January 2023 cover letters and resumes are still widely used in the job application process. Traditional resumes and cover letters remain common, especially for professional and corporate positions but mostly only 1-2 pages are required

Some tech companies and startups have been known to adopt creative and unconventional methods to evaluate candidates. These can include challenges, case studies,in- trays, group assessments, social outings and video submissions.

Regarding TikTok videos specifically, some companies, particularly those in creative industries or with a strong social media presence, may encourage or require applicants to submit TikTok videos as part of their application process.  This is more likely to happen in roles where creativity, social media skills, or video content creation are essential.

Here are a few reasons why an  employer might opt for TikTok videos in their hiring process:

• Creativity and Innovation: TikTok videos can showcase a candidate’s creativity and ability to think outside the box. In the hospitality industry, creativity can be an asset, especially in roles related to event planning, marketing, or guest engagement.
• Social Media Skills: If the employer values social media presence or skills, especially for positions in marketing, communications, or guest relations, requesting TikTok videos can be a way to assess a candidate’s ability to create engaging content on a popular platform.
• Personality and Communication Skills: Videos allow employers to get a better sense of a candidate’s personality, communication style, and presentation skills. This can be particularly important in customer-facing roles within the hotel industry.
• Brand Alignment: By asking for TikTok videos an employer  may be looking for candidates who align with the brand’s image and values. Videos can convey a sense of personality and cultural fit, which might be harder to gauge from a traditional resume.
• Targeting a Younger Audience: TikTok is popular among younger demographics, and if an employer is looking to appeal to a younger workforce or a guest demographic, using TikTok as part of the hiring process may be a strategic move.

The key reason for a resume is to share with speed your skills and competencies. Maximise the front page with a succinct summary of your career history and education and contact details and outline your key contributions and accomplishments in your history. Flavour the content with a little about you – personal interests, milestones and credible referees. The power of Tic Toc and other tools like social postings, intrays will all add to how you think and give insight into your “power skills” that companies seek such as resilience, problem solving, clear communication, tenacity, thriving through ambiguity and adapting to change. Go well and reach out to Mondo Search if  you ever want  to just have a chat about what is next for you in  2024.

Click below to listen to radio clip with Simone Allan and Tom Elliott:

We can learn so much about leading a business from a Surf Club operation. Learning how to lead through challenging times and building attractive and magnetic cultures.

Outside work hours I enjoy belonging to my local surf club. Community is important to the Mondo Search team. Last year our surf club won best club on the Northern Beaches and one of the reasons for this was the positive culture and the leadership. Today more than ever good leadership and a positive corporate culture are needed to navigate business through uncertain business times. Volunteer organisations like surf clubs often have to creatively inspire people to volunteer their time and provide an attractive environment.

At Wazza Surf Club our Club President will make himself available to listen to everybody and he will send personal messages to people, often not in a good space. I sadly lost my little brother 2 years ago and our President was very quick to make the time to call me and check in after my brother’s memorial service. Our Club President is hands-on and walks alongside people. He would not ask someone to do something that he would not do himself. He looks for leaders and skills across the community and engages talents, involving people in his planning and roadmap ahead. He gets to know people and what motivates them.

He has a wealth of corporate leadership experience and he brings many systems of smart operations to the club for best practice. As we can learn from a community volunteer organisation, so too the skills we learn in the corporate world can be so gratefully received in a community volunteer organisation.

The club has a good culture, minimal politics and is family support-focused. Many tenured hours are enlisted by volunteers due to the magnetism of the surf club culture, with great leaders providing mentors to young men and women. Training is regular and updating skills is a leading priority. The Club members feel a strong sense of belonging and a positive future, not to mention they focus on strong life-saving skills and fitness to boot!

 These cultural traits are vital for any thriving business. Your workplace is often a “ Family of choice” and psychological safety is the number one requirement for employee engagement today. Ensure you have sound training for your leaders in having safe conversations and ensuring when a team member is not OK,  that they know how to support them.

As CEO and or a Leader in business, during these unpredictable days, you will no doubt be thinking of how you can you do things differently, and how you can be the best leader possible. I hope some of these insights in running a volunteer organization will help you in leading a business through ambiguous times. Building best practice culture with mentoring and good leaders to inspire and positively engage your teams.

I will leave you with a video of a recent rescue by my Surf Club, it is such a testament to passionate volunteers and strong clear leadership! https://fb.watch/aIWIIRSKFH/

We welcome anytime a call or email, as we would love to hear your news. or link you to experts to run ” Safe Conversations ” training for your leaders.

Please email our long-standing and trusted Head of Research: Carmela@mondosearch.com.au

or call 1300 737 917

Sincerely,

The Mondo Search Team

About 20% of employees leave within their first 45 days of employment. Nearly 30% of jobseekers left their jobs within the first 90 days of employment (according to Work Institutes retention report).

Many leaders and businesses do not appreciate the significant mental health issues that are created for both the new starter, the Manager, and the existing team members when a new starter begins their onboarding process, it can be a stressful time and also a time of grieving the last role that they were in, letting go and adapting to the new career opportunity. Some people adapt more easily than others. Yes it can be exciting, but the huge uncertainty about the new role, the new manager, the new systems, and the new relationships place a huge stress load on the new starter.

If the new incumbent does not have well developed self-awareness and emotional regulation skills, then this high stress load impacts on their full brain capability, which affects their ability to learn, ramp up fast, develop effective working relationships and enjoy the new role.

At Mondo Search we care about finding good people for good we care to the core and have partnered with a professional in his field to provide a service to teach leaders how to induct well and to support new hires into the organisation.

Please call us for more information and we can line up a presentation of how we can support your organisation to provide professional induction experiences

Key Learning Outcomes

1.New starters – Understanding the mental health challenges of anxiety, anger, depression and stress 

2.The impact on the team – how to build inclusion

3.The critical role of the Manager – balancing the development of the new starter – too tight or too loose.

For more information please email carmela@mondosearch.com.au our Head of Research and Client Services.

Performance Appraisals are like Flossing your Teeth!

One very powerful tool that can help to retain and engage your staff are performance appraisals. One of the biggest human needs is to be seen, heard and understood. Performance appraisals can be a time to do that, so often appraisals are not looked forward to but can be well worth the effort with loads of hidden benefits!

When we floss our teeth we do not enjoy the process much, it requires getting into some detail, dealing with hidden spots and challenges, yet the outcome can be more than just top line removal of plaque. Performance appraisals can set a good plan and path moving forward,build connection, clear out unspoken challenges, misconceptions and grievances that may have been held by employees. 

Good performance appraisals also allow a platform for strategic talent mapping. The number one driver now in an attractive workplace is psychological safety and a good perfomance appraisal can allow a safe place for employees to share with honesty and support.

Performance reviews should be like a DATE  

Defined and documented, have set expectations of what will be discussed, past and future performance, team environment, support required, what management needs to stop, start and continue doing.  Documented for clear review every six months.

Adventurous- prepared to face the truth, open, transparent and challenge the status quo.

Timely – the key to a great performance review is to keep them timely (best every six months as 12 months is too long to have to turn around and steer direction).

Encouraging – we all know that human beings respond best to a carrot rather than a stick. Recent studies show that the old “sandwich” feedback process is not always effective, as people become sceptical of the good feedback – feeling it is tokenism. Really listen and empathise with people.What are their personal aspirations? This will build connection and  a deeper understanding for managing and getting the best out of them. Show an interest in their whole life goals and how they can achieve them. Ask them if they have mentors and support to help them see their aspirations

One way to build connection and trust is to share insights around yourself and how you tackled a challenge, showing your own vulnerabilities, show them that you have walked that path as well. Building intimacy – “ Into you see me” By deeply listening you can grow and  stretch people beyond what they think they are capable of and new possibilities.

For more information contact Simone Allan, Director at Mondo Search on 1300 737 917 or email simone@mondosearch.com.au

Money, money, money… Salaries are a subject that we all want to know more about, yet rarely do we talk to anyone about how much money we earn. This is a subject that often we do not even discuss with our closest. As we draw to the year-end, people are feeling stretched and often instead of asking for a pay rise, people look for an alternative role. How do we address this?

When considering a salary offer you have to take into account the whole package offering, including the workplace benefits, as well as the company culture, the challenge of the job, the working options/location(WTF)
and the career path opportunities. Organizations also vary with pay parameters, whether the industry is high/low paying, whether the company is profitable or bootstrapped, and dependent upon the company philosophy (e.g. rewarding well or providing lower pay but extra lifestyle benefits).

Three instances where we negotiate salaries:

1. Starting a role: This is often a vulnerable time as people seek the next step ahead. Make sure to list key strengths and capabilities that you bring to the position. UK Career Strategist John Lee stated that ‘when an employer extends a job offer to you, this is a critical moment’. Make the most of this honeymoon period, as any significant rise is unlikely for another 2-3 years. Employers need to make sure to include all salary package benefits to attract people aside from the base salary.
2. Being reviewed: This can be after probation, a yearly performance review or a promotion. Make sure that you have a list of your achievements and contributions. Have what is discussed in writing with a commitment from both parties. Employers should make regular reviews to ensure staff feel valued and heard.
3. When considering resigning: Research shows that 9/10 times, being counter-offered with a pay rise or a promotion is revoked, with a resignation, within 12 months. This is because people resign not over the money but over the other factors mentioned: company leadership/ culture, the challenge of the work, workplace benefits and career path options. If you know you are worth more with a competitor, then share your concerns with your employer privately. The only thing worse than a surprise resignation is an unwanted surprise resignation. Regular reviews will prevent surprise resignations. You may not be in a position to offer more money but you may be able to offer other benefits to support your treasured employees.

How to find what you’re worth? Here are some quick tips to help you on your way:

• Review average salaries using PayScale; Salary.com; LinkedIn Salary, Career Bliss.com and Glassdoor.com
• Ask an expert, (industry-specialized recruiters can help). Mondo Search has a sound knowledge of pay scales, as we have interviewed over 24,000 Executives.
• Research the level of demand for your skills in relation to you and the job market. Seek has helpful information on this.
• Believe in yourself.  If you’ve done your research and assessed your market value thoroughly, you’re in a stronger position to negotiate.

Use these tips when negotiating your salary:

• Pick your time – make sure you book the time for the “ salary conversation”
• Always be positive, note your contributions and achievements. Speak with gratitude and excitement about your future. Show them a plan to make a huge impact in the future – new business initiatives, ideas and ways to further improve, innovate or grow the business or help the organization.
• Set a range by establishing your target salary and being clear about your absolute bottom line. Be upfront and smart about when you flex your expectations within that range.
• Determine what other benefits are important to you, rank them by priority and value (such as extra annual leave, health benefits and flexible hours) and consider whether these are negotiable.
• Listen to your gut as it can anticipate whether a decision is right or wrong for your future.
• View negotiations as a joint-problem solving conversation.
• Never burn bridges even if you (kindly) say no, as your career path could one day cross their own.
• Believe in yourself:  If you’ve done your research and assessed your market value thoroughly, you will be confident to justify your expectations and be in a stronger position to negotiate when the time arrives to negotiate your salary. As an employer support your staff to share their wins and contributions. Try to create ways to reward these contributions, even if it is nonfinancial rewards, employees will feel heard, supported and will be less likely to resign.

For more information please contact info@mondosearch.com.au or 1300 797 917 and ask to speak to Simone, Carmela, or one of our consultants.