Creating Employee Benefits Programs

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Employee Benefits Programs|Creating Employee Benefits ProgramsDuring these challenging times, organizations are scrambling to recruit, motivate, and retain talent. One important way to gain a competitive edge is by knowing which benefits these days matter to your people the most.

How you’re supporting your employees, current and future, in this topsy-turvy environment can mean the difference between a loyal and resilient workforce and one that’s noncommitted – to you or its work.

So, you must put a premium on setting up the best benefits program possible. After all, benefits are a key component of the overall compensation package. Here’s what you need to know about creating employee benefits programs.

A Budget Must Be Established

Regardless of what kinds of benefits you offer, you’re going to have to figure out how much you can spend on a benefits package. This amount will be based on how much you can handle and what employers are offering as standard.

When calculating your budget, it’s crucial that you conduct a cost analysis per benefit. To help guide you, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics keeps data on all the differing amounts that employers shell out for various kinds of employee benefits such as health, dental, and vision insurance; FSA and HSA; retirement planning; commuter benefits; and life and disability insurance.

There Must Be Decisions About What to Include

Now you must figure out what goes into your plan. Employers usually choose among medical, dental, vision benefits; paid time off; retirement savings options; FSAs or HSAs; life and disability insurance; and work/life balance perquisites.

Note that while you aren’t required to provide all the above, those elements are still considered the basics, when it comes to benefits plans. More and more, to get a leg up on rivals, organizations are expected to go beyond the fundamentals and offer creative employee experiences such as free yoga classes or daycare services, pet-friendly workplaces, or free workplace snacks and drinks.

Total Compensation Must Be Determined

In addition to the paycheck and requisite benefits, total compensation lumps in employee compensation such as any commissions, bonuses, child-care and tuition assistance, profit-sharing distributions, IT reimbursements such as personal computer, public transit credit, employee assistance programs, or gym or club membership.

The Plan Needs Rechecking

Now that you’ve gone through all the major steps, scour the plan before you put it in place. If you aren’t using an external resource such as Mercer to help you, you’ll have to contact healthcare providers on your own to find the best employee benefit programs for your organization.

The Plan Gets Launched

Congratulations, as you’re now ready to communicate to your employees not only what has been developed, but how and why. This means that after notifying your staffers of the plan, but you’ll need to provide details and give people a chance to ask questions. Then you need to publish the program so that employees have a portal or some place to return to for points of clarification.

You should also be certain to add your new top benefits to your company’s online career page where prospective talent can see it. The new benefits should also be included in your job advertisements. After all, a Glassdoor survey found that about half of jobseekers reported being frustrated by the lack of online info about an organization’s benefits.

As you can see, creating an employee benefits program is more than a notion, but at least now you know what goes into it. To put a program in place, we recommend not only that you get outside help, but that you go with the consultant Mercer for its breadth of experience and expertise. The firm will work with you to produce health and benefits solutions that will benefit your employees and their families, as well as your organization.

Here are the Biggest Hiring Mistakes You’re Probably Making Right Now

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Hiring Mistake|Here are the Biggest Hiring Mistakes You’re Probably Making Right NowIf you want to make sure that you hire the right people for your team then you have come to the right place. Here you can find out what mistakes people make when hiring team members, while also finding out if there is anything that you can do to avoid them yourself in the future.

Hiring without a Set Process

Meeting and even interviewing candidates for the job becomes too easy if you are an experienced business owner. You may find that it is too easy for you to hire someone based on your gut feeling and that everything else goes out of the window. If you want to do something about this, then you need to make sure that you have a process in place so that you can make sure that you end up making the right decisions from the get-go.

Not Knowing what You Need

Not knowing what kind of person you need to hire often means that you hire a generalist. You may also hire people who are good at everything, and this may not be what you need. Before you dive right into the recruitment process, you have to make it clear that you know the person you need for the job, and you also need to be clear on your recruitment process. If you are aware of what you need, then you may find that you can let your potential candidates know, and this will save you and them money, time and energy. During the screening process, it is a good idea for you to have a list of criteria that you are looking for, so you can then take steps to eliminate who is and who is not fit for the job.

Hiring without Testing

It is very easy for you to hire someone based on what they say. They may look like they are the cream of the crop, and they may look like they can do just about anything in a very short space of time. One way for you to check to see if people are able to show the skills you need would be for you to set them tests. You can find a lot of these online so that you can test how proficient someone is or even their aptitude. You can do this depending on the field of your industry. Remember, it is also more than possible for you to create your very own test so that you can see how they do. You can do this during the interview, or right after, so you can find out if they are a good fit for your team. Remember, employee screening should be an essential part of your process too.

Of course, there are many things that you can do to make sure that you are hiring the right team, and if you follow this guide, you should find that you are able to come out on top without experiencing any issues at all. Why not implement these tips for yourself today?

How to Assess Leadership Skills When Hiring

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Leadership Skills|How to Assess Leadership Skills When HiringLeadership is an important attribute when it comes to hiring. Although most hiring managers will often look at skills related to the role itself, other skills such as teamwork, leadership, and communication shouldn’t be overlooked. A lot of people might consider leadership skills unimportant unless hiring for a management position, but in reality, they’re applicable in just about every role.

Skills such as leadership are often more important, as skills directly related to the job can be taught much more easily through training. It’s difficult to train an effective leader if they don’t already have some skills in this area, which is why hiring managers should try to focus on it when assessing new candidates.

A candidate with quality leadership will be more likely to succeed with the company long-term, helping the business achieve its aims. You don’t just need someone who can fill out papers and spreadsheets. Instead, you need someone with actual leadership potential to carry out your company’s overall goal and propel the brand forward.

In this article, we’ll be looking at what leadership skills are and how they’re used. In addition, you’ll be able to learn about the best ways to identify and assess leadership skills in a candidate, improving the selection and hiring process and leading to better results.

What Are Leadership Skills?

Leadership abilities are those that are utilized to organize others in order to achieve a common goal. Leadership abilities enable a person to drive people to perform a sequence of tasks, generally on a schedule, whether they are in a managerial role or heading a project. Leadership is a collection of multiple diverse skills functioning together rather than a single skill.

The best leaders are patient, empathetic, and capable of effective communication and feedback. In addition, they should be assertive and confident while still being able to listen to the ideas of their team. There are many different styles of leadership, but the most effective approach in the majority of cases involves being positive and taking the time to understand the needs and wants of each member of the team.

At their best, leaders can get more out of their team, encouraging and motivating them while helping them move in the right direction. It’s this aspect that makes leadership skills so valuable because they’re difficult to teach, yet they can make a huge difference to the success of a business. Good leaders also have excellent problem-solving skills and are capable of finding the best way to solve a problem before executing the solution successfully.

How to Identify the Right Leaders for Your Team

When hiring for an open position, leadership skills should be one of the main attributes that you look for once you’ve assessed whether the candidate will be a good fit for the role. Even for non-management positions, leaderships skills are incredibly important, especially if the employee stays on at the company over a long period of time. As they develop in their role, they’ll be able to make better use of their leadership skills to help drive the business forward and achieve the goals of the company.

Leadership skills are clearly important, but identifying and assessing them can be difficult in a standard interview. Care also needs to be taken to hire the right kind of leader for the right role, as even a great leader in the wrong job can still be a bad hire. The best way to accurately assess the leadership skills of a candidate is by asking them to complete a pre-employment screening test. These tests can look at specific qualities in a candidate and link their leadership abilities to the responsibilities of their role. A good test will be relatively quick and easy for the candidate to complete while still providing great insight into their skills and abilities.

Not only should a test aim to identify whether a candidate has leadership qualities, but it should also look at what kind of leader they are. You need to find the right leader for your team if you want to have the best success, so this is an important detail to consider. There are three main types of leadership assessments:

The DISC Test

The DISC test is based on a behavioral evaluation paradigm created by psychologist William Marston. It divides human emotional expression into four behavior types, Dominance, Influence, Stability, and Conscientiousness. The test allows candidates to be placed on a quadrant based on their behavior, revealing whether they are more focused on tasks or on people.

This exam can help you get a better understanding of each of your candidates and develop efficient strategies for your team to interact and communicate. The DISC test looks at people from two perspectives, exterior, and interior. The external perspective measures how well individuals interact with others and their surroundings. On the other hand, the internal perspective measures how well they process their thoughts.

The Enneagram Test

The Enneagram test is based on the personality model developed by psychiatrists. The model depicts nine distinct personalities on a nine-pointed diagram, with each personality’s main values and worldview described. It evaluates their leadership styles, as well as their strengths and weaknesses.

Several Fortune 500 companies use the Enneagram exam to better understand their people and team structure. The reformer, the helpful, the investigator, and the challenger are examples of leadership types. Each type has its own set of advantages, and some are more suited to certain roles than others.

The 16 Types test

Similar to the popular personality test, Myers-Briggs, this test takes a comprehensive look at the candidate, including how they process information, how they make decisions, and what kind of person they are. It assesses the candidate based on four areas, Extraversion, Sensing, Thinking, and Judgement.

At the end of the test, the candidate can be placed in one of sixteen different personality types depending on how they performed. The personality types reveal a lot about a person, including what kind of leader they are and how they respond to certain situations.

The HR Guide: How To Find & Support Entry-Level SEO Talent

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StrategyDriven Talent Management. Article |Entry-Level SEO Talent|The HR Guide: How To Find & Support Entry-Level SEO TalentWhen given a choice between an experienced professional and a complete newbie fresh out of the university, most HR managers would pick the former. However, finding a well-qualified employee can be a real challenge — especially in the SEO industry. For this reason, many C-suits decide to pick a different route, hiring inexperienced individuals and turning them into SEO experts themselves.

There are many successful stories centered around developing in-house talent and transforming a bunch of motivated young people into a skilled and well-functioning team. For instance, one may think about the Husky Hamster company when presenting examples of such a case.

Nevertheless, finding and supporting entry-level SEO talent also requires some time and effort. Searching for people with the right traits, providing mentorship, and creating an inclusive work environment are only a few of the things business owners have to address.

If you want to learn more, keep reading! Here are some of the most crucial steps to building a high-level SEO team from the ground up!

Search for People With the Right Traits

While the process of hiring entry-level SEO talent is not as complex as searching for a professional with many years of experience under their belt, it is something more than just snatching up candidates right out of college. The main factor to focus on here is potential.

People hired by the company should be willing to learn and be passionate about the world of SEO. Moreover, they need to have a good combination of soft skills and basic knowledge of the internet. This way, both the company and new workers can benefit from the arrangement.

Here is a list of some of the most in-demand soft skills in today’s market:

  • Focus — In today’s day and age, more and more people have problems focusing on the task at hand. Consequently, the ability to see a project through from start to completion became highly valued among CEOs and HR professionals.
  • Communication — Both written and verbal communication is essential to ensure an organization’s success. Without it, chaos takes the wheel. As such, it is one of the most sought-after skills for all positions.
  • Curiosity — A person who lacks curiosity may still find success at the workplace, but they will not be as successful as a curious one. Curious people make for better learners and can reach new heights faster than others.
  • Flexibility — The ability to find alternative solutions to different problems on the fly is one of the most valuable skills out there. It is especially vital when things do not go as planned.

Organizations can consult search experts or work with universities to learn which people they should hire. Besides, they can try outsourcing the recruitment of SEO talent, limiting their role to only making a few suggestions.

Write an Exceptional Entry-Level Job Description

Both internship postings and entry-level job descriptions require different kinds of treatment than regular job offers. Even though some practices remain the same no matter what kind of person one is looking for, there are a few unique elements that every SEO company that is looking for entry-level applicants should consider.

To resonate with young and talented people, the organization should explain what it expects from candidates and why it is a good place for young people to start their careers. Instead of sticking to a dull outline, making it more inclusive or simply more enjoyable to read might be a better approach. Additionally, the job posting should mention features that differentiate it from other brands.

The main aim is to help applicants visualize the experience of current employees. If the job description can engage a person, it fulfills its purpose perfectly!

Provide Mentorship

As mistakes are an intrinsic part of the learning process, entry-level hires are bound to make them as well. It can be frustrating not only for those who mucked up the job but also those in charge of the whole project. However, how can someone be angry at students’ errors if no one teaches them what to do?

Even newly created SEO companies should have a few more experienced staff members on board who are willing to take on a mentorship role. Otherwise, the enterprise runs the risk of collapsing right after beginning its operations. An alternative approach features making use of places that offer SEO mentorship.

Plus, there are lots of valuable SEO resources online. And while a good portion of them requires payment, paying for these materials is a small price considering how much money the company might lose because of rookie mistakes of its employees.

Create an Inclusive Work Environment

Another critical step in helping new hires to succeed is creating an inclusive work environment. Business owners should ensure that the atmosphere in their companies is as welcoming as possible. This way, they can attract talented individuals to become new team members and strengthen the bonds between their current employees.

Here are a few ways to do it:

  • Hiring people from different backgrounds.
  • Providing plenty of get-to-know-you opportunities.
  • Offering flexible work hours.
  • Encouraging more employee feedback.
  • Providing more feedback and recognition.
  • Implementing a buddy system in the workplace.
  • Organizing team-building events.

Relationships play as big of a role as other factors that determine business success. As such, employee assimilation should be on the top of the priorities list of every business — no matter in which niche it operates.

The Bottom Line

Even though it may not seem like it, talented people are everywhere — one must only know where to look. The same holds for the SEO industry, where companies can find many people with untapped potential.

By searching for people with the right traits and writing exceptional entry-level job descriptions, SEO organizations can fulfill their staffing needs with motivated people who are willing to learn. Next, all that is left is creating an inclusive work environment where entry-level hires can prosper and learn from the best. If more companies do just that — the future of SEO will look brighter than ever!

Top Business Tips for Hiring the Right Salesperson

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article | Top Business Tips for Hiring the Right SalespersonHiring the right people is one way to encourage long-term business success and also reduce employee turnover, saving your business time and money. Hiring the right people can seem like a highly daunting prospect for many businesses, especially for entrepreneurs looking to build a solid team for their new brand.

Ensuring you hire the right person for the job is critical, no matter whether it’s a marketing assistant, a receptionist, a customer service contact, or an accountant. One area where it’s particularly crucial nonetheless is with a salesperson. This person — or team of people — is going to be responsible for chasing leads, driving sales, and ultimately succeeding in making a profit.

With this in mind, here are some top tips to get it right.

Set Your Wants, Needs, and Expectations

With sales comes a lot of potential, which means a high number of applicants and the need to wade through a great number of applications. While interest in the position is, of course, a good thing, you need to make sure you’re not wasting valuable business hours looking through candidate resumes that simply aren’t a good fit.

Setting strict requirements of what you’re looking for before advertising and interviewing will help you to stay focused and only receive applications from those people who fit the bill. Not only will this help you to preserve business time, but it’ll also prevent you from wasting the time of candidates too.

Experience May Not Be Everything

Of course, the ideal candidate might be someone who understands the sales cycle in detail, has a lifetime of successful sales experience, and is an exceptional people person. However, if you’re setting too much store by experience, you may be missing out on a compassionate people-person who has a great rapport with customers and the potential to shine with the proper training.

All of this will depend on the time and resources you have for training up candidates with less experience, but if you do have the resources, you may want to be flexible about experience and think about people eager to develop their sales career who have great personalities (compared to someone with 30+ years sales experience whose personality may not fit your brand).

Look for People Who Understand Your Brand and Fit Your Ethos

While the ability to make sales and work hard is naturally key, you want your salesperson to be the perfect fit for your brand — both for the success of your company and to ensure that they can have a job they’re passionate about too. Sales work more easily when the brand representative truly believes in and aligns with what the company and product is all about. You could have a highly experienced and likable salesperson who simply doesn’t understand your brand’s mission, and this could be a problem over time.

If you want your potential clients to get excited about your product and invest in you, then the salesperson needs to be someone who genuinely feels that way, too.