A Recruiter's Perspective: How Long Do You Need To Spot New Employee Value?

It's frustrating isn't it - you finally find a seemingly perfect person for your role, only for them not to live up to your expectations within a few months. As recruiters, our services are often used to make sure that when a business hires a candidate, they won't be leaving soon after. So, what is the magic number? Really, it's not about length of time. Instead, you should check that they have the right competencies from the off. Regardless of sector, there are a few different ways that you can spot new employee value.

Proactivity

Having to consistently tell your team what to do isn't ideal - even if it's your default approach. If an employee can anticipate what's required? Now that demonstrates value. Even better is when they can manage all their responsibilities autonomously. Those staff members really are your gold dust. This type of attitude shows that they are working to grow your business. An big-picture thinking is exactly what you want in your team.

Stress management

Linked to this is the matter of firefighting. Obviously there are certain circumstances - the pandemic is the perfect example - where you have no choice but to firefight. However, there are plenty of other situations where this sort of knee-jerk reactivity can be completely avoided. Instead, employees can get to the root cause of a problem so that changes can be quickly implemented, and the issue eliminated. Employees of value will help to release pressure, rather than getting stressed. This creates an environment that helps people feel motivated by challenges, rather than hindered. As recruiters, we definitely recommend hiring these people into your team.

Continuous learning

Recognising that learning never stops is one thing, but what’s really great is when an employee teaches you. When a team member is truly invested in the business and curious about the industry, they’ll constantly seek out the latest information and do the legwork to fill in any knowledge gaps – even in those areas that their peers aren’t so familiar with. They ensure that the business is forever learning, potentially helping to train others so that they can grow too. These employees are ahead of the curve; they’re curious for the future and will work to act on it.

Multiple skills

On a somewhat similar note is an awareness that their role is more than one skill or specialism. Truly valuable team members want to enhance their skill sets and are happy to assume new responsibilities, including those that are a bit outside their usual realm of responsibility. For example, we know of many HR Directors who have reached  board positions by working in other areas along the way, for example in operations or quality assurance. That way they gained a better understanding of how the business worked overall and implemented HR strategies to advance the company, rather than generating HR projects simply as a tick-box exercise. Having a multi-skilled leadership team means they can work together more collaboratively, as a less-siloed more cohesive unit if you will. This helps to combat changes effectively and reduce business downtime. Such teams proved to be worth their weight in gold during the pandemic for this very reason. Of course, whilst you can do your best to spot these value-adding employees, it can feel like it's too late if you've already paid your recruiters fees. Yet there is a way to overcome this: a flexible recruitment product. And that's exactly why Cast UK has always offered a free replacement period of eight weeks. What's more, we've recently transformed our products set to deliver the highest level of flexibility for our clients. If you want, you can opt for a longer free replacement period, acting as an insurance policy of sorts - so you won't have to worry about the cost of recruiting a replacement if your new team member doesn't work out. Plus you can spread your payments over 12 installments through a monthly direct debit. Or pay in a lump sum up front if that's your preference. The choice really is yours. With our new solutions, finding talent is both simple and flexible. Get in touch to find out how we can help you. Contact us on 0333 121 3345 or hello@castuk.com.