How To Keep Your Business Running 24/7

business running

How To Keep Your Business Running 24/7

Keeping your business running 24/7 can offer myriads of benefits. For one, it can help in boosting your business’s sales and revenue. When someone calls you after your business hours, and they can’t reach you, chances are they will call other businesses offering services after the operating hours. When this happens, keep in mind that aside from losing new sales, you’re giving new customers or clients to your competitors. 

Keeping a business running without a break may not be as easy as it seems. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that you shouldn’t give it a try. After all, it can be extremely beneficial. Know that there are many ways that you can try to implement this kind of schedule effectively.

So, if you’re interested, be sure to see this page until the end. Here’s how to keep your business running 24/7.

  • Consider Hiring Interns Or Apprentices

When interns and apprentices are utilized properly and effectively, they can serve as one of the best instruments in running your business or company. While they can’t completely replace full-time and permanent employees, consider the back office work they can do while trading their effort and time to have experience working in your company. 

Usually, an apprentice or intern tends to be energetic, younger demographics, and ambitious, which means they want to make their marks. As a matter of fact, some of them will feel happy when they hear the term overnight. It’s indeed a win-win situation.

success

  • Be Kind To Your Employees

There’s an emotional and personal side to running your business 24/7. To maintain productivity at all times, it’s important to keep all your employees happy and highly appreciated. It’s also best to boost the wellness of your employees since it’s important to keep a business successful. If you don’t take care of them, they’ll also do the same thing to you and your business. 

Ask yourself, are you giving your workers who are working at night the same benefits, respect, and opportunities that your daytime staff obtains? While it’s easy to think that a nighttime operation isn’t completely crucial, if possible, avoid this kind of temptation just to discount other shifts. 

Having said that, if you feel like the drive of some employees is getting low, especially on night shifts, consider giving them some incentives. By simply showing that you care for them, you can surely offer the needed jolt. It’ll also keep your business running around the clock since they won’t feel lazy working at night. 

  • Automate And Streamline The Scheduling Process

Unlike the typical 9 to 5 business hours, you can’t get consistent scheduling with a 24/7 operation. It means there should be some variations. You can’t work with your employees all day and all night. Also, it’s worth mentioning that not all workers want to go for a night shift. 

Most probably, you’re aware that trying to recall those who can work as well as how many hours every worker has already worked during a certain shift or even weeks or months isn’t easy. So, if you want your business to keep running 24/7, consider streamlining or automating the process of scheduling in order to account for the preferences and needs of the employees. One way to do it is to request worker availability. You can hire workers for certain shifts. But it would help if you also allowed some flexibility when it comes to scheduling to fit different lifestyles. 

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  • Hire Virtual Workers

In addition to hiring employees who will work in your office, hiring virtual workers can help you, especially if they’ll directly work for you. With a reliable offshore provider operating 24/7, you’ll be able to hire people with lower salaries. What’s more, you don’t even have to pay for the expenses that are usually incurred in the office. These will include office space, employee taxes, computers, and overtime rates for overnight employees. 

  • Improve Security

It’s also important that you prioritize security if you want to keep your business working 24/7. While security really matters all day and all night, it’s even more important regarding a nighttime operation. 

You have to be extra careful and vigilant during these working hours, particularly if you’re not operating at total capacity. Thus, it’s an excellent idea to improve security measures. If you’re worried about the safety of your premises, most importantly, your employees, you may want to consider hiring nighttime security teams.

  • Communication Is The Key

Providing your clients with open communication with your business any time of the day is crucial. This means you need to have a website where they can easily access your support team and contact information. 

If people use your product, expect that they will ask for more details about it and seek help, regardless of what time of the day is. Even though you’re only giving them automated responses, telling them about your support and service hours as well as giving them links to possible solutions is better compared to not responding to them at all. 

If your website has a live chat feature, people will have an idea of where exactly they are in the support line and how long they’ll wait. By doing this, you can show your customers that you’re always there. 

business running

  • Hire A Competent Assistant Manager 

To keep your business running any time of the day, you should also consider hiring a competent assistant manager. This person will take your responsibility when there’s an important thing you need to do outside your business premises if you’re sick, or on vacation. 

In that way, your business will run 24/7 without dealing with any losses. Having an authority figure that’s always present in your workplace is crucial for making an important decision. This also helps to ensure that everything is going smoothly and well. In fact, some businesses hire an assistant manager, and they’re taking shifts to make sure that everything, even the smallest details, is under control at all times.

Conclusion

Taking control of the operations of your business is the key to having an effective and successful 24/7 schedule for your business. If you don’t value your night shift workers, like focusing on the scheduling and security of everyone, you’re less likely to exceed. Hopefully, the tips mentioned above will help you in keeping your business running 24/7 effectively and smoothly.     

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7 Important Pre-Employment Tips Every HR

pre employment
“Hire right because the penalties of hiring wrong are huge.”
  • Ray Dalio

Hiring the right people goes a long way to maximize cost, save time, and bring in a high return on investment for your company. Pre-employment can be a difficult process to overcome.

Undercover Recruiter reports that hiring a bad hire can cost about $240,000 in expenses, and CareerBuilder says nearly three in four employers are affected by a poor hire. 

To avoid the dire consequences of hiring the wrong employees, you must pay attention to your pre-employment process. This is so you can hire the right people who will contribute immensely to your company’s growth. 

This article will walk you through the seven practical ways to create an excellent pre-employment process that brings the right candidates for your organization.

Let’s get into it.

7 Pre-employment tips for selecting the best candidates 

There are seven critical tips to follow when looking to hire the best candidates for your company. They are practical and can help make your recruiting process a lot more effective. Let’s check them out below:

  • Invest in recruitment marketing for pre-employment

If you are looking to hire the best talents for a role, you have to invest in effective marketing that reaches and attracts the right people.

 Effective recruitment comes with approaching the recruitment process with a marketing mindset, just like you would when attracting new customers. 

The best way to hire the most qualified candidates is by studying the three stages —awareness, consideration, and decision stages —  of their journey with your company.

pre employment

In the awareness stage, your candidates become aware of your job vacancy. There’s also the consideration stage where prospective candidates evaluate your company and the position available to see if it’s a good fit. And there’s the decision stage, where your prospective candidates decide to apply for the job. 

It’s essential to know that each of these stages requires different approaches to be successful. For example, suppose you want to generate enough awareness to reach the suitable candidates and get them to consider the positions in your company. This means you need to invest in promoting your employer brand across several platforms. 

What reputation do you have with your employees? What is your employee culture, and what are the perks of working with your organization? You want to ensure you put these positives out there for your candidates to see. Because apart from the pay, the best talents want to work in an environment that lets them grow and be better. 

By highlighting your employee benefits, work culture, and work environment, you will be able to answer your top talents’ most prominent questions and they will be able to make a decision to work with you. 

  • Ask for referrals during pre-employment

Asking for referrals from your existing employees or partners increases your chances of hiring the best candidates. This is because your current employees or working partners are more likely to have people with similar skill sets in their circle. 

Apart from this, asking for referrals comes with tons of benefits. First, they help speed up the hiring process because the referred candidates are most likely qualified and can save your team the rigor of pre-screening stages.

Secondly, the onboarding process is a lot easier. This is because the candidates are already familiar with at least one of your employees who can help with explaining the company’s culture and values.

Thirdly, referrals are excellent ways to actively engage the rest of the team in the recruitment process, which increases your chances of reaching a pool of talents to hire. 

To seek referrals from your employees, send emails stating the vacant positions available and highlighting the skills, requirements, and qualifications required to fill the positions.

Also, show them how you would like them to send the candidates your way. For example, would you prefer they send the details of the candidates through your email, or would you prefer they connect you directly to the candidate while you and your team take it from there? 

Stating your expectations clearly can help your employees recommend suitable candidates following the proper procedures to simplify recruitment. 

  • Conduct pre-employment skills testing 

Pre-employment skills testing is one of the most critical parts of your recruitment process that should be carried out effectively to hire the best candidates for a role. 

It is how you know a candidate has what it takes to perform excellently in a role. Pre-employment skills testing is of different types. There are soft skills tests, hard skills tests, role-specific tests, personality tests, culture fit tests, cognitive ability tests, and many more. 

Conducting these tests goes a long way in streamlining the number of qualified candidates you have for a role and selecting the best talents among the eligible candidates.

It also helps you save big on recruitment costs and reduces time-to-hire. As a result, you will spend less time on the wrong candidates and avoid the expenses of replacing bad hires. 

  • Create great experiences for candidates

Top talents are concerned about how a company treats them. This experience starts from the time your candidates get to know about your job all through to the recruitment process. So, you must make the recruitment process as seamless as possible for your candidates.

Start with making the initial application process straightforward. Keep your candidates informed throughout the process, from the details about the interview’s time, dates, and requirements to your expectations during the assessment process. 

Another way to keep the experience positive for your candidates is to provide constructive feedback when necessary. 

For example, if a candidate wasn’t hired due to a failed assessment or not meeting specific requirements, it’s good to inform the candidates that your company won’t be hiring them and why. 

The timely and constructive feedback can help the candidate move on to seeking opportunities in other places early; it can also enlighten them on their shortcomings to find ways to improve to be qualified for future opportunities. 

Also, you will be able to leave a positive impression of your company in the minds of your candidates, which can help with future collaborations. 

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  • Collaborate effectively with the team

Hiring suitable candidates is teamwork. It is, therefore, essential to carry everyone in the team along in the process. 

While you will be in charge of the execution as the hiring manager, you will also need to carry the executives, the financial adviser, and the rest of the human resources team along throughout the process.

Also, inform other employees outside your team ahead of time if you need their help with the recruitment process. 

For example, if you need the design team to come up with graphics for the job ad or the social media manager to post the job ads across the social channels, they should know what is expected beforehand. 

Keep the communication open and consistent to keep everyone involved in the hiring process updated every step of the way. This will go a long way in facilitating the recruitment process to achieve the right outcome. 

  • Understand that it’s never a one-size-fit

It’s important to know that although it’s good to have a system to guide you through the recruiting process as a company, it’s also critical to understand the system won’t be applicable in all cases. 

There will be exceptions, situations where you have to develop new processes to meet unusual cases. 

For example, in situations where there’s an overflow of work, you need new hands to help the existing employees urgently, or for cases where more than two employees leave the organization without notice. 

There would be a need to come up with new processes to tackle these urgent needs. 

The effectiveness of a recruitment pre-employment stage is its ability to consistently meet the organizations’ current needs. It must therefore be open to change and improvement as new situations arise and as the company evolves. 

  • Be proactive 

Proper planning is the secret of any successful pre-employment process. This means none of the activities in the pre-employment stage should be an afterthought; every process should be designed to make the employment process a success. 

This involves setting expectations and goals and predicting the outcome of the pre-employment stage to make the best decisions. 

Understand the present stage of staff. Stay updated on who would be retiring or resigning from the organization soon so you can work towards finding a replacement before the employees leave the organization. 

Remember, the success of your pre-employment stage depends highly on how well you plan and how effectively you execute your plans. One way to ensure a practical planning and execution process is to stay proactive. 

Conclusion on Pre-Employment

hotels can maximize revenue

An effective pre-employment process saves your company from bad hiring decisions. This article discussed seven practical tips to introduce into your pre-employment process to enable your company to hire the best talents.

These tips include marketing your company’s employee benefits effectively, asking for referrals, conducting pre-employment skill tests, delivering great candidate experiences, keeping everyone in the team updated, keeping the system open to change, and being proactive in the processes. 

Use these tips to improve your pre-employment process and enable the recruiting team to hire the best-qualified candidates for the job.

Author Bio:
Lydia Iseh is a writer with years of experience in writing SEO content that provides value to the reader. As someone who believes in the power of SEO to transform businesses, she enjoys being part of the process that helps websites rank high on search engines.small business coach

7 Ways To Use Recruiting Automation In Your Hiring Process

recruiting automation

Technology has changed the way we do most things, including hiring workers. Recruiting agencies are also benefitting from new technologies. One of these technologies is recruiting automation software. The idea behind this software is that it does the busy work for your team, reduces human error, and helps you focus on the more important tasks that the software cannot do.

75% of recruiters are saying that technology will be playing a much larger role in future years to come. Not only that, but many recruiters are relying on smart technology to help streamline their productivity in the workplace.

So, what are the benefits for using recruitment automation?

Why Use Recruiting Automation Software?

There are a few main reasons why recruitment teams should be using this kind of software. Here are some of the most important reasons to incorporate this technology into your hiring practices.

  • Better Productivity– The whole idea behind this software is to help your team work more efficiently and make better decisions at a quicker pace. Automating manual resume screening and interview scheduling allows employees to focus on more meaningful work.
  • Enhanced quality of hire- Automation improves the quality of a company’s hiring efforts. It allows recruiters to employ people based on characteristics that were predicted for job success. Not only that, it can lead to better and more stable hiring decisions over time.
  • Improved candidate experience-Job candidates also benefit from automation software. Potential employees don’t have to wait as long for responses, don’t have to wait as long for a hiring decision, and experience a more efficient overall process.
  • Bias-less hiring- When you use recruitment automation software for assessing and ranking candidates, you remove any common hiring biases and make a completely objective hiring process. This in turn leads to increased diversity in the workplace.
  • Decreased time to hire- Every day a job role goes unfilled in a company is a day where the company faces lost profitability and productivity. Automating certain aspects of hiring, like candidate pre-screening and assessments, greatly reduces the overall time to hire.

These are some of the best reasons to use recruitment automation software in your hiring process. So, now that we understand the why recruitment teams should take advantage of this technology, we need to investigate how we can implement this software in the hiring process.

What Are Some Ways Recruiting Automation Software Can Be Used During The Hiring Process?

How does automation software help recruitment teams? Here are 7 ways in which this technology is used in the hiring process.

  1. Job advertising

Traditionally, when a position opens up within a company, that job would be advertised in the local newspaper and listed on job boards. Then came listing it on the internet. With recruitment automation software, you can use programmatic job advertising instead, which is the purchasing of digital advertisements using software.

recruiting automation

Using automation software allows you to place your job advertisement all over the internet. These ads usually have low or no return on investment costs, which saves your company money, by making use of automated advertising budget management. “This automation can help recruiters reduce cost-per-applicant by over 30%” explains Troy Ryan, a project manager at Elite assignment help and State of writing.

Recruiting automation also improves your employer brand messaging, focusing on employee experiences, giving a favorable light to company culture, and pushing out branded content that is more appealing than the average job posting.

  1. Background screening

Automated systems are great at weeding out the wrong job candidate for your company. With recruitment automation software, you can carry out background checks by running any contact information through the system for verification of their identity and confirm employment eligibility.

  1. Applicant tracking

This is the most common automation software that recruiters use. Applicant Tracking Systems are used to collect and track the recruitment process in a database, from when a job candidate first applies for the position, to when a final decision to hire or not is made. It is a great organizational tool.

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  1. Recruiting via social media

Nowadays, jobs are advertised via social media. In fact, 98% of recruiters use Linkedin to post jobs and source candidates, as well as other sites like Instagram and Twitter. It’s super easy and efficient to use automation software, such as LinkedIn automation tools, to manage your social media recruiting, such as automating when you make a social media post and launching recruitment campaigns.

  1. Pre-employment assessments

There are pre-hiring platforms dedicated to pre-hiring assessments. These platforms are invaluable for assessing relevant skills, characteristics, and automatically ranking of candidates based on their assessment scores. This mitigates any hiring biases that might skew candidate selection, making the hiring process more objective.

Most of these skill assessment platforms also integrate easily with your company’s ATS, keeping your company’s information on potential candidates as up-to-date as possible.

  1. Interview scheduling with recruiting automation 

Scheduling interviews also is a huge time sink and requires impeccable organizational skills. It’s considered to be the most tedious task out of the hiring process.

Automation software helps by saving time and streamlining the process, creating a smoother and better experience for recruiters and potential new hires alike.

  1. Candidate rediscovery and ranking

Most of the time, you will have multiple candidates for one position, and will only hire one of those candidates. However, the job market is very competitive, and it really benefits you to keep track of talent even if they were previously turned down. Candidate rediscovery and ranking technology can help here, as it helps companies identify past candidates who might be a good fit for the current role, as well as their candidate scoring and ranking to help speed up the hiring process overall.

Recruitment automation software is a massive help for recruitment teams. These are 7 of the most common ways in which recruiter implement automated technologies within their companies. It can be used in a variety of ways and offers many distinct team advantages.

Christina Lee is a social media strategist at Student writing services.

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How to Hire Top Talent on a Shoestring Budget

top talent

An organization with a large hiring budget can offer a candidate higher salaries, expensive benefits with stability. But what about the companies who can’t afford recruitment on a large scale with large budgets? It can be difficult to hire top talent.

Small companies, especially startups, struggle to meet their staffing requirements in a way that is affordable for them. To make up for the cost, companies must explore some creative options to find talented employees that won’t cost much.

Let’s start by understanding the Cost per hire. To calculate your per hire, apply the following formula:

Cost Per Hire = (Internal Hiring Cost + External Cost / Total Hires)

If you want to compare the cost per hire, here are some numbers for reference

Avg Cost per hire in India – $350

Avg Cost per hire in US/Europe – $3000

Avg Cost per hire in the Asia Pacific – $800

How to Hire Top Talent on a Shoestring Budget

Here are some ways which can be applied in the traditional recruitment processes:

#1 Instead of recruitment agencies reach out to internal employees for referrals

Current employees can be asked to name 3 people “Who can be the best person for this job”. Not only this can help in saving money and time, but according to studies it also improves the quality of hire, reduces turnover rate, and increases the offer acceptance rate.

You can reach out to former employees too since they understand the job and the company, they can be helpful in identifying qualified candidates.

Savings Calculator: Recruitment Agencies typically charge one month to two month’s worth of salary as a fee for finding the right talent. So Assume a job comes with a $1000/month salary. By incentivizing your employee referral, you stand to save $1000-2000.

#2 Improve your web presence to attract top talent

shoestring budget

In this age of digitalization, the internet can be helpful in increasing your organization’s reach to a wider audience.

With the help of your company’s website and social media, the job seekers can have access to information about your company and its culture before even applying. Top talent will be more readily available.

Here’s a company culture stat to consider: 90% of professionals conduct research on a company’s culture over the internet before accepting a job role. You can create an employer brand by sharing anecdotes, praising valued employees, and communicating the values that are important to your organization.

To make this process cost-effective try replacing it with social Media & free job boards instead of paid ones.

Savings Calculator: On an average, LinkedIn charges roughly $825 per month for a recruiter license and $120 for recruiter lite. A solid social media presence can help you save between $3000-9000 a year on such license fees.

#3 Hire Remotely

Cost of travel, hotel accommodation, etc. is a factor that can stop you from screening a higher number of candidates if your company is struggling with a tight budget. As the Covid-19 outbreak has exposed us to a lost more technical options for every procedure, recruitment procedures too must keep up.

Remote hiring can be your option here, by taking online assessments and interviews from remote locations can be convenient for both the recruiter and recruit. With reduced travel hassle and cost for the applicant, this could be more attractive for an employee and reduce the salary costs.

Instead of hiring from one specific location, remote hiring can help you in finding candidates from diverse backgrounds by also reducing the cost per hire.

#4 Use ATS for top talent

Searching for the right recruits can be messy and time-consuming, but applying the emerging technologies available can help to streamline the process.

Artificial intelligence in recruitment can help in the automation of much of the process. It can analyze the enormous volumes of data to sort through the applications, resumes, or CVs and identify those who are best suited to the job.

These softwares can also help to improve the language which you use in your recruiting materials and tailor your approach to the particular set of candidates you’re looking for.

They can also help you save hours each day that would have been devoted to just reading and sorting through hundreds of applications. This time can be better used on other priorities like sitting down with the candidates themselves in an interview.

Organizations that currently are not investing big data in their hiring process may find themselves at a major disadvantage, therefore stay ahead of the curve by using every tool in your budget.

Tip: Don’t buy expensive recruitment software before you have a strong hiring process in place. Instead, opt for a free Applicant Tracker to manage the process.

#5 Move to online pre-employment testing software

These assessments help in speeding up the process and assessing candidate’s skills and quicker filtering unsuitable candidate’s skills than any hiring manager. And saving every second here saves money.

By making the pre-employment assessments online, the candidates can take them remotely, the time is saved and money in traveling too. This in return helps in increasing the company’s employer brand.

By validating skills through these assessments, it becomes efficient to find the candidates with the required set of skills and abilities.

Pro-Tip: If you as a recruiter and want to conduct an efficient and customizable pre-hiring assessment, you can look at Xobin for candidate evaluation.

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#6 Use video interviews for screening top talent

In the traditional process, at times you may need to filter hundreds of CVs to end up with a group of eligible candidates. And with the lockdowns still not being completely ended, interviewing in the office can be more complicated and expensive than earlier, because of the social distancing restrictions that can increase candidate stress.

Video call interviews are a cheaper way of doing the work and a lot of these apps are free, for example, Skype, or Zoom in their primary versions. As a lot of people’s time is involved in the review process, and think whether this can be cut down, or combined with other similar tasks. This can help you hire top talent.

#7 Offer cost-effective benefits

One of the most important things a candidate, especially millennials and Gen-Z, looks for in an organization is the employee compensation and benefits they provide. According to a survey report by Willis Tower Watson, 78% of employees are more likely to stay with an employer because of their benefits program.

You can provide simple-budget-friendly perks like flexible scheduling, food, gym memberships, reward cards that will help you attract and retain top employees.

#8 Hire according to requirements

Hiring freelancers, part-time or non-traditional employees like people looking to re-enter the workforce, older employees, or employees who are outside of your industry are more likely to be less expensive.

Freelance or part-time employees are often more affordable to hire because hiring them doesn’t involve expenses like worker’s compensation insurance or full health benefits. And in the case of non-traditional employees, since they are often overlooked, there is a chance that their salary expectations will be more within your budget.

Hiring on a Budget

Hiring and onboarding new employees are generally considered time-consuming and expensive. However, implementation of some of the above steps could easily save your business $2500-$3000 per month.

Author Bio:

Amrit Acharya is the head of products at Xobin – an online assessment tool used by 600+ companies for bias-free recruitment. An avid tennis fan, Amrit writes about recruitment optimization, hiring strategies, and product management.small business coach

Why Are Your Best Employees Leaving and How to Stop It?

Employees Leaving

Description: A high employee turnover rate is always bad for a company. Therefore, it’s your job to understand employees leaving and how to stop them from doing so. Learn more in our comprehensive article that we’ve put together for you!

Employee turnover is expensive for any business, whether it sells clothes or cleans up space junk. It’s estimated that replacing an employee can cost roughly $40,000, including advertising, recruitment, training time, and the lost productivity in the middle. We also know that if the best employees are leaving, the negativity surrounding the process can damage the company as well.

Based on studies, almost one-third of employees plan to leave their companies within 12 months. There are a lot of factors that lead to increased employee turnover. In this article, we will look at why employees leave and some solutions to reduce employee turnover rates.

Why Are Employees Leaving?

Some subtle and emotional factors that play essential roles in employees deciding to pack up and leave include the following.

  1. Lack Of Appreciation

One of the main reasons why employees leave is because they feel undervalued and underappreciated. It has been found that approximately 66% of employees leave if they do not feel valued. This number is even higher for younger staff; studies show that almost 8 out of 10 millennials would instead look for new opportunities if they feel unappreciated by their leaders or colleagues.

Companies that have taken a strategic approach towards recognizing their employees have seen a vast improvement in staff retention. There is a link between recognition and a low turnover rate.

  1. Lack Of Flexible Work Options

Most companies have now started offering some degree of flexibility to retain the best talent as part of the core employee offering, with options ranging from remote working to compressed hours. More than half of the organizations today have seen employees leave because of a lack of flexibility. Flexibility is a perk that all age groups appreciate. Less than 10% of employees would choose the office as the preferred destination to get essential tasks done.

  1. Poor Mental Health

For some time, the impact of poor mental health on a staff member’s performance and the economy has been studied. Based on employee turnover statistics, it has been found that UK companies face a loss of approximately £42 billion every year – out of which £8 billion loss is caused by leaving because of mental health issues.

It can be said that 3 out of 5 employees leave their organizations due to mental health challenges, which is one of the most important reasons for quitting. Poor mental health is an issue that is seen irrespective of gender or age. Based on the survey, many people quit their jobs because of mental health, with long work hours as the primary factor.

  1. Relationship With The Employer/Management

Additional research has shown that most people quit their jobs because of the boss, not the company. Leaving a bad manager is one of the most common reasons why employees quit, with 75% of ex-workers doing so because of their boss, not the job or company itself.

The relationship with the direct manager is vital for several success factors for the employee, like engagement, morale, and productivity. For whatever reason, if there is a breakdown in this relationship, it can lead to job dissatisfaction, anxiety, and mistrust. According to statistics, it has been found that almost 79% of employees leave a company due to bad leadership; in fact, most of these employees have stated that they would return back to their old jobs if the boss/manager was replaced.

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  1. Lack Of Career Growth

Based on studies, it has been concluded that lack of career development and growth is another common reason why staff members leave their jobs. Most quit because they do not get the opportunity to better their performance or learn new skills, even though most companies provided career development tools. Sadly, only a few believed that these tools were working.

More than 40% of the departing employees cited lack of future career development as a deciding factor for leaving the job. Out of these, 28% were actively looking for new employment while the rest were waiting for these opportunities if they came their way.

How Do You Avoid Employees Leaving?

Here are some things that you can do if you want to learn how to prevent employees leaving:

  1. Always Be Generous With The Paychecks

There is only so far you can go with underpaying your staff members. If you continue to do so, they will start nurturing a grudge against you and will readily take up a job when offered by your competitors. Just because you want to save some money, you will lose a valuable member of your team. Hence, it is advised that you hire the best people for your job and pay them as much as you can for the responsibility.

Interestingly, statistics have shown that employees often get a new offer from competition brands during the first year of joining your company.

  1. Introduce Smooth And Transparent Communication

One of the best ways to reduce employee turnover is to run regular feedback sessions with your employees. This way, you can prevent a valuable employee from leaving because you will understand the challenges and difficulties they face. For instance, your staff member might be feeling undervalued, or it has been a long time since he or she has been promoted or on vacation.

If you understand what problems they are facing, you should make an effort to address these issues. Even if you cannot do so, it is suggested that you take the help of others in your team. It is always better to talk about a situation before they become unmanageable and/or critical.

  1. Set Ambitious Goals For Star Employees

Most people have no idea what they are looking for. It means that you should always talk with your subordinates and try to understand their plans and ambitions for the future. Then, ensure that you include these plans in their work. This will help you prevent employees leaving.

You need to become a mentor and help your employees grow professionally. Your employees should be handed ambitious goals and complex tasks; additionally, make sure that you support them to get the task done without being afraid of possible problems.

Another thing you can do is offer relocation opportunities that can help them gain knowledge and skills required to progress in their chosen career path. To ensure a smooth move for your employees, you can partner with an experienced relocation company like ARC Relocation that can provide tailor-made assistance to employees including sorting important documents, finding accommodation and more.

  1. Build Strong Connections to Avoid Employees Leaving

If you want your team to be successful, everyone needs to help and trust one another. This becomes impossible if there is no ‘friendship’ between peers. As a leader, your task is to foster internal employee relationships via various team-building activities.

You should always mind your attitude when you are working with your employees. Always be close to them and understand if they are facing any troubles; try to solve their internal conflicts. Ensure that there is a positive atmosphere within your office.

  1. Reward Good Work

It’s one of the best strategies to reduce employee turnover. Rewarding for a task done well will encourage healthy competition and bring unity to your team. Additionally, it will also demonstrate to the workers how vital they are for the company.

You should remember that money is not the only type of incentive. You can also provide your hires leaves for a couple of days or attend a conference or workshop in different cities. Any type of reward will be well-received.

  1. Address False Hopes to Avoid Employees Leaving

One very effective high employee turnover solution is to address false hopes. When there is minimum openness, it will eventually stir distrust; this will harm productivity. Therefore, it is advised that you do not hide the development of your company from your employees.

For instance, let’s consider that you value a specific employee but cannot give him a raise or promotion for now. In such a case, you must convey the message and the reason why you cannot do so. It will prevent your employees from developing high hopes and eventually the feelings of resentment when these hopes are not met.

  1. Just Let It Go

Of course, there is nothing you can do if your employee wants to leave. You should learn to let go and not have any resentment towards the now ex-worker in such cases. At this point, all you can do is try to maintain a healthy employee turnover rate by getting in new employees and ensuring that they stay for at least a year.

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Final Thoughts on Employees Leaving

As mentioned above, the costs of employee turnover are incredibly high. Therefore, HR managers and bosses need to understand the underlying reasons why employees leave. Only with the help of these facts can you make the required changes to prevent a high employee turnover rate.

What’s your take on this? Let us know in the comments!

Author’s Bio:

Emily Moore is an English & programming teacher with a passion for space and blogging. She believes that current exploration should be focused on preserving our planet’s resources. With satellites circling the orbit, it is easier to get relevant data on any environmental changes. This, in turn, should help people quickly address any challenges.

 

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Digital HR Trends For The Hiring Process

hiring process

The year 2020 has been a life-changing one for many companies around the world. But after that, electronic working— which has fast become the order of the day before the advent of the pandemic— is the new normal and has now been activated full-time. Subsequently, this year, 2021, has seen many advancements in the human resources hiring process. You can now work efficiently while hiring strong candidates and even keep existing employees with technological innovations.

In this article, you will be taken through six (6) HR digital trends urging the evolution of the hiring process.

Six HR Digital Trends That Are Urging the Evolution of the Hiring Process

 

  1. PEO services and AI-based recruitment

Today, the word of HR has been revolutionized. Algorithms that programmers have hitherto developed are now helping employers seek proficient talents to fill their workforce. Professional Employer Organizations (PEO) are now given the task of checking applicants’ profiles from several sources. This may include their social media activities, amongst others. For instance, IBM makes use of AI to analyze a potential candidate before hiring. Their algorithm helps them analyze applicants’ sentence constructions and facial expressions to determine if they will be a good fit or otherwise. Other important areas where AI has influenced PEO services in hiring to optimize the HR world include payroll processing, onboarding, benefits management, and HR solutions.

  1. Data privacy protection

The world of work has evolved so much. And this evolution has led to an increase in fraud and cyber-attacks. Hence, it is now very important for businesses to take data security as a great deal. Thankfully, data privacy laws are guiding and guarding the use of people’s data across the world. The implication of this is that HR tools need to speed up protecting sensitive identifying information. Digital technology tools should be used to keep well-organized documents and data files on central cloud storage. Also, functions like digital signatures should help protect contracts and payment slips.

 

  1. Pre-employment tests & resume assessments

In the past, there’s a huge reliance on resumes and cover letters before recruitment. This is believed to help determine a candidate’s suitability for a job opening. But that is now a thing of the past. Today’s HR has made technological provisions to cater for that and test candidates’ experience, competency, and skills. The aspects that can be tested on may include:small business coach

  • Aptitudes: where candidates are tested on problem-solving skills, critical thinking, and the ability to learn.
  • Personality: here, candidates’ personalities are unveiled to check if they could fit into a position or team in a company.
  • Skills: specific skills are tested to check if candidates have the required skills and exposures to handle the position.

  1. Online learning, training & development for the hiring process

The recent pandemic has created a lot of opportunities in the world of work. There are now myriads of platforms to train, retrain and upskill staff and other important employees. Companies have begun offering their staff training to teach online work culture to them. Sometimes companies even make use of remote interpreting to reach their global employees. Hence, the implementation of these digital advantages brings development to the face of HR as it prepares the workforce to upgrade from the old, tired method to the new, faster working process.

  1. Employee appraisal and performance management

Unlike before, performance management and employee appraisal are now a continuous and integrated process. The regular annual performance reviews previously carried out are now fast overridden by a system that reviews employee performance more frequently (monthly or quarterly) as they give a daily report of their jobs.

  1. The cloud in regards to the hiring process

By now, there is no doubt that you must have heard about “the cloud” or that you could even have used it yourself. If you have edited a file on google drive, streamed music on Spotify, or probably uploaded a resume on LinkedIn, then you’ve seen it in action but didn’t just notice. The cloud is a very important tool for hiring. It gives the HR team the flexibility to find capable candidates through a global database search without hassles.

Conclusion

The usage of technology in the realm of HR is becoming ever rapid. And to maintain a successful hiring process, resource teams have to become tech-savvy. With this, the problems of global recruitment, credential verification, and applicants’ engagements would be simpler to resolve. Thus, efficiency would be harnessed as productivity will drastically be on the rise. Read this article about hiring employees for your small business.small business coach

Innovative Recruitment Methods To Try

recruitment methods

Innovative Recruiting Techniques Your Company Must Try

Using recruitment methods different from the usual tradition and norm to bring in fresh hands has its advantages as a recruiting manager. Most employees nowadays go in for job aptitude tests having ideas about what they may be up against. If you own that company, there are chances that you may not get the best hands. To be sure that you have recruited the brightest, you have to give everyone equal opportunities during the process of getting in. So being innovative with your recruitment methods will ensure that the prospective candidates are meeting with that method for the first time. That would get you the best if this recruitment method is unbiased. You should try some of these innovative recruitment methods below.

Try your advertisements on social media

Using programmatic advertising may not be considered innovative but it is an idea you should consider for your online recruiting. When you visit niche sites where your prospective candidates hang out, you stand a great chance of getting the best hands. Imagine big-name companies posting their job advertisements on say Spotify. This is away from the popular social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. At the same time, Strike IT in the US placed 111 hires by sourcing their candidates on Reddit. Goldman Sachs is also known for using this type of method. Mainstream social networks can help you build a strong employer brand and so reach out to a broad audience.

Video interviewing

When you have got top-class prospects living abroad, using video interviewing technology can be a great option. It is quite self-explanatory but it doesn’t make it less effective. It will save you a lot of time and resources and you would still be presented with a larger candidate pool than using conventional recruitment methods. There is a way you can improve video interviewing to bring in more innovation. You could do pre-employment skills testing and assessment to extract some important data like verbal responses, gesticulations, and eye movements about your prospective candidate using video technology. This data set can help you predict a candidate’s likelihood of success in their future jobs.

 Patronize the freelance jobs platforms

This is one innovative recruitment method that is fast becoming popular these days. It is possible that you need some particular job done as quickly as possible. Maybe one of your employees who is skilled in an aspect hasn’t done a particular job the way you want it. You have a deadline to meet and there are other jobs for your staff. You can visit some freelance platforms like freelancer.com, Upwork or, even better, check freelance websites that have specialized experts in certain fields, such as Kolabtree, a freelance medical writer website. These platforms will help you get the right candidate. The advantage of this is that you can get several qualified candidates and choose one who is free to attend your job and conclude it as soon as possible. This will save you a lot of time and money since you wouldn’t need to go through the whole recruitment method or have any onboarding activity before your work gets done. Working with a freelancer also allows you to see how good they are and when next you are looking for someone with such skills for a full-time role, you will just hire the candidate straight away.

Apply gamification methods

These days, several companies have started using this innovative recruitment method to get the best hands for their important roles. Gamifying a recruitment process helps the employee see past the resumes of prospective candidates and focus on their skills and intelligence quotients. You can use software from companies like Knack to achieve your recruitment process through gamification. For example, Taylor Wessing, a law firm, uses Cosmic Cadet, a five-level game to assess candidates’ skills. Unilever also uses some intelligent games to screen recent graduates faster and in a fair manner.

Including incentives for employees in your advertisements

This may seem off from the other innovative recruitment methods of recruiting top-class candidates but it works like magic and helps you have an edge over your competitors in recruiting the best hands. When professional candidates are exploring their options, they will be glad to know that one out of the four companies they are considering has some incentives for their employees that are too good to reject. For example, as a company, you can talk about how you would help your employees’ endeavors succeed by sending them abroad to sharpen their skills. Any prospective candidate who sees this will immediately be interested and it can help you get the best hands. This is because global mobility is influencing the recruitment method for many companies these days. It is not possible that your country has all the best solutions you need for your company so sending your employees on regular pieces of training abroad is necessary so you can acquire more skills from the professionals in that area. Prospective candidates are always on the lookout for this and many other incentives for employees.small business coach

Using internet technology in recruiting sourcing professionals

Recruiters have long been using the resources of Internet technologies to find specialists, such as job sites, social networks. Today, this recruitment method has become especially relevant due to the massive transition of people online. Check out five innovative ways specifically for sourcing/procurement professionals to recruit talent that companies need to take note of in 2021:

  • Posts and stories on Instagram. Today, it is a powerful tool to draw attention to your company. This resource is suitable for you if you want to acquaint candidates with the corporate culture, share current events and activities, tell them about the features and benefits of working in a company, giving candidates a chance to see the company’s life from the inside.
  • Entertainment applications. In the Snapchat app, you can find geofilters and apply them to your photo. JPMorgan Bank has created its geofilters for athletes in London and New York to discover young talents. They also plan to use these geofilters on demand for school and university activities. JPMorgan wants to show young people that they are a modern company and that their future jobs will be just as varied and exciting.
  • Online competitions. Organizing your online technical competitions will allow you to evaluate and attract candidates who are not currently actively looking for work. You can also get a solution to some of the company’s current problems (this is how Google, Microsoft, Facebook work).
  • Show-Your-Work Sites. Take advantage of websites like Dribble (finding creative people) and Pinterest (photo hosting), where users post their work, and interested parties can rate and praise their success.
  • Creation of online professional communities at the level of your company. This tool will help you build relationships with members based on learning and discussing professional topics in communities (for example, using massive online chats – WhatsApp). Once you have established a professional relationship, you will have the opportunity to tap potential hiring candidates.

An alternative method, using PEO Services:

A Professional Employers Organization (PEO) is a service provider that allows companies to outsource the management of services typically provided by a business, including global payroll, human resources, employee benefits, risk management, training, and employee compensation. PEO assumes all responsibilities in these categories, and this allows the company to focus on the operational and profitable side of its business.

Conclusion

If you are a recruitment manager, you want to be known for the type of employees you bring in. To achieve that, you need to be at the top of your game when recruiting. Bringing innovation to the table has proven beneficial to most companies and if these recruitment methods didn’t yield results, we wouldn’t be talking about them. If you are preparing to recruit soon, you should try out some of these tips and see how well things work for you. Check out this article on hiring employees for your business.

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Hiring Employees For Your Small Business

hiring employees

Hiring employees for your small business is getting more and more challenging. According to the U.S. Private Sector Job Quality Index, about 37 million jobs have become vulnerable to mass layoffs in the United States. These came from the retail, clothing, education, travel, hospitality and other considered non-essential industries in these challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Employees, therefore, are left with only 3 career destinations: they could either be enjoying the culture of remote work, working as part of a skeletal and limited workforce, or unfortunately getting the chop. The estimated loss in the global economy amounts to $2.7 trillion and this much loss paved the way for some companies to seek serious cost-saving measures that can potentially jeopardize the regular man’s only bread and butter.

Luckily, despite these circumstances inevitably happening and that the economy is at an all-time threat, small businesses, especially those in retail, are lauded for their strategic ways of surviving and striving amidst the ongoing virus outbreak. They somehow contribute to the improvement of the economy and help employ individuals. Small businesses help in the creation of jobs and have brought stable income to people especially now when vaccines are being dished out and businesses are slowly reopening and are getting back on their feet. Laborers and employees are getting more and more in demand each day.

Hiring Employees For Your Small Business

In the dynamic landscape of small business operations, finding and hiring the right talent can be the right step toward success. To navigate this process effectively and ensure the growth of your small business, it’s crucial to consider various factors. One invaluable resource is a small business HR system, which can simplify and enhance hiring processes. 

With that, it is only essential that we have a list of considerations when hiring employees to help in the business processes. Here are a few ways:

  1. Create a clear job description that covers everything.

Finalize the need and the qualities you look for before officially opening your doors to hire. Ensure that you are crystal clear about the type of person, the skills, personality, and attitude that you want to represent your brand or company. You must also make a comprehensive list of the hiring employees process, the salary or range, and the job description that your hire shall need to fully immerse himself in the position. Have an accurate and complete record of each candidate and weigh their strengths, weaknesses, and jot down interview notes during the entire process of assessing the candidates. This will allow you to have a standardized and formal hiring process.

  1. Observe candidates who know how to give and take.

Ask situational questions that can elicit responses pertaining to their degree of acceptance to the give and take mechanism. Give and take is integral for any relationship to prosper. Such a mechanism can indicate how much the employee can understand when the company decides or falters on something.

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3. Emphasize the importance of mental health in the workplace. 

Worth noting, employees are found to have been taking their mental health more seriously now. In fact, a survey from Aetna International (2021) pointed out that 84% of employees mentioned that their mental health is more important to them these days than it was just over a year ago. Certainly, employees also look at how much companies value mental health in the office. Activities that foster these activities can help them alleviate stress and withstand working in your company. When they are presented these the onset, they can gauge whether or not they can find things manageable.

  1. Make room to improve your employee benefits program. 

To attract and hire high-quality candidates, you must improve all aspects of the job experience. The anticipated demand for employees soon will stir a competition between companies in need of valuable new hires. Employees view a benefits program as a necessity so, on top of your usual medical and dental coverage, you must also consider other innovative ways to improve and highlight the importance of employee experience. Potential employees, more so the millennials, are looking for a company that can improve their quality of life, not always talking money-wise.

  1. Use a recruitment strategy that works for you.

There are plenty of ways to recruit but you need to consider where your potential employees usually flock and spend their time. A lot of headhunters are on social media as this is where they can see a pool of candidates in their living spaces and be presented with their personal data at the onset. It can also be beneficial in such a way that you are exposed to their networks and their interest.

In this list, you may notice that emphasis on work-life balance is placed to an extensive degree. This is brought by the fact that nowadays, we must foster a work-life balance having been exposed to situations that often open up moments of vulnerability for employees. Including these as part of your normal hiring process allow for letting go of your strict guards and foster a work environment that values both productivity and life quality and cut loose threads that bring up absenteeism, job neglect, and bad work behavior.

Summary

If you want your business and its employees to thrive post-pandemic or during so, prioritizing mental health in the workplace should be on your list. Cultivating a culture that values others’ mental well-being and supports employees in their pursuit of finding a job that is enough to keep their motivations, satisfaction, and earnings high will definitely bring you more gains than losses. Here’s more about Hiring and Training.

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About the Author:

Bash Sarmiento is a writer and an educator from Manila. He writes laconic pieces in the education, lifestyle, and health realms. His academic background and extensive experience in teaching, textbook evaluation, business management, and traveling are translated into his works.

Links:

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LinkedIn

Facebook

 

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What Perks Can Growing Businesses Offer To Attract New Employees?

attract new employees

Looking to attract new employees to your growing business? Offering a selection of unique and generous work perks can help seal the deal. But knowing what to offer and why is trickier than you might first think.

From game rooms and chill zones to monthly massages, attracting talent has become a war of ever-evolving work perks. But cool as they sound, these novel offerings aren’t enough to sway prospective applicants. Instead, you need to find incentives that add intrinsic value to company culture and people’s lives — this is how you attract the best new employees.

What Perks Can Growing Businesses Offer To Attract New Employees?

When offered for the right reasons, work perks are a powerful tool for attracting and retaining staff members. In this article, we look at the following perks that can take your growing business to the next level:

  • Offering flexible hours to improve work/life balance
  • Purchasing company cars to help get people from A to B
  • Organizing work socials to boost team camaraderie

For startups and growing businesses, keeping and attracting new employees proves much easier if you can offer a string of compelling incentives. Read on as we explore the best perks your company can offer to appear more appealing to the job market and attract new employees.

Organize work socials to improve team camaraderie

Do you find yourself taking on more and more new faces as the business grows? Startups often begin life with a small, tight-knit group of people, but as your operation grows so does the need for new members of staff.

It’s important to keep the company culture you love alive by bringing the latest hires into the fold, making them feel as important and connected to the company as everyone else. Not only does this breed a friendly work environment that others are clamoring to apply for, but it also nurtures loyalty and reduces employee turnover.

While everybody sees each other in the office or over a Zoom call, a frenzied schedule renders them unable to socialize with people outside of their established teams/groups. So, there comes a point where you have to step in and organize a much-needed work social to get everyone smiling in unison.

Of course, you have the classic trip to the pub or work quiz to fall back on, but if you want to stand out from the crowd then you really ought to go the extra mile for your staff.

Here are some of the most popular work social ideas to give you some inspiration:

  • Escape rooms
  • Sports days
  • Treasure hunts
  • Go-karting

The key is to tailor the experience to your company and zero in on the things your employees enjoy and avoid things they don’t. For example, if there are lots of non-drinkers on your roster then after-work drinks can feel quite isolating, equally if you have lots of sports fans then knocking off work early to see the local football team could be a no-brainer.

Note that with the coronavirus still looming over our heads, work socials as we once knew them aren’t going ahead, but with that said, there are plenty of socially distanced alternatives to take advantage of — pandemic or no pandemic, some things are more important than work when it comes to attracting and retaining new employees.

Supply company cars to help people get from A to B

Despite the pandemic restricting many operations to within the four walls of peoples’ homes, some others still need transport for work.

Whether this is professional drivers looking to keep the fulfillment process running smoothly or key workers trying to arrive for their shift in the safest way possible, there are many growing businesses reliant on four wheels to get from A to B.

Most drivers are well aware of the financial burden running a vehicle puts on their purse strings in the form of insurance payments, tax renewals, fixing wear and tear, or riding the tide of fluctuating fuel prices.

In this instance, your business can offer to take the pressure off by supplying company cars.

Although an alarming (and costly) thought at first, company cars are some of the most sought-after work perks for attracting and retaining new employees. Here are some of the benefits (as outlined in Microsoft’s business insights):

  • Eliminates an employees’ need to buy and run their own vehicle
  • Remove worries about getting to and from work
  • Your business has more control over specialty vehicles like trucks
  • Convey brand image wherever your team might be

As a growing business, you’re likely noticing an improvement in your profit margins and want to invest that money back into the company — so company cars could be that next big step.

Equally, you don’t want to be left footing the full bill and start cutting too heavily into your revenue either. As such, you must learn from the efforts of more established operations and come up with ways to mediate the overall cost.

The Shell fuel card is one such example used by companies to help stabilize mounting running costs across a vehicle-reliant operation. As shown in this guide, fuel cards benefit companies by:

  • Offering fixed rates and regular fuel discounts
  • Providing access to telematics that let you monitor wasteful driving

While certainly an incredible work perk that can change people’s lives, you shouldn’t let employees treat owning a company car like a blank check. Instead, offer the car with certain stipulations like fuel cards or restricted private usage — this way you can add some checks and balances to the scheme.

No doubt you’ll still turn heads in the job market with the promise of a shiny new coupe delivered to their driveway, but now at least you’ll have checks and balances in place to make the system more sustainable.

Flexible hours to improve people’s work/life balance

From being one of the most sought-after perks to becoming a work-from-home necessity, operating a business during a pandemic would not have been possible without owners embracing the merits of flexible hours.

For some working from home feels like a walk in the park; for others, it’s a chaotic nightmare fueled by having to juggle professional and personal responsibilities.

Restricted only by a manager’s ability to trust their staff, flexible working is not so much a perk as it is a requirement for the modern workplace. As such, attempting to micromanage employees’ work/life balance isn’t feasible because the current job market expects much more freedom from a role so it blends seamlessly into home life.

Allowing flexible hours greatly improves employee welfare and makes you appear to be an understanding, caring company to the job market, all without sacrificing much in terms of operational efficiency. It lets employees tackle the day at their own pace and create a schedule that works for them.

Work perks are a great way for growing companies to showcase company culture and attract new employees, but only if they offer intrinsic value and are put in place for the right reasons.

 From simple yet appreciated offers like work socials and flexible hours to big gestures like a company car, offering work perks is all about knowing your people and improving their lives.

Read this post on why employees leave and how to retain them.

 

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Finding and Training Great Employees

Part 1 of 3.

The people you hire to work for your business can be your biggest assets and your biggest headaches; finding and training great employees can be a challenge. They can support and help you to achieve the vision you have for your company – but they can also prevent you from reaching that vision.

Finding and Training Great Employees

Too many businesses overlook the role of employee recruitment and retention when planning for the success of their organization. Staffing is an important exercise that needs to be purpose-driven and strategic, just like marketing.

Employees Think: What’s in it for Me?

It is vital to understand in today’s market that the relationship between employee and employer is a two-way street. Now, more than ever, employees have a “what’s in it for me?” attitude that extends beyond salary and benefits expectations into incentive and rewards programs. The days of simple compensation structures are over.

Now, this may sound like a big headache, but it’s actually a good thing! With some simple systems and open dialogue, you will be able to effectively create – and keep – your dream team.

The Power of Your Dream Team

How much of your own personal time has human resources – staff hiring, firing, issues management, etc. – taken this year? No doubt staff recruitment and retention is one of the biggest challenges facing any business owner today.

The truth is, if you spent half as much time on human resources as you do on marketing, I guarantee your sales would increase dramatically.

Employees Treat Customers Exactly the Way You Treat Them

Customers know the difference between happy employees and disgruntled ones, and it makes a difference when it comes to purchasing decisions. I’ve heard it said that your employees will treat your customers exactly the same way that you treat them. Would you rather have your car serviced by a grumpy mechanic who doesn’t feel his good work is rewarded or a pleasant one who just stepped out of a weekly team meeting?

A successful business owner has confidence in the people who work for him because he believes they are the best people for the job. Employees who know their employer believes in their skills and abilities will go over and above to get the job done, to make the sale.

Successful Business Owner Invest Time and Money in Employees

Successful business owners invest time and money in finding, keeping and training great employees. These are the people who share and support the collective vision of the company.

I’m not talking about a complicated formula or magic concoction. I’m talking about some careful thought and a proactive strategy that will make your business shine from the inside out.

Finding Your Dream Employees

Building a dream team starts by finding and hiring the right people for the job. Sounds simple enough. You post an ad, find someone who has the necessary qualifications and hire them on.

Not so fast. Recruitment is a complex process that can dramatically impact your business operations. Just like finding and securing the right customers, finding and hiring the right candidates requires pro-active planning and careful evaluation.

Create an Internal Recruitment System

If you currently work with a recruiting agency to build your team, now may be a good time to stop and evaluate the effectiveness of their service. While a recruiting agency can save you the time and hassle of working through the hiring process, it can also cost more money in the long run.

I always recommend creating an internal recruitment system, not because recruiting agencies do a bad job, but because no one knows your business like you do.

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Create an Attractive Business Culture

If you want to attract and retain the highest quality clients, you must have a culture that is attractive and a future that is compelling. Developing an effective strategic plan and including your employees in the process is a good place to start. Determine where you are going, what your mission is and how your organization will treat others. Once you have established your vision, mission, and values, then you must deploy them throughout your organization to ensure that you “practice what you preach.”

An internal recruitment system ensures that the true essence of your business culture is communicated – from advertisement to interview. You also have the opportunity to communicate expectations from the outset, instead of relying on the recruiter to relay this information. The middleman’s thoughts and impressions are eliminated, leaving you to make decisions based on your impression of the candidate and no one else’s.

Step One: Advertise the Opportunity

The first step in recruiting candidates is obviously letting potential candidates know about the opportunity with your company.

But before you pick up the phone to place a classified ad, remember that advertising for potential employees requires just as much consideration and planning as general advertising for your business.

Before You Place an ad ask yourself:

• Who is your ideal candidate?
• What are their skills and qualifications?
• What is their personality or demeanor?
• What are they passionate about?
• What are they looking for in a job?

Once you have a mental picture of your candidate, then you can begin to write an ad that will not only reach them but also inspire them to act (and submit an application).

When writing this ad, be as specific as possible and focus on the benefits of the job. Remember that potential candidates screen job postings with an eye for “what’s in it for me.” Tell them exactly that.

Here are a few sample job postings:

 

Are you the Marketing Assistant we need?

About You

You’re fun, friendly and have a keen eye for detail. You’re always two steps ahead of your colleagues, and eager to take on new and exciting challenges.

You’ll be the glue that keeps the marketing team operating in a seamless fashion, responsible for website updates, copywriting, event coordination and client relations. You’ll be punctual, responsible, and well put together.

You’ll ideally have an undergraduate degree in marketing or English, and some previous office experience, but a fast learner with a great attitude will also get our attention.

About Us

We are a collaborative team of young professionals. We offer a competitive salary, great benefits and performance incentives.

Think you fit the bill? Email your resume and cover letter to John Jones at jjones@your business.com by Friday at 5 pm.

Are Computers Your Life?

About You

You are smart, outgoing, and a wiz when it comes to computer programming. You’re on your friend’s speed dial for computer emergencies, large and small. Helping people understand the complex digital world is your passion.

You’ll be our Lead Computer Technician, managing our computer repair counter and five Junior Technicians. You’ll have great people skills, mounds of patience, and enjoy working as part of a dynamic team.

About Us

We operate Anytown’s leading computer repair store and are known across the region for our customer service. We work hard, play hard, and offer a competitive benefits package to our employees.

Tell us why this job is for you. Email your resume and cover letter to [email protected] by Thursday, September 23.

Both of these job postings speak directly to a very targeted audience. They’re friendly, colloquial, and communicate the job requirements in an informal way.

Every job posting should:

• Be written in the way that you talk
• Be specific
• Describe benefits
• Include skills, qualifications, duties and job title
• Be written in the present tense
• Have a great headline
• Call the reader to action
• Be simple – in word choice and sentence structure
• Be more exciting than the competition

Now that you have a great ad to post, you need to decide where you are going to publish it. This depends on the level of the job (junior to management) and on the specific type of candidate you are looking to recruit.

Here are the five major places to advertise your opportunity:

Government Employment Center

These are great places to find blue-collar or junior level employees. Candidates register with the center, which keeps their resumes on file. Be cautious with this route – it can produce a wide variety of candidates who are not qualified.

Indeed, Ziprecruiter, Etc

This is a great place to post junior to mid-level employment opportunities. You’re looking for basic qualifications from local applicants, perhaps even for part-time positions, with minimal cost.

Linkedin

Senior employment opportunities that require specific high-level qualifications are best advertised with a broad scope. This incurs a greater cost but will return a greater variety of candidates.

Online

This is a cheap way to tap into a massive database of job seekers. Post your ad online on sites like www.monster.com or www.workopolis.com and watch the resumes come flooding in. A large number of highly qualified job seekers who do not wish to register with a recruitment agency will use these services.

Referrals

The most ideal way to find candidates is through your existing network – including associates, colleagues, employees, friends and family. These candidates come to you already vetted by a trusted source. You may also wish to consider giving your staff an incentive to refer their qualified friends and associates to you.

Other Niche Areas

You should also brainstorm a list of any other niche areas that your target market may look for a job. Consider vocational schools, colleges, industry publications, industry associations, small publications, etc.

Conclusion

Once you’ve posted your ad, your next step is to manage the inquiries that come flooding in. These are just a few steps in the process of finding and training great employees.

To read part 2 Finding and Training Great Employees.

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