Excel Group Awards
Events At St Anne’s Park
Celebrating 20 Years in Business
The importance of good staff training
Our Managing Director, Shane McLave featured in Drinks Industry Ireland to explain how the small details in hospitality can make or break the customer experience, which is why it’s vital to invest in staff training
When it comes to pouring the perfect pint of Guinness, as a nation we are extremely critical and rightly so as it is our national drink and no one wants to see it being poured too quickly with a bishop’s collar or running down the outside of the glass. The basics are important to the whole experience and must be right or the drink will be sent right back by any self-respecting stout aficionado.
So why is it when it comes to another hugely popular drink, the gin and tonic, we so frequently get it so wrong?
The answer is simple; we need to invest in training people. So what are we doing wrong and what should we be doing differently? Let’s start with the ice; a perfect G&T should have four large cubes in it but scrapping out the bucket with loads of tiny shards will result in a watery drink. The ice should also be put into the glass first to both cool the glass and prevent the gin from being bruised or cloudy as can happen when the ice is dropped into warm gin as opposed to being poured over ice. The next critical step is to have the correct tonic. With over 70 Irish gins alone as well as 20 or so gins from other locations it is foolish to have just one tonic to pick from as some just simply clash with the gins and become flavourless or cancel each other out. Perhaps the most important thing that can be done to improve quality is to chill your mixers as this will do two things; it will reduce the time that it takes for the ice to melt and water down your drink and it will keep the drink carbonated for longer as room temperature mixers will go flatter quicker.
The style of glass and garnish will always come down to personal taste. My own favourite is An Dulman Irish Maritime Gin with regular Schweppes tonic water served in a copa with a slice of dried lime but if the correct processes are followed then no matter what combination people ask for, quality should be assured.
Junior staff knowledge gap
The workforce has changed since Covid and the industry needs to be mindful that junior bar staff may not have the same knowledge and expertise of more senior staff as they are just starting out in the hospitality industry.
Many bar staff are working part time while planning other careers outside of hospitality. With this in mind and the higher than ever turnover in staff, it is more important than ever that training and upskilling are done on a daily basis so the customer experience is a good one. One or two poor comments on the likes of Instagram or Facebook can so quickly go viral and be extremely damaging to any establishment when it comes to hard fought for clientele.
If you don’t have the knowledge base in your current team that can implement daily training of staff then perhaps a monthly masterclass would suit better and there are several places you can go for this such as your wine and spirits distribution company or onsite training specialists like Future Proof Training, that can come on site or train in a classroom setting in areas such as HACCP and manual handling, upselling and customer service, barista skills, introduction to wine and essential bar. Check out www.futureprooftraining.ie for more information.
You can check out this feature in the Drinks Industry Ireland magazine here
The best ways to tackle those dreaded ‘killer questions’ in an interview
Despite today’s candidate driven market, thorough interview preparation remains vital for prospective employees. Our Director of Grocery Retail Recruitment, Nikki Murran, advises how to answer classic ‘killer questions’ with ease
Last week I got a call rejecting my candidate from a role he had interviewed for, and I was perplexed. He had done a similar role, was in the right location, right salary range, and was actually a great guy and perfect culture fit! What could have gone wrong?
Then I got the feedback from the interviewer and immediately understood. When the candidate was asked what he liked about the brand, he admitted he hadn’t visited any stores or done much research. The candidate really wanted this job. I had recommended to him that he visit a couple of stores beforehand and I had sent him plenty of information, but he was busy in his current role and never found the time. So, he never got the job!
In this candidate-driven market, one could be forgiven for thinking the same level of preparation as in previous years is no longer required in interviews. But as I witnessed last week, this is absolutely not the case. With higher salaries on offer and more benefits available than ever before, employers want to see candidates present themselves in the best light possible to warrant these ever-improving packages!
With that in mind, below are some questions, which, when prepared well, can make all the difference in landing that dream job:
Why us?
One of the most common questions in an interview – and one of the easiest to answer – is “why do you want this job”. This is an opportunity for you to be honest with what motivates you and to make sure this is what is in line with what your potential new employer is offering. It is also a great opportunity for the interviewer to determine how well you have researched and understood their vacancy and their business. I always recommend visiting the store and its competition in the local area beforehand, speaking to people who work within the brand and can tell you more about the culture, and to have a good trawl through Google to see what you can find out. Not only will you come across as more engaged, but you will have a much better idea if this is the right role for you!
Talk me through your experience or tell me about yourself
This is my favourite interview question. This is not the moment for you to tell the interviewer how you enjoy long walks, and once won a chicken wing eating contest, but rather an opportunity for you to highlight your successes in your career to date. Do this by chatting through each role you have held, and more importantly, about the achievements you have had in each of these roles, include stats and figures to back it up where you can. Think of it as a highlight reel rather than a CV summary! This question often comes up early in an interview and if you have prepared a couple of points of your career successes it can be a great way to settle into your interview, while also using the time to tell the interviewer how great a candidate you are!
What would you say is your weakness?
Everyone hates this question. To be fair, it is an awful question, and for that reason, I never really recommend answering it. Rather, when asked about what your weakness is, I would suggest sharing a weakness you used to have, and an example of how it is now one of your strongest points! For example, “I used to be somewhat disorganised, however, a couple of years ago I started a system where I prioritize my tasks each evening for the next day and now, I would say organisation is one of my top strengths!” I know it’s a bit of a politician’s answer – but as I said – it’s an awful question!
Teamwork
Most roles involve either managing teams or working within a team. So, it’s realistic to expect a question on this in any interview. Whilst you can’t prepare an answer for every potential question, I would always recommend having a couple of examples of your management skills, leadership style and team development at the front of your mind before the interview. This means you are ready to discuss them when the topic arises. Developing the team around you so that they are empowered, motivated, and progressing is no easy feat – so if you have been doing this successfully be ready with stories to share about how you are achieving it.
Listen and stop talking!
Whilst this is not technically a question – it is good advice nonetheless, so I have included it! Many candidates rush to answer questions in interviews. In doing so they end up not understanding the question or worse, jumping into an ill-thought-out answer that runs off on a tangent that they can’t claw back from. Take a couple of seconds after the question is asked to make sure you heard it correctly and, to decide on your answer before launching into it. No one ever lost a job because they took a couple of seconds to put their answer together! If anything, it shows that you are thoughtful and deliberate.
Next – stop talking! The aim of the interview is absolutely not to fill all the silence, or have the interviewer need to interrupt you to ask their next question. Once you have answered the question – stop talking! Be quiet and wait for the next question. Often, interviewers need to cover certain topics in order to assess your suitability. If you don’t give them the opportunity to control the interview you are taking the risk that you won’t cover what is needed to decide if you are the right fit for them.
Other than that – be yourself and good luck!
You can check out all our live jobs here. For more information call us on 01 814 8747 or email info@excelrecruitment.com
Why Choose Excel For Public Sector Recruitment and Selection?
Excel’s Public Sector Recruitment division provides a wide range of solutions for our clients and are trained in the CPSA Codes of Practice. As a company, we are delighted to be recognised as a CPSA (Commission of Public Service Appointments) approved recruitment agency. This means that our staff are fully trained in accordance with CPSA standards and can help you recruit for or apply to a number of jobs for permanent, temporary, and contract recruitment within the public sector.
What does being a CPSA approved recruitment agency mean for our clients?
The Commission is Ireland’s regulator for public service recruitment which links public sector organisations who have open or ongoing vacancies with approved recruitment agencies in order to fill these vacancies. The Commission also outlines five codes of practice that must be followed when hiring for public sector jobs and therefore, all of Excel’s internal recruitment processes for recruiting civil service and public service roles are built around these standards.
Why choose Excel Recruitment for public sector recruitment?
As a CPSA approved recruitment agency, Excel Recruitment provides the same wide range of recruitment solutions to our public sector clients that we do for all our clients across permanent, temporary, and contract recruitment.
We work with public sector agencies providing temporary, permanent, and contract recruitment solutions aswell as end to end or part management of recruitment campaigns including design or information booklets and job descriptions, advertising of posts on PAS, all major job boards & social media, point of contract, management, and shortlisting of all applicants, design of shortlisting and interview questions and matrix’s, provision of aptitude and psychometric testing, provision of independent panel members and note-takers, and providing detailed feedback to candidates in line with CPSA code of Practice.
Our island wide footprint, coupled with our experience and understanding of the requirements of state agencies, non-profit organisations & government agencies means that we are strategically placed to fill public service roles efficiently, and most importantly; successfully.
The CPSA Codes of Practice are embedded in our working processes and our team is made up of qualified and experienced public sector recruitment specialists
To discuss your recruitments needs, contact our Director of Commercial Recruitment Ciara Connolly on: 045 397142 or email her at ciara@excelrecruitment.
To view a list of our current live jobs, click here
To learn more about the CPSA and their guidelines, in their own words… click here.
Ensuring Staff Retention – Nikki Murran, Director | Grocery Retail
At a time when staff retention is firmly under the spotlight in Ireland’s retail industry, our Director of Grocery Retail Recruitment, Nikki Murran, analyses candidate feedback to give her thoughts on how to cultivate long-term employee loyalty.
I recently marked 10 years with Excel Recruitment, and I was amazed by how many people were surprised by this. The recruitment industry can be notorious for high staff turnover, but I always thought we were lucky as we have great staff retention.
But is it luck? Or is there a roadmap, a set of instructions other companies can mirror, which leads to the holy grail of staff longevity?
A hot topic amongst retailers in recent months has been staff retention. One of the most frustrating parts of being an employer or indeed manager is when you invest months in onboarding and training new people, only for them to move on within their first year. It often feels like time entirely wasted – you are only starting to get a return on your investment on the hours of training and they are gone! But why are they going?
Looking at feedback from candidates who have declared themselves “ready to move on” there are some interesting observations that might answer this:
Whilst most retailers indicate the one thing they are doing to retain their people is to increase their salary, it’s very often the last motivation cited by candidates looking for a move. Now don’t get me wrong – if someone feels they are undervalued or underpaid – it’s a top priority! But for the most part, retailers are paying their teams fairly to attract them in the first place. So, whilst salary increases may keep them from leaving – it won’t actually get them to stay if the other factors aren’t right.
Work-life balance is the number one reason candidates go to the trouble of typing out a CV. Since the pandemic there has been a huge shift toward finding a better work-life balance. I don’t think that’s news to anyone. Most of the larger retailers have reduced their management’s contracted hours and many candidates are actively seeking out roles with these businesses. But it’s not all about the contracted hours. Something as simple as a fair distribution of evening and weekend shifts can be one of the best tools to retain staff.
Flexibility is probably the perk we hear most from candidates who decline a job move. In fact, I’m sure it’s part of what got me to the 10-year mark with Excel! With small kids, mornings can be hectic – actually, anytime is hectic – but a little flexibility in my working week means I can balance interviews, meetings, bedtime stories, and school drop-offs. In a store setting, it definitely takes a bit more rota planning and tweaking – but I’m sure many would opt for this rather than doing yet another interview or induction!
The little things go a long way also. While candidates don’t explicitly say it – it’s the small things that add up and ultimately form the culture of the company. They say things like – “I like it here”, “I’m happy where I am”, or “It would take a lot to make me move”. These things don’t cost retailers a lot – it’s showing kindness and gratitude for work done. Small tokens for staff on certain days and staff lunches or parties don’t often seem like a big deal but for such small gestures, these things come up more often than you might think when we ask candidates to tell us about their current jobs.
Another subject that comes up time and again is the annual leave quota. I was surprised initially by the strength of this one, but I have had ever-increasing numbers of candidates turning down job offers as they didn’t want to lose their extra annual leave days. Often these extra days come with length of service. So many retailers don’t offer any additional days past statutory but take my word, the ones that do – have a better grip on their staff. When you think about it, it’s the ideal benefit, as you are giving those days to your most experienced people, the ones you really don’t want to lose. The more experienced and valuable they are – the more days they accrue – the harder it is to walk away from them! (and you!)
I was probably only with Excel for six months when I knew that this was somewhere I could stay long-term. I had gone to my CEO with an idea about a flyer and his nearly immediate response, was “if you think it’s a good idea, do it!” That sort of empowerment may seem unimportant, but to me it was pivotal. I felt valued. As the years have gone on and I’ve brought plenty more ideas his way (some better than others and some truly awful) I’ve always felt heard, I’ve always felt valued, and I’ve always felt like my opinion mattered. It’s hard to walk away from that.
For more information or expert advice please email info@excelrecruitment.com or call 01 814 8747. To view our available roles click here
Quiet Thriving- Nikki Murran, Director | Grocery Retail
For the last two years, we have heard across many media platforms, stories of “quiet quitting.” This idea that you coast along, doing the bare minimum, never going above and beyond, well it never sat well with me.
Quiet quitting suggests that you are not emotionally or intellectually involved in your job, but rather you are just doing as little as possible to receive a paycheck so you can go and live your real life outside of work.
What I never understood – is whom is this benefiting? Are people happy just waiting to pass time and clock out? That seems so sad to me. Say you spend on average 40 hours a week at work, say that’s the number of hours you need to clock up to afford your life. That’s basically one-third of your waking hours. Look at that across your life.. who is happy to be unhappy for a third of their waking life? Wishing the hours, and their life away?
With two small kids, an “iron-man wannabe” husband, and a pretty busy career, I absolutely am not one to advocate for doing more hours – but surely, making the best of the hours you are in work is a better option?
Making those 40 hours the happiest they can be makes so much more sense to me.
I have been lucky to have experienced two industries in my career – with the first 10 or so years in retail and the last 10 in recruitment. Neither of these environments lent to “quiet quitting.” If for no other reason than it would have meant letting people down – my co-workers, my team, my customers, my clients, my candidates (oh, and my boss). Leaving them aside for a minute, that feeling of letting others down, it would have made ME miserable.
But perhaps these “quiet quitters” don’t feel the same? I’m not sure. But what I am sure about, positive in fact, is that when you find the right job, the right culture fit, the right balance, you can make those 40 hours a week, much more enjoyable.
I speak to countless candidates each week. Many reach out to me because they are unhappy with their job. What’s interesting to me is how often retailers, with many years of experience suggest that this is no longer the industry for them. For my side, I hate seeing good people leave this industry and so I often encourage them to list what it is they dislike, what is making them unhappy, and what they would like from a new role. 99% of the time we can find all or most of these things in the same industry, just with a different employer. The amazing part? Once I hear back from these once disgruntled retailers, their joy is back. It wasn’t the industry that was bringing them down, just that job.
Seeing this change time and time again makes me think, these quiet quitters? Have they just not found the right role for them yet? The one where they can find joy for themselves in these 40 working hours – where they get to feel challenged, and appreciated, enjoy the comradery of their co-workers, and a belly laugh with a client or customer. Me, I love seeing some candidates progress and come back to me as a client. I love seeing my team advance and grow and be promoted. I don’t think this makes me a sucker. I think it means I am finding as much joy as I can in every hour that I live, including those spent at my desk. And I don’t know about everyone else, but for me, that seems the best way to spend my days!
Which brings me on to this. I read something by Lesley Alderman in the Washington post recently – about “Quiet thriving” and it spoke to me! But it’s not as catchy a phrase as “quiet quitting” – so perhaps it won’t become the new buzzword or phrase. But for me, I definitely think it’s worth a look.
Quiet thriving is taking actions and making a mental shift to help you feel more engaged. Her ideas range from looking for the positive to finding a work buddy, setting goals for yourself to setting boundaries with your boss.
I like all these ideas and love the concept, but ultimately what I took from it is this – It’s up to you – and that’s what appealed to me most. I am a firm believer, that, for the most part – your happiness is in your hands, no one else’s.
In this overheated, employee-led market so many employers come to me asking about how they can retain their staff. Now is the time to speak up – if you have an idea or suggestion that will improve your workplace and bring more joy. Most employers will welcome anything that leads to a happy workforce! (within reason – although I was able to bring my dog into our office which led to more joy than you can shake a stick at!)
And, at the end of all this, if your employer is shutting you down, if you can’t find your work tribe to connect with, then maybe, it’s just the wrong job. Maybe it’s time to call me (unapologetic plug here, lol), maybe a move to a shiny new job will be the thing that brings you your work joy this year??
You can search our jobs list by clicking HERE.
Source: Lesley Alderman Article
Don’t make these CV mistakes: Part 3
In the final installment of his three-part series our CEO, Barry Whelan, outlines eight more errors to avoid so that your CV doesn’t speedily land in a recruiter’s rejection pile.
Excel Recruitment is 20 years old this year, so we have been recruiting for quite some time and over those years, we must have seen every CV mistake there could be! When it comes to CVs, first impressions last and whether it is a candidate or employer’s market, a large part of our jobs as recruiters is to filter CVs. On average, each recruiter only spends seven seconds scanning a CV to make the decision on whether to delve deeper or not. It is vital to avoid the mistakes that could mean the difference between acceptance and rejection.
Here are our final eight major errors to avoid:
Not filling in gaps
All the jobs you’ve listed on your CV need accurate dates, and you should avoid leaving any gaps unexplained as this is an immediate red flag for recruiters (I always ask, somewhat dryly, was the gap a spell in prison?). Gaps can signal that you’re unreliable, lazy or not detail-orientated. If gaps exist, explain them. Whether you took the time out for travelling, illness, maternity leave, a gap year, or just for some time to yourself, make sure you explain this clearly and honestly. If you were to make it to the interview stage, it’s very unlikely that the employer would ask you about it anyway.
Leaving out helpful information
While you don’t want to include a whole load of irrelevant information in your CV, you also want to make sure you don’t leave out anything that could potentially help with your application. Many people think it’s not a good idea to add the jobs they had while at university, for example. However, these types of jobs are often great for gaining soft skills such as teamwork and empathy. All our recruiters consider soft skills highly important, and these jobs also demonstrate work ethic.
Making it too technical
This is not industry or role specific. You should keep in mind that the person who gives your CV its initial read through may not necessarily have knowledge in your specific job area or be familiar with complicated industry terms. Therefore, you should try to make sure that you avoid using too much technical jargon. When listing your previous work experience, it may also be helpful to explain who each company is. They may be well known to your contemporaries, but a recruiter might not know why working for them is impressive.
Including a headshot
While including a headshot on your CV is standard in some parts of the world, in Ireland it’s not needed. Unless you’re an actor, it’s best to leave out the headshot, otherwise it will just make potential employers think you are egotistical or don’t have a good grasp of workplace professionalism.
Using an unprofessional email address
How many times have we seen these! Ticklytoes99@… You know who you are! (Honestly!). Some of us have made a quirky email address at some point, but it’s not a good idea to use it for work purposes. Your potential employers are unlikely to care that your email address is super-original or funny; they’ll be more interested in seeing that you understand the importance of professionalism.
Poor choice of file name
Please don’t just ‘save as’ and end up with a CV called ‘CV template’ or ‘CV first draft’! When the time comes to send your CV, be sure to use a polished and positive file name. Your potential employer will be able to see the file name in the attachments, so show how you are detail-orientated enough to have given the file a suitable and professional-looking name.
Not being cautious with social media
We advise including your social media links as a way to add another layer of depth to your application, providing more transparency in allowing potential employers to get to know you. However, if you do choose to add these links, make sure there’s nothing that portrays you in a bad light. Take the time to go through your pages and ensure there’s nothing embarrassing and if need be, change your privacy settings.
Not sending a cover letter
Always, if possible, send a cover letter. While you should aim to make your CV as complete as possible, you still need to add a cover letter for each application. It may seem like wasted effort, but avoiding it is a mistake. It’s your chance to go into more depth about your skills and experiences, and to show a little more of the ‘real’ you.
Please email info@excelrecruitment.com for more information or call 01 871 7676. You can check out all of our live jobs here.
