The
following links provide some great information on
all kinds of employment law issues
ADVICE/ANALYSIS
Advicenow Independent legal advice pulled together from
more than 150 separate web sites.
Community
Legal Service
Just Ask - directory of solicitors, advice agencies
and information providers across England and Wales.
Law
Centres Federation
Co-ordinating body for law centres in England,
Wales and Northern Ireland.
Employment
Lawyers Association
Organisation for solictiors and barristers practising
employment law, and organisations engaged in the practice
of employment law.
Central
Arbitration Committee
Statutory body that adjudicates on statutory recognition
and derecognition of trade unions for collective bargaining
purposes.
Criminal
Records Bureau Executive agency of the Home Office that
helps employers to vet job applicants who
may be unsuitable for certain work.
Information
Commissioner
Promotes good information handling and encourages
the development of codes of practice for data controllers.
Work
Permits UK
Based in Sheffield, England, administers work permit
arrangements in the UK. Part of the Immigration and
Nationality Directorate of the Home Office.
Employment
services agencies and employers dictate that
a good CV must be clear and free of spelling
mistakes.
Sometimes
it is an advantage to include a recent photograph
of yourself too!
Please
find below some suggested headings employment
services recommend you use when designing your
CV:
Introduction
Personal Details
Education
Work Experience
Other Information & Interests
Transferable Skills & Key Attributes
Career Objectives
Introduction Employment services need a CV that
is a crisp selection of facts
and experiences about yourself that will convince
a prospective employer that they have to interview
you.
These
are our basic employment services guidelines
that you should follow when writing a CV:
Focus on
achievements, skills
and results. Promote your
information in a positive way. Be
positive - most students are too
modest. Do not, however, over-exaggerate.
Do not
talk about your failures - say how you dealt
with challenges.
Never
include statements or achievements that cannot
be proven - always provide evidence.
Use action words to describe achievements.
Keep sentences
short and punchy. Good spacing and margins,
easy to read. Take care about
the use of abbreviations.
Keep it
short - maximum of two pages.
Whenever
possible, show results in numbers - quantify.
Check
your spelling and grammar.
Get someone else to read it through.
Personal
Details Employment services recommend you only
include basic information and that it should
be clear and comprehensive.
Essential
information most employment services agencies
and employers need to know:
Full Name
Permanent
and term addresses and telephone numbers in
full. You must keep addresses up to date with
the dates you are expecting to be at each
location.
It is
a good idea to also give your e-mail address
as it shows you can use IT but then make sure
you check your messages frequently! Some employment
services agencies will e-mail you with job
descriptions and interview times.
Nationality
- if you are a non-UK student, clearly state
that because you are a registered student
you do not require a work permit. Otherwise,
there is no need to state this.
Education Most employment services agencies require
your education into order and
remember:
Use space
intelligently. Don't make long lists of examination
subjects - form them into blocks/columns.
Don't
show repeat examinations - include only your
best grades or average.
Include
examination successes with educational establishments
and the dates as an overall span of years
rather than showing the date of each exam.
School/
College/ University name and town only, do
not bother with the full address.
Employers
and employment services agencies will be most
interested in your degree programme - focus
on the areas most relevant for the job you
are applying for i.e. if you are applying
for a marketing position, indicate your marketing
modules.
Work
Experience Show only dates, company name, the
job title and the name of the town. Showing
the full address is a waste of space.
Unless the job title is clear enough, indicate
very briefly what you actually did
and the extent of responsibility
given to you.
If you can,
finish the section off with a summary
of the personal and business or technical skills
you developed as a result of
your work experience.
Employment
services think this is particularly important
if you are a mature student with a good history
of work experience. In this case you may decide
to be selective with the employment services
information you detail and add summary information
to cover remaining employment.
Employment
services agencies and employers are keen to
know what you learnt and developed
from your work experience and how you benefited
your employer at the time. Think about what
you have got out of your work experience that
another employer would be interested in.
Other
Information and Interests Employers and employment services agencies
are especially interested in this bit! This
is what makes you different! Indicate
standards of performance (School/County), responsibility
(Captain/Treasurer) or degree of interest and
involvement. Get a mixture of team
and individual acitivities.
Transferable
Skills and Key Attributes Employers and employment services agencies
like to see some evidence of transferable
skills and key attributes: Business,
Personal, IT and Job Specific. Either add them
into the other sections of your CV or have a
mini skills audit section. Remember don't just
make statements - provide some
evidence!
Career
Objectives For a general CV you should say why
you are interested in a specific area of business
or type of job and what you feel makes you suitable,
what transferable skills you
have developed and what else you can bring to
the job.
When preparing
a CV for a specific job or company you will
need to shape your objectives
to the job advertised and to
the company or industry. Demonstrate that you
have a clear understanding of the job and that
you can show evidence of having the specific
skills required by the organisation for the
position advertised.
Use words in
your CV that they have used in the job
details. Always refer to the same
functional terms used, eg purchasing/
procurement, logistics/ distribution, personnel/
HRM etc.
Employers
and Employment services agencies will all tell
you that recruitment is a key to successful
businesses.
A job description
describes the major areas of an employee's job
or position.
A good
job description begins with a careful
analysis of the important facts
about a job, such as the individual tasks involved,
the methods used to complete the tasks, the
purpose and responsibilities of the job, the
relationship of the job to other jobs, and the
qualifications needed for the job.
It's important
to make a job description practical by keeping
it current. Don't get stuck
with an inflexible job description! Poorly written
job descriptions can lead to future employees
and employment services agencies refusing to
carry out a relevant task because “it
wasn’t on their job description”
Realistically
speaking, many jobs are subject to change,
due either to personal growth, organisational
development and/or the evolution of new technologies.
Flexible job descriptions will
encourage your employees to grow
within their positions and learn how to make
larger contributions to your company. For example:
Is your office manager stuck "routinely
ordering office supplies for the company and
keeping the storage closet well stocked "
or is she/he "developing and implementing
a system of ordering office supplies that promotes
cost savings and efficiency within the organisation?"
When
writing a job description, keep in mind that
the job description will serve as a major basis
for outlining job training or conducting future
job evaluations.
Employers
and Employment Services Agencies Say a Good
Job Description Should Include:
Job Title
Job Objective
or Overall Purpose Statement – A general
statement designed to tell the reader general
nature, level, purpose and objective of the
job. The summary should describe the broad
function and scope of the position and be
no longer than three to four sentences.
List of
Duties – The list contains an item by
item list of principal duties, continuing
responsibilities and accountability of the
occupant of the position. The list should
contain each and every essential job duty
or responsibility that is critical to the
successful performance of the job. The list
should begin with the most important functional
and relational responsibilities and continue
down in order of significance. Each duty or
responsibility that comprises at least five
percent of the incumbent's time should be
included in the list.
Description
of the Relationships and Roles the occupant
of the position holds within the company,
including any supervisory positions, subordinating
roles and/or other working relationships.
When using
Job Descriptions for employment services agencies
and recruiting situations, you may also want to
attach the following:
Job Specifications,
Standards and Requirements - the minimum qualifications
needed to perform the essential functions
of the job such as education, experience,
knowledge and skills.
Any critical
skills and expertise needed for the job should
be included. For example, for a receptionist,
critical skills may be having 1) a professional
and courteous telephone manner, 2) legible
hand-writing if messages are to be taken 3)
the ability to handle a multiple-lined phone
system for a number of staff members and 4)
the patience and endurance to sit behind a
desk all day.
Location
of Job - where the work will be performed.
Equipment
to be used in the performance of the job.
For example, does your company's computers
run in a Apple MacIntosh or PC Windows environment?
Salary
Range - range of pay for the position (optional).
Keep each statement in the job description
crisp and clear.
Structure
your sentences in classic verb/object
and explanatory phrases. Since the occupant
of the job is your sentences' implied subject,
it may be eliminated. For example, a sentence
pertaining to the description of a receptionist
position might read: "Greets office visitors
and personnel in a friendly and sincere manner."
Always
use the present tense of verbs.
If necessary, use explanatory phrases telling
why, how, where or how often to add meaning
and clarity. For example: "Collects all
employee time-sheets on a bi-weekly basis for
payroll purposes."
Omit
any unnecessary articles such as "a",
"an", "the" or other words
for an easy to understand, to the point description.
Using the above example, the statement could
have read, "Greets all visitors and the
office personnel to the building in a friendly
and a sincere manner."
Jobs
and Employment Services
