The First Things You Must Do When Hiring Anyone

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Hiring |The First Things You Must Do When Hiring AnyoneFor most people in business, the whole prospect of hiring and firing is one of the most daunting aspects of running a business at all. If you find that you are worrying about this a little in your own business, then you will probably want to try and do whatever you can to make it a little easier, and that will generally mean coming to terms with what you are going to have to do about it. In particular, it’s useful to know what you are going to have to do when you are hiring someone, so that you can make sure that you do it in a way which is fair to all, useful for the business, legal and above board, and ultimately in a way which provides the best outcome for all. Clearly, that is something that might be very difficult to make sure of for many people, and it’s going to be a struggle.

However, in this post, we will aim to make this a little easier, primarily by focusing on some of the very first things that you should do when you are hiring absolutely anyone at all. As long as you are aware of these things, and you take them on board, you should find that you are going to be able to make much more of whoever you do hire, which is essential.

Check Their Right To Work

First of all, you need to concern yourself with some of the legal proceedings that you can’t ignore. One of the most important is checking that the person you are hiring actually has the legal right to work in the country in which you are operating. It is your legal duty to check that, and if you fail to then you could get in a lot of trouble indeed, especially if it turns out that they are not able to work there after all. It also helps to protect against any inherent or institutional racism, as you are going to need to make these checks on everyone, not just those you happen to know came to the country from abroad.

The issue and practical concern of how to check their right to work is actually very simple. In the case of those from abroad, you will need to check their visa allows work, and you’ll have to take a copy of it. For everyone else, simply take a copy of their ID – passport, driving licence, or official ID card. Get all this down, and you are going to be in a much better situation with the law.

StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Hiring |The First Things You Must Do When Hiring AnyoneDraw Up A Contract

Of course, you are going to have to make sure that you and your new employee have an official agreement about what you should get from them, and what they can expect from you in return. This is the whole point of contracts, and you will need to make sure that you are working on drawing one up early on so that they can sign it when you take them on board. The contract should involve everything that is necessary to know about the position, and includes a description of basic tasks and responsibilities. It should also outline starting pay, and what chances there are for that increasing. You should also have a section there on the terms of dismissal, so that they know them from the very start and there can be no arguments about it later on. Many people find it troublesome drawing up contracts, but with Agiloft contract management software and a decent HR team in charge of the process, it should be considerably simpler indeed.

Training

In many cases, you will find that there is a need for training. If that is the case for your business and its employees, then this is something you are going to need to arrange straight away, before you actually have them sit at their desk and start working. It is useful and necessary for many reasons, but of course one of the main ones is that it is a reliable way of ensuring that they are going to do the work right. It will also help them to feel much more ready for the work, and mean that they can ease in more successfully, which is definitely something to think about too.

As long as you get all this right, you should find that you are going to be able to hire people much more successful indeed.

Talent Acquisition: 7 Ways to Make a Job Offer More Appealing

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Talent Acquisition|Talent Acquisition: 7 Ways to Make a Job Offer More AppealingThe average job seeker spends six months or more searching for a new job. The total number of job postings they read and applications they send in can be somewhat mind-boggling. It’s up to employers to make their job posting stand out to job seekers to ensure the best candidate is found.

The question is, how can that be done? Making sure a job positing is appealing to candidates isn’t impossible, but some tips may be needed. Keep reading for some tips on how to make any job posting more appealing.

1. Keep Things Simple

Mentor programs can help anyone find a quality job. However, not everyone uses these. As a result, it’s necessary to make sure job postings are simple and easy-to-understand.

To make job postings easy to read and understand, use bullet points, paragraph breaks, numbering, italics, and boldface when appropriate. Add the company logo to make the job description appear professional. Too much information is the fastest way to lose candidates.

2. A Concise Job Title

Create a job title that is easy to understand by job seekers. Adding a specific department or product in the title only confuses candidates and makes the description less searchable. Also, spell out any search acronyms to improve the searchability of the listing.

3. Get to the Point

It’s tempting to list all the details of a job to make sure the most qualified candidates are found. However, as stated above, keeping things simple is best. Choose five to seven duties and list those using bullet points for clarity. It may be a good idea to add one or two sentence descriptions of each point.

4. Benefits of Working for the Company

When trying to sell a position, include something appealing about the company. Is there something specific that’s awesome or unique about the company? If so, be sure to include it.

If a company is willing, add the salary range or specific salary for the position. Job seekers are also going to want to know about benefits. Make sure it’s clear why this job is important and needed. An individual wants to feel needed, and like they make a difference.

5. Clear Information and Location

Make sure to specify if the position is employee or freelance and if it is full-time or part-time. By adding this information to the listing, it’s going to help the posting stand out. Make sure the location of the job is clear, too.

If it is at the headquarters of the company, add the precise city and state. If there is a remote work opportunity, list where a candidate can work from.

6. Contact Information

If the position is posted on a job board, rather than a company website, this is especially important. Be sure to list the contact information or a link for candidates who are interested to apply with ease. Add a link for the company website or social media pages.

7. Post the Job in the Right Places

Posting a job in the right place’s matters. Use social media, job boards, and the company website to achieve the desired results.

Finding the Right Candidate

Finding the right candidate for an open position takes time and effort. Keep this in mind when creating a job posting. By using the tips here, a company can find a quality candidate that meets all the requirements of the job.

How to Screen a Potential Employee: Your Complete Guide

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Are you wondering how to screen a potential employee? Check out this guide to learn how it’s done.

Finding good employees might seem like an easy task but it can be difficult when you have no knowledge of the individual’s prior history. Bringing on the right people to your team requires that you to know about more than what they can offer. You should also make sure that they are exactly who they say they are.

For these reasons, it’s important to have a process that can help you to be sure you aren’t making the best decision on candidates that you’re considering. Keep reading this guide on how to screen a potential employee for your company.

Do A Thorough Interview

Typically when a company is interested in a potential employee, they schedule an interview. During the interview process, you should be able to get to know the person a little by asking the appropriate questions. Sometimes hiring managers miss the mark, however, by not running the interviews correctly.

It’s best to focus on interview questions that are open-ended and can give you an insight into how the person thinks and operates. You should create scenarios where the individual would have to put themselves in the scene and explain what they would hypothetically do. You should also try to find out about their personality traits, skills, and habits that might deem them a good fit for the job.

Run Background Checks

Everyone has a past and although we aren’t defined by those choices, you should still take them into consideration when screening a potential employee. One of the best legal ways to do this is to run background checks.

Performing police background checks tells you whether or not the person has been engaged in criminal activity, what type, and how many times. Again, people can change, but you should know the whole truth about someone that you want to trust in the future. Also, give the individual a chance to explain their prior offenses during the hiring process.

Have Multiple Meetings

Most times, you can’t get a complete feel for a person with just one meeting. A lot of hiring departments have added multiple stages to their process in which a candidate goes to more than one interview. Each time the potential employee makes it to the next stage, they are meeting someone higher up in the ranks.

This is a good idea for employee screening because it gives different authorities in the company a chance to add in their thoughts on an interviewee.

Connect on Social Media

Today’s world is practically run by digital screens, and most of your candidates will be engaged in those screens via social media. Connecting with a potential employee on sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn can give you a closer look at the individual.

Remember, everyone is entitled to their privacy and what they do in their downtime may not affect their work performance. It’s important that you ask for permission to connect with their person instead of trying to sneak onto their profile.

Looking for More Info on How to Screen a Potential Employee?

The most important part about finding the right people for your company is to make sure that the screening process is thorough. Take your time in making the best decision but try not to drag it out for too long.

A great potential employee could be right at your fingertips so be sure to take notice of everything. If you enjoyed this article and need more advice on hiring, check out our blog section today.

Looking After Your Staff

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Looking After Staff|Looking After Your StaffYour staff are the heart and soul of your business, and if you want your business to run in the best way possible, then you need to look after them. Looking after staff is more than just money, although offering an excellent salary is a good start. The focus has shifted in recent years and it is about a combination of things.

Happiness

Happy staff are higher performers. They work harder just because they want to. It is your job to find out what makes your team tick. Is a beer on a Friday afternoon? What about having regular staff days out? It might be something as simple as good coffee in the machine. If you make their happiness a priority, then you will see an increase in their productivity. Good things all around.

Money

It is essential that you pay fairly. While you might not be in a position to be paying a significant 6 figure salary, your staff should be compensated fairly for the work that they do. So when you are hiring, you need to have an honest conversation with your potential hires. If you know you can’t meet what they are currently earning, then see what the perks would need to be to make it happen.

Experiment

No, not on your staff. You will probably have so many new ideas than you want to try out, sow when you are building your team you are going to want to talk to them about all of the new ideas that you have. Let them know from the beginning that you have a vision for the company, and you want to move forward in a creative way. If your staff share the vision, they will feel closer to the company and you, and like they play a part in moving the company forward.

Just because most companies go for a Monday to Friday 9-5 doesn’t mean you have to. It might be that you hire a lot of people that work better in the mid-afternoon and evening. In which case, it makes sense to make the most of their natural rhythm and shift the working pattern.

Insurance

It doesn’t matter what type of work your company does, there are things that can happen to your workers. Trips, falls, and chemical burns. It can happen to anyone at any time. If you make sure that you have worker’s compensation you will protect your company from going bankrupt should they be sued. If a worker has an accident, they might have some injuries. The injuries may mean that they can’t work for a short time, or perhaps forever. Workers’ compensation will mean that your staff is taken care of and so are their medical expenses.

Hiring

The people that you hire will have an impact on everything that you do. And when you hire you need to make sure that you are stick with all the rules and regulations. You should always be looking for the best person for the job. Employment discrimination lawyers will hold you accountable if you aren’t acting with respect. Something that is important to remember is that you can look at a skills base over experience in some cases. You have the freedom to create a talent pool that really drives your company forward. And that is exciting. But, as the saying goes, hire slowly and fire quickly.

Personal

When you know your staff on a personal level, you will be able to cultivate a close relationship with them. A great leader will be alert for a change in the demeanor or work of their staff. It doesn’t need to be a space for everyone to share their personal issues, but if there are external factors that are having an impact on their work, then a conversation and support matters.

Learn Together

As well as providing as many learning opportunities as possible for your staff, you should be taking them with your staff. The more that your knowledge aligns with theirs, the more of a cohesive team you will be able to create. There are new techniques and technology in every sector, and you as a leader should be in the mix off all of it. There will, of course, be higher up networking events and training that you should take. Keeping your finger on the pulse of your sector is great, enabling your whole team to gain knowledge is fantastic.

Make Time

There is nothing worse than trying to make an appointment with someone who is always busy. And if you are running a company and have zero time for your staff to come to you, you will soon feel a disconnect happen. It will become increasingly apparent, and your team will begin to feel less like a team. Projects can get weighty and take up a lot of time, but there needs to be time to catch up and grab a coffee. Showing your people that you value and respect them is going to make a big difference.

Opportunities

Aside from the training and the nice cohesive team, there should be some opportunities for new experiences. For example, if you have a copywriter that is particularly interested in dabbling in graphic design, give them some space on a smaller project to learn from the design team. Letting people work outside the lines of their role will provide them with an opportunity to grow in a way that training usually doesn’t.

Manage Expectations

People who are starting companies, or just have the cashflow to be able to hire are often very enthusiastic – and sometimes over-promise. Before you hire, people to spend some time thinking about what is realistic for you. Promising them big clients, a big bonus and a lease car, when they are your first hire, and you’re okay really able to stretch to a laptop and come excellent coffee isn’t cool. Although the latter will be great, it isn’t going to feel like the bonus and car would.

Be honest with your team when things are good or bad. Remember that they are going to be as excited by your business as you are – treat them well, and you’ll all grow together.

5 Ways To Ease Your Employees Out of Debt

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article | 5 Ways To Ease Your Employees Out of DebtThere are several ways that you can provide incentives or benefits to your employees. In this day and age, employers have come to realize the importance of having long-term employees that know the company’s trade by heart. It’s no longer a matter of hiring the best ones but a question of how to get these employees to stay.

Studies have shown that employees’ well being has a huge impact on their performance. Their financial worries take up 13 hours of their time in a month. That can be a huge loss of profit in a company if we’re basing it on productivity alone! So, what can a company do to ease the financial worries of his employees? Here are some of the proven ways that you might want to try.

1. Financial Security Program

Salary and wages are great ways to reduce the debt of your employees. But, like any other jobs, salaries are sometimes inadequate to meet their financial needs. This is why some companies have started offering financial security program in a form of retirement plan and the likes. It will also potentially increase the productivity of the employees and the company will surely retain their workers as well.

2. Assist Employees in Checking Credit Reports

Did you know that every consumer has a right to a free credit report every year? As an employer, this is the best way to assist your employees in looking into his credit reports and analyze his financial behavior. This can also be done on the internet by following the instructions given by the credit bureau. The report will show your employee’s exposure to credit and how well they are managing their debt. This should be done side-by-side with the employees. It can also improve your relationship in the workplace as the employee knows that you care about his financial well-being.

3. Provide Financial Literacy Course

Now that businesses and companies have realized the importance of financial literacy to their employees, there are several readily available online materials that can be offered to employees who want to avail of these financial courses. If you find that your employees could use some direction, ask them where they are struggling and look for materials that are available online that they might find helpful and interesting. To make sure that they watch these courses, you can even offer an incentive on whoever finishes the material first.

4. Offer Housing Allowance

Another thing that businesses might consider in assisting their employees financially would be to give housing allowance. Business leaders have come to prioritize the retention of their employees in a competitive marketplace and they know that housing is a huge factor that employees consider in getting a job. House allowance is given so that the employee won’t have to worry about meeting the cost of renting and accommodation.

Employers should look at local rent reports like this from ABODO where rent prices decreased over the last month. This may be a good thing to consider especially if rent prices are fluctuating from to time.

5. Convert Vacation Wages to Loan Payment

Ever hired an employee that has an unpaid student loan? Offering to convert their vacation wages as payment for their loan is just a brilliant idea to help them pay off their debt. Employees mostly get 28 vacation days in a year and if that is converted into cash to pay off their student loan, that is an ample amount that they will no longer worry about. It may not seem much on the part of the employer, but it will definitely mean much to those who work nonstop just to make ends meet. This will also be an additional productivity on the part of the employee.

Conclusion

With these kinds of strategies in the workplace, employees will be more capable of managing their finances, hence, they can focus on the task and improve their productivity. They will feel that they are being taken care of and will be more likely to stay in their respective jobs.