benefits on why your company is the best company in all the land, is your company and the people you work with selling the benefits? Recently, we had a candidate interviewing for a role within a large, well known company. The interview process involved several stages. All had gone well and the candidate was progressing. However, at the last stage when our candidate was waiting in reception, her initial interviewer passed her, and was not only not recognised but ignored (3 interviews later!). In addition, she was asked at each stage for identifying documents despite providing the required documents on day one. For the candidate, these were deciding factors. She turned down the offer and accepted one from a much smaller company with a shorter contract, but who had a more positive, personal and friendly atmosphere. Take a look at your company. What sort [...]

HR Manager & HR Business Partner – What’s the difference?

HR Manager & HR Business Partner – What’s the difference?

By Caoilinn Taylor|2018-04-09T09:36:23+01:00May 30th, 2017|HR, HR Tips|

HR typically started as a business function by having its roots in administration, filing, personnel and compliance. HR is an ever evolving value add area of a company, and presently has more impact than ever before for a core business. With this change over the past decade, has changed the nature and structure of HR teams, the titles, skills and attributes of those working in this dynamic field. Today, I was discussing the many differences between a HR Manager Role and a HR Business Partner role with a HR professional who has held both positions within companies. After what was a very interesting conversation, I decided to attempt to outline and simplify the fundamental differences between the two titles/roles. HR Business Partner Human resource business partners have clients within the organization that they support. They provide resources and build relationships with focusing on the missions and objectives set forth by the organization. With the main bulk of administration being centralised, there is much less focus on compliance and administration. In addition, HRBP’s tend to be supported by Centres of Excellence eg Compensations and Benefits, Learning and Development etc. This person is seen as more of a strategic resource for the region or area that they support. Business Partners work to develop a HR agenda that closely supports the overall aims of an organisation. This process of alignment is known as HR Business Partnering, a concept that was popularised in the mid 90’s by David Ulrich. HR Manager HR managers are likely to be responsible for HR within a department [...]