A round up of 2012

2012 has been an eventful year in charity recruitment; the shadow of recession is still affecting charity jobs, there have been several significant changes in employment law and nation-wide events gave us all extra holiday time.  TPP Not for Profit were busy throughout the year, volunteering and helping to support the sector in many different ways, as well as supplying high quality experienced charity staff.

In this round up of the past year, we look at what happened during 2012.

January

 
TPP.co.uk mobile site
TPP successfully launched our mobile platform, allowing our candidates to search and apply for jobs directly from their mobile phone.  It helped boost visits to the tpp.co.uk website, and January 2012 was our busiest month ever for jobseeker traffic, with over 22,000 visits (we’ve since passed 25,000).
TPP’s mobile site was also featured in Recruiter magazine.



Innovation for Fundraisers seminar
Presented by two leading industry experts, this free workshop for fundraisers looked at thinking creatively to diversify your fundraising and inspire your teams and supporters.
You can see the slides from the presentation here.

January’s blog post was on How to offer the right salary.

February

New gift aid declaration guidance
On the 24th February 2012, HMRC published updated guidance on Gift Aid declarations for charities and provided new declarations for donation forms. In this article, Wellers accountants take you through the changes to declarations and the best way to incorporate these.

Our February blog looked at how Part time workers can add value to your organisation

March

TPP HR Seminar - Employment Law Update
This seminar was presented by Julie Fewtrell, HR Consultant
You can see the slides from the presentation here.

Are your accounts compliant under the new charities act?
Since 1993 The Charities Act has been recycled through the House of Lords a further two times. The most recent being the Charities Act 2011, which came into force on 14th March 2012. In this article, Wellers Accountants explains which Act to refer and from when, and the differences between new and old. 17 May 2012



TPP raises £4k for Sense
On the 8th March this year 12 employees at TPP took part in the Sense 'Battleshops' Charities Corporate Challenge and raised £3,998 for Sense. You can find out more about the event or see our photos.


NCB CV Workshops
TPP employees provided CV workshops and interview advice as part of the National Children’s Bureau – Skills Development Programme.

Nick Billingham, Manager at TPP, was quoted in How to get hired as a head of fundraising on the Guardian Voluntary Sector Network

March’s blog dealt with Achieving diversity from the bottom up

April

Charity Marketing & Communications Salary Survey
The results of our Charity Marketing & Communications Salary Survey were released in April.  Based on data from over 500 roles, the survey maps out salaries for marketing and communications professionals in the third sector.
You can see the survey results here.






Marie Curie Cancer Care Swimathon
TPP staff members Shelley Hawkins, Emma Lucas and Jo Buckley all successfully completed the Marie Curie Cancer Care Swimathon on the 28th April and raised over £1,100.

Inca Trek Challenge
Charlotte Callin from TPP successfully completed the Inca Trek challenge and raised over £4,600 for the Rainbow Trust Children's Charity.  You can see photos from her journey here.

TPP’s article on Recruitment Trends in International Development was published in Bond Opportunities magazine.

April’s blog was one of our most popular ever and examined Interview questions you should avoid (and what to ask instead).

May

Launch of CPD Voucher
In May, TPP launched our CPD voucher together with the Institute of Fundraising.  All fundraisers successfully placed in a role by us now receive £100 to spend with the Institute of Fundraising to support their ongoing career development.

The CPD voucher has proved extremely popular with both our candidates and their new employers.  More details are available on our website.


KnowHow NonProfit published TPP’s guide on How to avoid illegal or innapropriate interview questions.


May’s blog post look at How many candidates should you interview?

June

Finance Seminar - Risk Management & Governance
This seminar was presented by Kingston Smith, one of the UK's top 20 audit and chartered accountancy firms.
You can see slides from the presentation here.

Flexible Working Survey
In June 2012, we surveyed 376 employers and employees across the sector, asking them about the flexible working options their organisation offered and the options they would most like to receive.
You can see the results of the survey here or see the article on our survey in Charity Times magazine.


To complement the publication of our Flexible Working Survey, June’s blog post was on Five ‘hidden’ employer benefits of flexible working.

July

IoF Convention
Once again, TPP sponsored the Job Board at the Institute of Fundraising National Convention 2012.  Thanks to everyone who came and visited us there!

 

Fundraising Salary Survey
The results of the 2012 TPP Not for Profit Fundraising Salary Survey were released in July.  Based on data from over 320 roles, the survey maps out salaries for fundraising professionals in the third sector. Find out more or read the full survey results here.




July’s blog topic looked at 17 ideas for measuring employee effectiveness.

August

  
The 2012 Olympics
The UK practically shut down for August, as everyone stopped work to watch the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics.
As well as supplying hundreds of exceptional temporary employees to charities suffering staff shortages, TPP staff also went to cheer on the Olympic Torch.


August’s blog dealt with the The right way to check references.

September

Sophie Butler from TPP was quoted in the Charity Finance Function Survey 2012 from Charity Finance magazine.

Women in finance flagship event: Head hunters – realising your dream job
Rob Hayter, Associate Director at TPP, spoke at this event.  More details can be found on the ICAEW website.

The blog post for September listed our Top tips for managing employee departures.

October

Kingston Run Challenge
TPP Managing Director Tracey George successfully completed the 13k Kingston Run Challenge and raised £400 for Crohn's and Colitis UK.

National Minimum Wage Changes
The UK National Minimum Wage went up from 1st Oct 2012.  Find out more here.



Our article on Using LinkedIn to find your next fundraising job was published on the IoF Conference & Exhibition 2012 Blog.


Amendment to Audit Exemption Thresholds
The audit exemption thresholds for charities changed in October 2012.  Wellers Accountants took us through the changes.

TPP HR Seminar - Managing Culture and Risk
This seminar was presented by Ann McFadyen, Head of Training and Events at the Institute of Risk Management.  You can see the seminar slides here.

October’s blog post looked at Using behavioural interviewing to look behind the mask.

November

Part time Charity Jobs
Research in October from Skills Third Sector showed that while the overall number of workers in the voluntary sector is falling, the number of those working part time has increased. TPP could help your organisation benefit from part time staff.



Centrepoint Sleep Out
TPP staff members Danielle Lock and James Hunt braved the cold in November for Centrepoint's Sleep Out. You can view the photos here.





Institute of Fundraising London Conference
TPP presented at this event on 'Plotting your path to success - what you really need to make your fundraising career shine'.  You can view the slides from our presentation here.

Client Relations Manager Donna Newton took part in a walk to raise money for a Romanian Dog charity.  Donna is also a regular volunteer for Alaskan Malamute Rescue.

TPP Finance Seminar - Top tips for charities in an economic downturn
Our speaker for this seminar was Norma Stewart from Wellers accountants.
You can view the seminar slides here.

Movember
TPP Manager Nick Billingham grew a very fine moustache in aid of Movember.

Our November blog post was all about How to reject candidates without turning them off your brand.

December

Best Recruitment Agency
TPP has been shortlisted for Best Recruitment Agency by the Institute of Fundraising.  If you or your organisation are IoF members, please vote for us.
Why?  Find out more here.




DBS replaces CRB checks
Disclosure & Barring ServiceThe Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) has now launched, following the merger of the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) and the Independent Safeguarding Authority (ISA).  Find out more about how this change might affect you.

Coming up in 2013…

We’ve got more planned for 2013.  Here are a few things on the radar at the moment – details will be released in our email newsletters.

A new office to deal with regional recruitment
Having been inundated with requests from charities struggling to find high quality staff for locations outside of London, TPP are planning to open another office to help deal with regional recruitment.  More details soon…

More professional development seminars
We’re currently planning our calendar of free seminars for 2013.  So far, it’s likely to include HR seminars in spring and autumn and a seminar for finance professionals.  If you’d like to be sent details of these when they are finalised, please email marketing@tpp.co.uk

Talk to the leader podcasts
TPP is pleased to announce that we will be sponsoring the next series of Talk to the Leader podcasts from Bertie Bosredon.  In this series of podcasts, charity leaders reveal what they do and why they do it.  Find out more here.

Development Directors’ Forum
TPP will sponsor the meetings of the Development Directors’ Forum, a networking group for Fundraising and Development Directors in the South West region.

Free use of our boardroom
In 2013, TPP will continue to offer any not for profit organisations the free use of our Boardroom and interview space.  More details are on the website.

Thanks so much to all our clients and candidates for choosing to work with us in 2012.  We wish you all a Merry Christmas and look forward to a successful 2013!

How to reject candidates without turning them off your brand

All too often, when candidates apply for roles, they are never contacted if they are unsuccessful.  Even attending an interview does not guarantee you any constructive feedback.

When employers do send out rejections, they tend to be impersonal and non-specific, either through a lack of time or from fear of causing offence.  Failing to give feedback is one of the most common mistakes employers make.

Why bother?

This is especially important for not for profit organisations, as their employees usually overlap to a great extent with their supporters and donors.  You want candidates to feel good about your organisation, even if they are unsuccessful, so they don’t spread negative comments about you among their friends and relations.

Candidates also might not be right for one role, but could be a good match for a future vacancy, or could be a potential employee after they have gained skills and experience elsewhere.  Turning them off your employer brand means you’ll lose them as a potential candidate (and possible donor or advocate) forever.

Finally, if a candidate has taken the time to fill in an application form, or to attend an interview, it’s only polite to let them know the outcome.  It may even save you time in the long run, as you won’t have to field calls or emails from candidates following-up.

When should you do it?

Best practice is to give a candidate feedback as soon as you are absolutely sure they are not right for the role, and to let them move on as soon as possible.  You don’t need to wait until you have filled the post if you are sure the candidate isn’t right.

Many employers already know at the end of interview (either on the phone or in person) if a candidate is a definite rejection, and it can be a good idea to let them know right there and then.  Candidates usually have an idea if an interview has not gone well, and most appreciate candour and honest feedback.  By giving a candidate feedback at the end of an interview, you won’t have to spend time following up with them at a later date.

Very occasionally, the candidate will be able to counter your points, bringing them back into the recruitment process.  You don’t want to miss an ideal candidate just because they may be a nervous or inexperienced interviewee.

However, most employers still prefer to take some time after an interview to reflect on a candidate’s performance or compare notes, and contact them at a later date.

What should you say?

The rule of thumb is to make feedback as constructive and personalised as possible.  A standard email may be acceptable for candidates rejected prior to the interview process, but more detailed feedback is important for interviewees.

There is really no excuse for not sending at least an email to rejected applicants – most email software will allow you to set up a mail merge or autotext that enables you to do this in seconds.  At this stage, all you need to say is that there was a high level of response to the vacancy and that other candidates met the person specification more closely.

Sweeten the pill

When you’re giving constructive criticism to a candidate, whether on the phone or by mail, it’s always a good idea to start off with the positives and give them some compliments before you tackle the areas where they fell down.  Wherever possible, you should also end by repeating their strong points.  This softens the blow of any negatives and is more likely to leave them with a positive impression of your organisation to take away.

Be honest and specific

Unsuccessful candidates who have turned up for an interview expect and deserve a clear reason for their rejection, even if it is just “we have other candidates who better matched our requirements”.

Wherever possible, tell them exactly which areas of the interview they could have handled better - most will already have a good idea of where they struggled.  Make sure your reasons are concrete, not subjective like “I didn’t feel your personality would fit with the rest of the team”.  You also need to avoid any comments that could be misinterpreted, like “I didn’t feel you could handle the workload” that could leave you open to potential charges of discrimination.

Be candid but gentle in the language you use – being honest is not the same as being blunt and ultimately you want to leave the candidate feeling good about your organisation and about themselves if possible.

Don’t mention the person you decided to hire in any way, even as a comparison.  Feedback should focus exclusively on the person you are talking to.

Finishing up

To make the feedback process feel less one-sided and more of a conversation, why not ask the candidate to supply their own comments on the interview.  This can help head off problems with your recruitment process and gives you the chance to improve your interview technique.

If you are likely to consider the candidate for future opportunities, letting them know you’ll keep their details on file will help soften the blow of the rejection.

If the candidate has been interviewed, thank them for their time and wish them luck with their future job hunt.

Always sign-off from a person, not just “HR Manager” or similar, and give them a way to contact you for further details if they need to.

Of course, all this takes time

Using a recruitment consultancy like TPP will take most of the administration of recruitment out of your hands, freeing you to concentrate on your day job.

We do the initial sift through candidate responses to advertisements, only shortlisting the ones we are confident will be a good match.  We’ll also contact all unsuccessful candidates and pass on your feedback to them, ensuring they leave with a good impression of your organisation.

We’ll also pass on any comments they make on the interview process back to you, which can be extremely useful as candidates are also more likely to be candid with a third party.

For more information or to talk about a specific role, please contact the relevant TPP division.

Further resources

Some sample rejection letters:
Sample Letter 1
Sample Letter 2
Sample Letter 3

And some examples of how not to do it!
A job rejection letter to end all others
A famous rejection letter allegedly from the BBC
Rejection letter from a candidate

Using behavioural interviewing to look behind the mask

What is behavioural interviewing?

Behavioural interviewing is an increasingly popular type of job interview, where an interviewee is asked to provide examples from their past employment of specific situations and go through how they behaved in those circumstances.  The logic is that past performance is predictive of future performance, ie how you behaved in the past will forecast how you will behave in the future.

Why use behavioural interviewing?

Behavioural interviewing is said to be the most accurate predictor of a candidate’s future performance.  Rather than simply taking a candidate's word for it that they have the skills and capabilities required for the role, this method of interviewing allows them to prove their worth.

Traditional interviewing, using open questions like “tell me about your past work experience”, often doesn’t give you enough data to accurately evaluate a candidate.  As each candidate can choose to answer these questions in a completely different way, it also makes it hard to compare candidates in an objective way.  Ultimately, a traditional interview tends to mostly judge candidates on how well they interview, rather than how well they will do the job.

Situational interviews are better, as they ask the candidate to describe how they might handle a certain situation.  However, this does allow the interviewee to talk about what they might do, rather than stick to what they did do.

By focussing purely on actual examples, behavioural interviewing makes it easier for an interviewer to objectively judge how a candidate will perform in the role.  Each question can be followed up by further questions to get more detail and depth on specific behaviours, such as “what factors did you consider when you made that decision?” or “what were you thinking at that point?”.  This makes it very difficult for interviewees to exaggerate or ‘fudge’ their answers to give you the responses they think you want to hear.

Behavioural interviews are also a really good way to discover new talent and avoid age discrimination, as they do not require the candidate to have a great deal of direct work experience, but concentrate more on transferrable skills and competencies.  Answers do not necessarily need to come from the workplace but could use examples from volunteer experience, extra-curricular activities or even family life.

Preparing your questions

Before you start putting together your list of questions for the interview, you need to establish exactly what behaviours are necessary for the role.  Use your job description and person specification to put together a list of the key responsibilities for the role and then determine how an employee would be judged successful in those responsibilities.

You’ll then need to think about the characteristics and traits necessary in an employee to deliver those successful outcomes.  Look at current successful employees in similar roles, and the qualities and skills they possess, to form a picture of your ideal candidate.  You should also consider your organisation's culture and whether you want your new employee's personality to be similar or complementary. A typical profile would include competencies like interpersonal skills, decision-making skills, creativity, flexibility, enthusiasm, time management etc.  Stick to the most important skills or you could be interviewing all day!

Once you’ve got a list of your ideal behavioural traits, you can start to make up a list of questions to judge interviewees against.  Make sure you use the same questions, in the same order, for every interview so it’s easy to compare candidates.

Typical behavioural interview questions

Behavioural interview questions are generally more specific and more probing than traditional interview questions.  Each question should be designed to elicit an example of performance from past experience and should be followed up with further tailored questions to get to the key behaviour shown.

Typical questions include:

• Give an example of an occasion when you used logic to solve a problem.
• Give an example of a goal you reached and tell me how you achieved it.
• Describe a decision you made that was unpopular and how you handled implementing it.
• Have you gone above and beyond the call of duty? If so, how?
• What do you do when your schedule is interrupted? Give an example of how you handle it.
• Have you had to convince a team to work on a project they weren't thrilled about?
  How did you do it?
• Have you handled a difficult situation with a co-worker? How?
• Tell me about how you worked effectively under pressure.

You should be asking two-three behavioural questions for each competency to give you enough information to make an accurate assessment of the candidate’s ability.

STAR statements

When answering a behavioural interview question, candidates are expected to use the STAR method to shape their responses.  When all candidates answer the question in a similar way, it makes it much easier to compare them afterwards.

STAR is an acronym for the four parts of an answer to a typical behavioural question:

Situation – the background to the example.  The situation the candidate was in or the problem that faced them. 

Task – the ultimate goal or what the candidate needed to achieve.

Action – what the candidate did and the reasons why they made this decision.  If the action was a team initiative, it is important for the candidate to focus on their role only.

Result – what did the action achieve and was the goal accomplished?  It’s not necessary for all examples to have positive results, as long as a candidate can justify their actions and show that they learnt from the results.

Assessing interviewees

Once all the interviews have been completed, use your interview notes to rate each candidate on the answers they have given.  One of the benefits of using behavioural interviews is that it helps avoid bias in interviewing, so stick to a scoring system.

For each question, identify the key behaviours that would separate an excellent candidate from a poor one.  The interviewee can then be scored against each competency.

A typical rating scale would be 1-5 where 4 or 5 was an excellent demonstration of that competency, 2 or 3 was adequate and 1 was extremely poor.

Things to consider

• Make sure your list of desired behaviours is actually reflected in the job description and person specification that you use to advertise the role, or you will end up with unsuitable candidates for interview.

•  Make sure candidates know it will be a behavioural interview when they are invited, giving them a chance to prepare their answers.  Giving a candidate the chance to prepare will get you better interview answers and should help you judge their responses more easily.

• Taking very detailed notes is an essential part of the behavioural interview process, so that you can score a candidate’s performance accurately.
   
• If you are using a recruitment agency like TPP Not for Profit, they should be able to help you put your list of desirable competencies together and help you construct behavioural interview questions.

Useful Links

Lists of behavioural competencies:
http://questionsininterview.com/list-of-core-behavioral-competencies
www.nielsongroup.com/articles/list_of_competencies.pdf
www.hr-guide.com/data/A302.htm

Top Ten Behavioral Interview Questions

75 Behavioural Interview Questions To Select The Best Candidate

TPP’s guide for candidates to competency-based interviews

Top tips for managing employee departures

An employee leaving for pastures new can throw an organisation into turmoil, particularly if they are in a highly specialist role with a lot of technical or legacy knowledge. In this blog post, TPP Not for Profit offers some tips on how to ensure a smooth handover for everyone concerned.

Be prepared

Your team may seem settled, with a good level of morale and productivity, but don’t assume that means no-one will be leaving in the near future. Employees leave their jobs for a wide variety of reasons, ranging from being headhunted or taking early retirement to resigning because of family responsibilities or relocation.

It is vital to have a policy in place for unexpected departures, as notice periods can go extremely quickly and it’s easy to forget vital steps in the handover process. It’s also always a good idea to share vital knowledge across teams, so departures don’t result in the loss of key information.

In the notice period 

Once an employee has handed in their notice, it can be very difficult to keep them productive for the rest of their time. Work out which projects they can reasonably finish within their notice period and sit down with the employee to create a plan for their completion. Any tasks which will remain outstanding once the employee has left should be handed over to other staff as early as possible.

Use the notice period as time to sit down with the departing employee and create a thorough handover document detailing the jobs they are currently working on and including any key contacts. Don’t just rely on the original job description to define their role, as it may have changed considerably during their time with your organisation.

Make sure they leave on a high 

The departure of any valued employee can be a stressful time, but wherever possible you should ensure that they leave with a positive feeling about your organisation. Many employers choose to throw a party or buy gifts to say goodbye. Exit interviews are a great opportunity to clear the air if there have been tensions at work, as well as an extremely useful tool in preventing further departures.

Ex-employees can still act as fantastic advocates for your organisation in their community. Leaving them with a bad impression can potentially damage your employer brand and possibly even future donations. The not for profit sector is a small world, and it’s quite possible that the leaver may return to your organisation at some point in the future.

Decide if you need to recruit

In the short-term, preferably before the employee leaves, you’ll need to create a plan to share out their workload and responsibilities so nothing falls through.

At this point, you’ll need to decide whether to recruit a replacement or if you can restructure your team to absorb the leaver’s duties without recruiting. Natural wastage can be an effective way to reduce costs in times of economic hardship, and is generally preferable to making redundancies, but can result in resentment among the remaining workforce unless managed correctly.

If, as is most likely, you do decide that you need to recruit, it does not necessarily have to be a straightforward like-for-like replacement. This is an opportunity to improve efficiency and to add or move around responsibilities within your team. Look at flexible working options – could making the role part-time, a job share or home working widen your pool of candidates or improve productivity? Don’t forget to consider whether it could be a promotion opportunity for an existing member of staff.

Consider interim cover 

For some roles, especially particularly specialist or senior ones, you may need more time to find exactly the right candidate and the rest of your team will not be able to cover the role indefinitely. In these circumstances, it is a good idea to use temporary or contract cover.

As well as ensuring the leaver’s role is covered, using interim staff can give you an opportunity to ‘try before you buy’ or test out a possible permanent replacement before committing to a permanent contract. Alternatively, if your organisation is going through a period of change, you may wish to delay recruiting permanently until you have a more settled view of the future. Interim employees can be used to bring in new skills that are particularly helpful on a short term basis, such as change management experience.

Reassure remaining staff 

When employees leave an organisation, particularly at the more senior level, it can leave the remaining staff feeling unsettled and dissatisfied. It is important to meet with your team as soon possible to reassure them and to explain the leaver’s motivations. Ideally, this meeting should be in person, so that employees can ask questions.

Explain why the employee is leaving as honestly and specifically as possible. It’s important to stop the rumour mill and staff know that platitudes such as ‘leaving to spend more time with the family’ are not generally the real reason. Go through your steps to deal with the departure, including any temporary solutions, and wherever possible promote the situation as an opportunity to improve the team and for internal promotion.

Don’t forget practicalities

There are many small actions to take when an employee leaves, that are easy to overlook in the rush to replace them. Don’t forget to retrieve keys, passcards, mobile phones etc from the leaver. It may be necessary for them to sign a confidentiality agreement, if they have very sensitive information, and best practice is to change the passwords for all systems they had access to.

Communicate the departure internally, and externally if appropriate, and make any necessary amendments to organisation charts, websites, phone lists, brochures etc.  Encourage the leaver to update their social media profiles to reflect the change (eg update their current employer on LinkedIn) and purge any of their contacts if necessary as per your social media policy.

Need some help? 

If you’re having difficulty deciding on the best way to replace a departing employee, TPP Not for Profit can help. One of our specialist consultants can arrange a visit, talk through the old role and what your organisation needs from a new employee. We can then offer help on writing the job description and person specification and advice on salaries and availability of potential candidates. For more details on this no-obligation service, please contact Donna Newton, Client Relations Manager on 020 7198 6111 or donna.newton@tpp.co.uk.


Of course, the best solution to losing valuable employees is to stop them leaving in the first place. Our past blog post on how to stop best employees leaving may give you some tips to keep hold of your organisation’s valuable assets.