Straight talking

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It’s the age-old question that’s posed at interviews, in the hope of getting an honest answer – “So why did you leave your last job?”. It’s a favourite question of interviewers, because if you haven’t rehearsed an answer beforehand, it can really put you on the spot.

Quick thinking

If you’re unprepared, your answer can reveal a lot about your character. It can also show how you react under pressure. If you haven’t already given this response some thought, it will result in the following internal dialogue. “Oh”, your brain says, “why did I leave my l last job? Quick, don’t mention who you fell out with, come up with something plausible”. Your response is even trickier if you didn’t leave your last role voluntarily. However, honesty is always the best policy. It’s possible to be entirely truthful and yet strategic in your response. Under no circumstances lie in an interview. The risks of being found out far outweigh any possible benefit. Facts can easily be checked by contacting your former employer. With networking and social media and platforms such as LinkedIn, this is even easier to do these days.

Questions and answers

Answering strategically will put a positive spin on the situation, even if in reality the situation impacted you negatively. For example, if you were made redundant by your former employer, then explain that your job role was redundant due to restructuring or downsizing. Avoid an overtly emotional response. This may make you sound like a victim. Be sure to highlight your accomplishments in your former role. Don’t focus on how and why it came to an end, but on how excited you are by this new opportunity – and how it matches your skillset.

Don’t allow yourself to be led into saying anything detrimental about your former employer. Industries are often quite small and you may quite unknowingly be speaking to one of their friends or acquaintances – if not in person, then maybe online. Speaking negatively about a place you used to work comes across as unprofessional. This is not going to show you in a good light in front of your potential employer.

Positive activity

When you have been unemployed long term, try not to sound defensive about it. Focus on the positive activity you have undertaken during your unemployment. This could be voluntary work, freelancing or temping – and the experience you have gained from this interim period. If you have moved around a great deal, changing roles frequently after just a few months, make sure you present each move as a positive one for you career-wise. Alarm bells might ring if employers see too many jobs on your CV in a short period of time. If an explanation is required, concentrate on the positives gained from each role. If you have moved between industries, make sure you have good reasoning prepared that reflects well on you.

As always, practice makes perfect. Practising your responses to particularly tricky questions will mean your answers don’t come over as hurried or panicky. You need your answers to be confident and relaxed, to reassure your potential employer that you’re just the candidate they’re looking for. Recruit a friend to help you, practise using online platforms such as Zoom or Teams. Or even rehearse in front of a mirror – it can be a great help in building your confidence before the real thing.

Energy efficiency in business

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Time is a valuable commodity. No one wants to waste their time, with nothing to show for the expense. But we all know that sometimes in business, you have to speculate to accumulate. If you’re tendering for work, there’s no guarantee you’ll win it, but the hours and effort must be spent pulling a proposal together. Taking the time to create something impressive can often be obvious in the finished product, when compared against work that has been pulled together quickly, with little thought or imagination. Job seeking too is often seen as a lot of effort, for little return – perhaps even more so at the moment, in the highly-competitive employment market.

Where to put your energies?

Whether through confidence or time constraints, many people avoid networking if they can. But did you know that 65% of new jobs come via networking, while 35% of new jobs come from speculative letters, job boards and agencies? The simple fact is people spend far too much time on the 35% and not enough on the 65% – hence the gulf in the two methods’ efficiency.

Networking without borders

It is important not to make assumptions about your network.  Even if a lot of your associates and contacts are not in your area (geographical or business sector), or you don’t think they will be useful, it’s not always the case. In the digital age, we don’t need to think quite so much about location – this much at least has been revealed by the lockdown and remote working – and sector knowledge is often transferable. Even if people you encounter in the course of networking may not seem an immediate fit for you and your sector, they may know someone who is, or they may know about an opportunity that can be conveyed remotely.

Natural communicators

For some people, networking comes naturally. They may be used to dealing with a wide range of people in their daily working lives – or at least they have become adept at appearing to be natural communicators. Either way, they can begin conversations in an organic, non-awkward fashion and be interested in what other people have to say, as well as getting their own messages across. Being able to do this is an enviable skill. However, networking may be daunting for people who are not used to the environment, whether it’s in person, or more prevalently at the moment, online.

A two-way process

Starting with the right approach is really important. If you have a contact or a lead that you would like to pursue, arrange to meet (virtually) for a coffee. Make the tone light, conversational. Don’t go out of your way to ‘sell’ yourself. It needs to be a two-way conversation and relaxed. They might not have a job offer for you, but they might have useful knowledge or recommendations to share, on a route into your next role. If you get something out of the meeting, or even if you don’t, it’s time and energy well spent – and practice for your next one.

In a changing landscape, what will restructuring look like?

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Business is getting back to normal for many of us, with offices beginning to encourage staff back to their desk, if ‘social distancing’ can be upheld. The world of work for many people, however, has changed and some companies are having to rethink their company structures. At any time, company restructures can be challenging – but in the present climate it is even more complicated. Redundancies and job losses cause untold upheaval and can cause stress and uncertainty for employees, who are unsure how the modifications will pan out.

Positive, constructive

It is obviously a difficult period for the whole company, but it can be doubly stressful for the HR professionals. Key members of the team will perhaps have to deal with the angst of employees throughout the organisation, while also having to deal with their own personal uncertainties too. It is worth considering the benefits of outsourcing some elements of the HR function during these transitional periods. By working with a business with a great deal of experience in helping and supporting the HR team during outplacement, managers can provide a strong foundation. In this way, challenges generated by the situation can be addressed in a positive, constructive way.

Professional support

Outplacement professionals can offer vast experience in managing these types of situations, but there are many other benefits to working with a third party too. One of these is the element of distance that your Consultant will have from the emotional turmoil that is potentially impacting on the internal team. Often affected employees find it easier to discuss how they feel and what their next steps might be with a relative stranger, rather than someone they are likely to run into in their everyday workplace or in meetings. Here a bit of distance can actually help find a resolution.

The heart of the process

Without the anchor of usual office life, restructuring has become more complicated, but also considerably more morale-sapping. The uncertainty of the lockdown, the uncertainty of furlough and of how busy businesses will be in the next few months is all uncharted territory. As well as supporting people exiting the business, a Consultant can work closely with the teams remaining to improve morale levels, address development needs and generally help throughout the transitional period. By keeping people at the heart of the process, you have the potential to turn a situation which could be damaging into something positive, both for the people who leave and the ones who remain.  Looking after your workforce in these uncertain times has never been more important.

Finding brilliance in resilience

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Since the beginning of lockdown, many aspects of our lives have been impacted by the effects of changes to our normal behaviour. Things like wearing masks in shops or on public transport, or working from home are starting to feel like they are the norm. How we deal with and adapt to these changes will depend upon how resilient we are.

Positive attitudes

Resilient people know bad things happen. They haven’t been singled out and they know the situation will eventually improve. When any business moves through a transitional period, managers throughout the company are tasked with dealing with the effects of these changes. Whether it’s having to tell someone their role is being made redundant, or addressing low workforce morale, it can be difficult for managers to remain resilient and stay positive. Having strong resilience to some of the emotions associated with change – and recognising their existence – can also positively impact on employees. Presenting a positive attitude will go a long way in helping to promote positive outcomes for everybody. This is especially important during these difficult times.

Bounce back to your best

Emerging stronger from a stressful experience – or an experience you don’t fully understand – can often be attributed to positive thinking. But this can be difficult to do in times of turmoil. Managers who can keep a positive attitude are likely to see the best outcomes, as their approach will encourage employees to channel that positivity and use it for their own personal and professional outcomes too. The term ‘bouncing back’ is often used to describe resilience and those with the most optimistic outlook and greater emotional strength will find it easiest to rebound from challenging times. Resilient people ask if what they are doing is helping or harming them. Recognising the impact negativity has on how we feel increases our powers of resilience.

Be an optimist

Resilient people are careful about what they choose to focus on. They see what they can change and accept what they cannot. Such optimistic, pragmatic approaches to management and communication will create a workforce that has strong good stamina and character. These are key to success in transitional periods. Resilience is based on the mindsets and relationships of the individuals in the team. Focusing on positives, or tuning into the ‘good’, makes us appreciate what we have already achieved.

A company with a positive vision provides employees with a strong forward drive. Managers with the optimism to guide employees will instil the business with a sense of direction. Working together during periods of transition allows everyone to feel valued and an important part of the company. If you help managers be resilient, the workforce will be too. Building resilience within your employees will lead to the workforce coming together to work in union, towards success.

Retaining and rebuilding confidence

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Confidence is needed, now more than ever. As the lockdown in some parts of the UK is eased, and the furlough scheme will soon be coming to an end, employers are having to make some difficult decisions about the future of their companies. The shape of business is changing. Offices will be very different spaces for the immediate future. Knowing that whatever you, your business and your sector face, you will be able to meet these myriad challenges head on, will make a big difference.

Stresses and strains

If the outcome for your firm is redundancy, it’s imperative for HR managers and professionals to help employees retain their confidence. Such changes can be a difficult, nerve-wracking time. Being made redundant is included in the ‘top 10’ most stressful events that could happen in a person’s life. Understandably it can knock someone’s confidence when it happens. However, on the flip-side, it can be seen as a very positive opportunity for those who acknowledge that change has many facets.

One step at a time

When an employee receives the news they are being made redundant, their emotional wellbeing must be considered. Managers should strive to keep their employees’ self-confidence buoyant. This includes supporting them at each stage of the redundancy process. Employees should be provided with someone to talk to and be supported in their search for a new career path and suitable replacement job. The jobs’ market is particularly competitive at the moment in many sectors – and will only become more so, as further restructuring takes place in certain sectors.

An emotional journey

Some people will have friends and family to emotionally support them. But for others redundancy can be a lonely, isolating time. This needs to be eased by providing as much support as possible. Their confidence must be considered and they must be kept informed in a sympathetic, positive way, which considers the impact it will have on them. A considered approach will also encourage employees to be confident and proactive in their new job search. We all know from experience, when someone finds themselves in a daunting situation, it can knock their confidence. Understanding the impact of the unknown will ensure they acknowledge they need to be as positive and confident as the situation demands. This is vital to the process.

Positive, confidence, next

Confidence can make a big difference to a person’s take on life. On how they are going to progress in the future to pursue their next set of challenges. A confident person is more likely to opt for the career path they have always wanted. It might entail some risks, but overall will be more rewarding in the long term. A person lacking in confidence may stay within their tried-and-tested comfort zone, and remain constrained by the parameters of ‘the safe option’. However, in the long-term this may lead to career dissatisfaction and general unhappiness.

Planning your next move

Good communication with an employee is effective in helping with their confidence. Outplacement experts such as Career Evolution can help anxious employees to cope with uncertainty. Having someone to talk to, to discuss their options, will allow them to gather their thoughts and understand what they really want from their career. This thought process alone can restore or instil confidence, and provide the employee with a more positive outlook as they prepare their next career move.

Managing to be successful

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Strong, defined leadership is vital to ensuring your team is onside and on-message.  When your team respects your decisions and your actions, it can make a huge difference overall to team morale. Management has had to adapt to some considerable, sudden changes to work in recent months. But the basics remain the same.

Our experts at Career Evolution have pulled together some informative tips, to help you become a more effective and respected manager, to take your team to the top.

Team spirit

Even in the era of widespread remote working, delegate wisely. Allowing members of the team to undertake and lead certain tasks or projects will not only enable you to focus on other things, but makes your team feel valued. Trust is a big part of working remotely for both employees and managers, so delegating tasks provides them with opportunities to develop and take on greater responsibility.

It’s also important to recognise and reward achievements. Always demonstrate recognition to any employee who has achieved something, whether in work or in their personal life. If it comes to your attention, then show your recognition and admiration.

Doing the right thing

Short-term solutions to work-related challenges may seem attractive, but usually are only a sticking plaster. Think about long-term problems that can be fixed permanently, ensuring that your employees know that you care about finding the right solution for them, for you and for the business as a whole.

It’s also well worth setting goals for employees and teams. Goals provide employees with direction and the motivation to achieve these targets. Incentivising them and rewarding them when they reach their goals is very effective – and even an informal verbal acknowledgement of achievement will be appreciated.

Make time to talk

Remember to communicate. Far too many managers communicate far too little, even in normal times in the office. At the moment, communication between managers and teams is more important than ever. However busy you are, make sure you have time set aside to communicate with your employees. Making sure they are kept in the loop on all matters in these uncertain times will ensure that they don’t feel like they are the ‘last to know’ and have their confidence undermined.

When it comes to employees, make time to show that you care about their opinions and ideas. Be open to speaking to them and understand their point of view.  This is especially important if they are having a difficult time and need someone to speak to.

Work is serious and important but learn to relax a bit too. Get to know your team on a social level and make sure that each one understands that you consider them to be an essential component of the team.

Thinking about these tips can help managers build strong relationships with their employees. This will allow them to feel valued and develop a strong work ethic embedded in the business.

A job strategy that works for you

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There are right and wrong ways to embark on a job search. The more focused you can be will directly influence your results. If you devote time to networking and making contacts, rather than aimlessly applying for everything in sight, you’ll be using your time a lot more wisely and feel as though you’ve achieved more in the process.

Having a clear strategy from the outset (and especially a time constraint on the process) can help you find the right role and make the right decisions for your future. The visible job market accounts for 35% of vacancies. This includes advertisers, recruitment consultancies and agencies. While the hidden job market – which includes networking, direct contacts and vacancies that are filled without ever being made widely known – accounts for 65%. Both are possible avenues, so a considered, strategic approach is required to make the best use of your time.

Browsing the job market

If you are carrying out the job search yourself, the traditional method these days is browsing job advertisements online, on such sites as Indeed and Glassdoor. You can tailor your search and only look at jobs that you are interested in. Or you can widen your search to encompass broader sectors. Going through job adverts is time-consuming though, as each post will need to be reviewed and assessed. Being strict on how long you spend on this each day – as in any online activity – will enable you to make the most of your searches and your available time. Set realistic timescales, so it doesn’t take over your life. The narrower you keep your search parameters, the quicker your search will be. However, this may mean you may miss opportunities that otherwise might have been of interest. It’s a balance you’ll have to find.

Getting lost for words

Commencing a job search will mean you have to get back into the mindset of updating your own CV and online profiles, and also getting a feel for the jobs’ market. This may feel like a chore in the beginning, but becoming familiar with the procedure again will pay dividends in the ongoing process. Too often, people get hooked on LinkedIn and find that two hours have passed without having achieved anything. Browsing online can easily eat into your time and prove unproductive if no headway is made.

Unfortunately, we find it simpler to do this easy stuff, rather that actually picking up the phone and talking to contacts ‘in person’. You can be drawn into reading information online and easily lose an afternoon or evening (or both). You can also end up wasting more time on the job boards than networking and speaking to ‘real’ people, even across online media. Networking via LinkedIn offers a sound approach for job search. LinkedIn is good, as you’ll hopefully already have many connections based on your profile and business links. It is also a format that has remained relevant during lockdown, as pretty much all office-based activity has shifted online.

Outplacement is key

This is where outplacement guidance can help. Good outplacement can not only provide the practical elements of helping with CV preparation and creating a LinkedIn profile. It can also help holistically to reveal what you want to do next – in terms of a career – and the strategy to achieve it. Having a clear idea of your next role will make a big difference to the shape of your search.

By talking to an outplacement specialist, you’ll find you will bounce ideas back and forth, and may unveil new avenues to explore in the process. This approach can also help with the emotional toll a job search can take. Even the most resilient, experienced jobseeker can find some trepidation in the uncertainty of taking steps into the unknown. However, the more focused you are, the more successful you’ll be at landing your next job quickly and having a strategy will provide that focus.

Tiring of lockdown

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The lockdown has taken its toll on peoples’ wellbeing in many different ways. Some have dealt with the situation easily, while others have struggled, particularly with mental health. And the half-in, half-out limbo we seem to be inhabiting at the moment isn’t helping.  You knew where you were with lockdown. Now we’re in this hinterland where the rules are blurred, misinterpreted and misunderstood, leaving many people more fraught now than earlier in the year.

Wellbeing under fire

One of the big challenges of the situation is fatigue. Many people have been working flat-out during this lockdown and some companies are busier than ever.  The impact of this however is there aren’t the usual relief options that many people enjoy to wind down. If you don’t have a garden, you haven’t even got an outdoor space to relax in. Only recently social and leisure activities have been allowed, the little things that help wellbeing and that so many people rely on to unwind. This lack of relief can lead to a feeling of burn-out and listlessness, which for any worker is going to impact on their state of mind and their output.

Coping in crisis

A further knock-on from this is people are beginning to get a little fed-up with the situation. Some staff have been furloughed, which has at least guaranteed income, if not their role remaining when the scheme ends. They are also stressed about the uncertainty surrounding their jobs and their incomes. Will their office even exist in October or beyond, as many companies are using this time to restructure and take stock? If you are concerned about the longevity of your role, you may have already started your job search in what has become a highly competitive market. August is traditionally a weak month in terms of job searching, as there are school holidays and other factors that slow productivity.

Collateral damage

Stress itself can cause fatigue. Now more than ever people are craving a mental holiday, whilst being largely stymied from travelling abroad. That battery recharge we’ve all become so accustomed to simply isn’t here. A myriad of worries can be exacerbated if you have further non-work concerns as well, such as personal issues or health matters. With remote working, for many it has been very difficult to separate your work and personal life, and that can prove stressful too. If sleep and rest have been disturbed as a result, stress can begin to cause more collateral damage. Not everyone has a wide family network, or even a partner, to communicate and discuss things with, and an employer has a responsibility towards their staff issues such as wellbeing and fatigue come into the frame.

Reassurance can help

This mental pressure is bound to be at the back of many employees’ minds, which is why it’s so important for management to keep in touch with their staff during these periods of remote working. As a manager, it will help if you can give them reassurances that their jobs will remain as the lockdown is eased. You may even be able to ask them back into the office now, to see them face to face. Find out how they are feeling and ask if there is anything you can do to ease their situation and anxiousness.  Sometimes a reassuring conversation is worth more than the highest praise to an employee’s morale. And good morale is something we all need at the moment, more than anything.

Where is your next job?

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Even in these uncertain times for business, people are planning for the future. If you were already looking for a career change before the lockdown, you may now be staying put or perhaps looking in a completely different sector. As the lockdown situation eases, companies are starting to look at how to enable their employees to return to their offices. It’s often nerve-wracking beginning a job hunt, but if you’re starting to look now, where exactly are you looking?

Transferable skills

Several of the criteria for looking for a new job have changed over the last few months. As we’ve discussed in earlier posts, some sectors have thrived during lockdown, while others will be considerably reshaped following the crisis. If you are working in a sector that you think might be affected, such as a company that is scaling back its operations and consequently its staff, it may be worth seeing which of your transferable skills can take you into an allied sector. Look at how your skills will prepare you for other roles. There are many talents such as leadership, planning and organisational skills that will be applicable across a range of sectors. The medium may change, but the message will be the same. Look beyond the confines of ‘an industry’ and see how you could fit into new roles.

A place of work

In many cases, people have come to appreciate their local area and have not missed the commute to work. Home working was already something many workers were pursuing before lockdown, but the current situation has led to it becoming widespread and the norm. As a result of this, location has sometimes decreased in importance. You could work for a company 10 miles away, 50 miles away or in another country just as easily as you could work for a firm just down the road.  What this has proved is that many roles can be completed from home without losing productivity levels.

Redrawing the map

It’s also interesting now that if one person from a household or relationship has to relocate for their job – or secures a job in a different geographical region – it does mean the person’s partner doesn’t necessarily have to change their jobs too. They can work remotely from a new location, or the person can work from their current location for their new employer. This level of flexibility adds a whole new dimension to the world of work and job seeking. Some managers prefer to have their teams in front of them, and some teams like to be managed in person, but in the future it’s more likely to be a combination of the two.

Island living

An interesting twist on this thinking is illustrated by the Barbados Welcome Stamp scheme. If you can work remotely, the beautiful island of Barbados in the Caribbean has found an interesting way of countering the economic challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic. It is offering some great opportunities for anyone who can answer yes to the question: “Need a change of scenery? Can you work anywhere, as long as you have access to the Internet?” The island is offering a special visa for remote workers who want to work and live in Barbados. The new 12-month Barbados Welcome Stamp allows anyone who qualifies to be based in one of the world’s most beloved tourism destinations. With the tagline ‘Work from Paradise’ this novel initiative has redefined what it means to be ‘working remotely’. You really never know where your next job will take you.

Prospering sectors in uncertain times

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As the lockdown eases for many people and things like shops and other venues reopen, people are starting to think about returning to a workplace, in some capacity. For some people this will be easy to do – if you work in a small team, for example, with plenty of office space. But for other firms, it is more complex. The logistics of a large workforce simply accessing a multi-storey office building – think 20 floors – is difficult when it’s difficult to be socially distanced in a lift.

Many businesses have been adversely affected by the lockdown – such as recreation, leisure, and hospitality. These have become very competitive in terms of vacancies, with dozens (and in some cases hundreds – or even thousands) of applicants submitting CVs for scarce roles, as has been prominently highlighted in the media. The fallout of the mass-shutting of venues where people can gather to socialise and relax has had catastrophic consequences for employees.

 Thriving and surviving

On the flipside however, many roles that can be carried out remotely have been able to continue as normal, with some even showing improvements in productivity and efficiency. Distractions such as chit-chat and random meetings have become a thing of the past, as employees have been able to focus only on their work at hand.

And then there are the companies which have found that the situation has actually allowed their businesses to flourish. For example, textile manufacturers that have been able to divert their production lines to making masks have been able to help their fortunes and also the national effort to prevent the spread of the virus. Fashion labels have stopped selling beachwear and instead made leisurewear, such as jogging bottoms. Anyone in healthcare has been very much in demand and jobs at supermarkets have been multiplying, with the definition of ‘key worker’ broadening to include a range of professions you wouldn’t have grouped together last year – refuse collectors, pharmacists, postmen, carers, bus drivers and doctors have all remained active during the pandemic.

Supplying demand

Any business that relies on online delivery has also been able to continue to operate and reach its audience at the click of a button, so if you work in these sectors, instead of customers visiting your store, they simply visit your website. Home and garden-based activities have seen an upturn in fortunes too. And the delivery sector itself has prospered during lockdown, with companies such as Hermes taking on swathes of staff to cope with supplying demand.

So, it is not all doom and gloom during this extended period of economic uncertainty. The more imaginative among us have managed to adapt, or completely change, the way we work. But is remote working now with us forever, which will also alter so many other aspects of our lives, such as reduced social interaction and decreased commuter travel? Cafes and food retailers are suffering, due to a lack of workers in cities, but smaller towns and villages are prospering, as people use their local amenities much more and their cars less.

What will give us a clearer picture of the economy is when some of the governmental support measures – such as furlough – are withdrawn and the true condition of the business world will be revealed. Only then can we really start planning for the future in earnest.