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6 tips on maximizing your diversity recruiting efforts

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Diversity Recruiting|6 tips on maximizing your diversity recruiting effortsDiversity is about more than just race and ethnicity – it also includes gender, age, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, and more. You’ve probably heard that diversity is a key ingredient for a strong workforce.

But what does that mean for your organization? If you want to start maximizing your diversity recruiting efforts, read on for five effective tips.

1. Set Goals

Before recruiting anyone, it’s essential to set clear DEI recruitment goals. What does your organization want to achieve? Do you want to increase the number of underrepresented minorities in leadership positions?

Do you want your customer-facing employees to reflect the demographics of your customer base better? Be as specific as possible so that you can measure your progress.

You should also evaluate your current workforce to get a baseline. Verify what percentage of your employees come from underrepresented groups and how that compares to your desired goal. This data will help you create a recruiting plan that’s tailored to your needs.

2. Increase Your Visibility

If you want to attract a more diverse pool of candidates, you need to make sure they can actually find your job postings. One way to do this is by using job boards and websites that target underrepresented groups. But finding these websites isn’t enough!

Your job descriptions greatly influence the type of candidates you attract. If your descriptions are too general, you’ll likely get a lot of unqualified applicants. But if they’re too specific, you might dissuade underrepresented groups from applying.

You need to tailor your postings to each website. Use the language and keywords that these groups will be searching for. For example, if you’re trying to attract women to a male-dominated field, you might use phrases like “break into” or “change the game.” You might also use “they” instead of “he” throughout the posting.

3. Diversify Your Recruiting Panel

Your recruiting agency plays a big role in determining the types of candidates you ultimately hire. If your panel is homogeneous, they’re likely to favor candidates who remind them of themselves subconsciously.

That’s why it’s important to have a diverse recruiting panel. They should come from different backgrounds and levels within the organization. This will help ensure that you’re considering a wide range of candidates.

Many organizations make the mistake of assuming that their interviewers know how to evaluate candidates fairly. But unconscious bias is a real problem and can impact how people assess job applicants.

To combat this, you need to train your interviewers to conduct unbiased interviews. They should know what questions to ask and red flags to look for. This training will help ensure everyone is on the same page and that your hiring process is as fair as possible.


4. Offer Inclusive Benefits

Your benefits package can be a major selling point for potential employees. When evaluating job offers, candidates will often consider the type of benefits an organization offers.

To appeal to a diverse group of candidates, you need to offer benefits inclusive of all types of families. These include paid parental leave, child care assistance, and flexible work arrangements.

You might also want to consider offering cultural benefit programs. These can take the form of language classes, mentorship programs, and affinity groups. These programs can help your employees feel more connected to their co-workers and the organization as a whole.

5. Promote from Within

Many organizations focus their recruiting efforts on external candidates. But this can actually dissuade potential employees from applying. If your workforce is already diverse at the lower levels, promoting from within is a great way to show that you’re committed to diversity.

Not only does this send a strong message to potential candidates, but it also helps retain your current employees. They’ll see that there are opportunities for advancement, and they won’t feel the need to leave the organization in search of greener pastures.

6. Call on a Recruitment Firm

Even by taking all the steps ahead, finding minorities for your business might still pose a challenge. You may not have the advertising budget as bigger companies, or maybe you live in an area with a smaller pool of diversity to draw from.

If you want to maximize your diversity recruiting efforts, you must partner with a recruitment firm specializing in this area. At Groom & Associates, we have over 25 years of experience helping organizations attract and retain top talent.

We can help you create a customized recruiting plan tailored to your unique needs. Our staffing experts will work with you to identify the types of candidates you’re looking for and where to find them. We’ll also help you craft job descriptions and interview questions designed to attract a diverse pool of applicants.

Bottom Line

When it comes to recruiting, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. The best way to attract a diverse pool of candidates is to tailor your efforts to your organization’s specific needs. Contact Groom & Associates today to maximize your diversification efforts. We’ll help you build an inclusive workplace that attracts top talent from all backgrounds.

6 Ways To Improve Productivity In The Office

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Improve office productivity|6 Ways To Improve Productivity In The OfficeDriving office productivity is a ley task within every office-based business. Over the years, there have been many drastic attempts to improve productivity that have ultimately failed. More subtle, empathic models of productivity provocation typically bear the most fruit. Here are six ways that a business can improve office productivity.

Listen To Your Staff

Contented staff are typically productive staff. Employees will not work to their full potential if they feel like their concerns are not being listened to. Every responsible business owner needs to listen to employee concerns about bullying, office culture, performance roadblocks, and discrimination. Employees are working on the frontline – their perspective is extremely valuable and can help drive institutional change that ultimately increases productivity.

Accept The New Normal

In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, many businesses have struggled to negotiate the transition back to office-based work. Many employees have simply quit their jobs when forced to go back into the offices they despised. The companies that are having the most success with the transition into a post-pandemic world are those that are able to see the benefits of a hybrid system. Allowing employees to spend some of their working lives at home or in the office is a perfectly good way of embracing the new normal while maintaining the ability to call workers in.

Hybrid working models are a great way to maintain pre-pandemic levels of productivity without simply embracing the bad old ways. It can only be implemented, however, when there is adequate security measures implemented to protect the company when people are working remotely.

Design Your Office Space Adequately

Good office design can go a long way. There have been some rather dismal office configurations popular in the past that have – quite understandably – driven employees to hate their jobs. The dreaded ‘cubicle office’ is perhaps the most famous example of a depressing office configuration. Human beings need to be in a pleasant and natural environment if they are to work to their full potential. Check out these five office design tips that can improve employee satisfaction. Modern office spaces that produce happy, productive employees are typically semi-open in design and feature live plants, places to relax, and the option of some genuine privacy. Make your office a place that people actually want to work in.


Offer Good Benefits

In order to cultivate a productive workplace, you need to give employees good benefits. Unless employees are well paid, their wages will not cover expenses during a pregnancy, dental or legal emergency. In the United States of America, companies need to cover some kind of health insurance as a minimum benefit in order to retain happy employees. However, if you want to retain loyal employees for a longer period and have lower turnover rates, then you should consider other benefits than just the bare minimum. This could include things like paid maternity and paternity leave, so staff can feel secure when they take time off to be with their new family, or regular recognition and small bonuses for high-performers – it doesn’t have to be a large amount of money, a small gift card can go a long way in making people feel appreciated.

Use Project Management Software

Poor project management is one of the most common reasons that businesses reach stumbling blocks in their schedule. No matter how simple a project seems, it will still involve multiple stakeholders, budgeting issues, multiple workers, and the need for accurate communication. More complex projects typically require regular reporting, complex data sharing, and multiple teams working in conjunction with one another.

Project management software makes projects far more efficient and cohesive by combining reporting, communication, monitoring, and just about every other essential area of project management. If you don’t use project management software in your office, you have fallen somewhat behind the times.

Don’t Push Multitasking

People working in offices are often expected to take on too much at once. While multitasking might seem like an acceptable way to drive up productivity in a workforce, it can actually damage overall productivity. Set guidelines for task delegation should be written up to make sure that managers do not ‘pass the buck’ onto their staff colleagues. In recent years, a great deal of academic attention has focused on the development of effective delegation styles. Read up on the latest organizational psychology research before committing to a set of rules.

Staff members that are allowed to focus on one task at a time are more likely to work efficiently and effectively. This will ultimately drive up productivity.

How to Encourage More Employee Loyalty in a Post-Pandemic World

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StrategyDriven Managing Your People Article |Employee loyalty|How to Encourage More Employee Loyalty in a Post-Pandemic WorldAfter the Great Resignation, it’s becoming increasingly apparent to employers that they will need to do more if they want employees to be loyal and stick around for a long time. The attitude towards the workplace has shifted significantly since the COVID19 pandemic and more and more employees are now putting themselves first, thinking nothing of quitting for better opportunities if one comes their way.

Because of this, employers need to think outside of the box and come up with creative ideas to encourage employees to stick with them. These days, employees aren’t going to stick around just because they have a job – there is so much more on offer elsewhere. Some of the main things that you can do to encourage more employee loyalty include:

Provide a Great Place to Work

First and foremost, employees do not want to feel like they are a slave to the company that they work for. Providing somewhere to work that is fun, interesting, and challenging for employees while rewarding them handsomely for the effort that they put in will not only attract more of the top talent to come and work for you but will also encourage them to stick around for longer. Focus on providing a workplace that people will not want to leave, even if a potentially better opportunity comes along.

Offer Health Benefits

After the pandemic, an increasing number of people care more about their health and wellbeing than they did previously, so it only makes sense for employers to take notice of this and offer benefits that employees will want to take advantage of for better health. Along with offering health insurance through your company to provide employees with more peace of mind when it comes to medical bills, you may also want to consider offering supplemental health benefits where employees can get discounts on additional insurance products, medical products, healthy food and more. Find out more about how some available health benefits compare with Soultran.


Invest in Employees

These days, employees don’t want to work somewhere where they often feel like they could be replaced at any moment. To encourage your best employees to remain loyal and continue working for your company for a long time, it’s important to invest in your people. This might be in the form of offering training opportunities for future promotions, paying towards the cost of online degree programs and more. The more you put into your employees, the more you are likely to get out of them.

Prioritize Mental Health

Last but not least, mental health in the workplace has become a hugely important topic over the past few years, especially after the COVID19 pandemic which had a huge impact on peoples’ mental health around the world. As a company, one of the best things that you can do to show your employees that you care about them as people and are a company worth sticking with is to make their mental health and wellbeing a priority.
With employees leaving companies that don’t meet their needs at a rapid rate, it’s time for employees to change their approach to employee retention and focus on providing a workplace that encourages workers to be loyal for the right reasons.

What are the benefits of owning a trucking business?

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StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Owning a trucking business|What are the benefits of owning a trucking business?For the self-employed owning a trucking business can offer a lot of great benefits. For starters, you don’t have to answer to anyone but yourself when it comes to setting your hours and work schedule. You’ll also likely make more than enough money from your business to provide for all your needs (rent, groceries, mortgage), so you won’t have any additional expenses like health insurance. When it’s time for retirement, your trucking company will allow you to retire with dignity and financial security.

In addition to being your own boss and having the freedom to come and go as you please, you also won’t have to worry about layoffs. In fact, you can even increase your profit margin on every job by offering a unique service or product. Another advantage of owning a trucking business is that it gives you options when it comes to determining how much control and responsibility you want over your job. You’ll be able to hire other drivers for the jobs that you don’t want to do yourself, which means more time with your family or doing the things that make you happy.

Benefits of owning a trucking business:

1) The freedom to take on any type of job.

Most trucking companies specialize in hauling a specific type of cargo, but with your own trucking business, you have the freedom to take on any owner-operator jobs that comes your way. You’re not limited by what you can or can’t haul and you aren’t required to provide a service or product that’s been regulated by a corporation. With your own trucking company, you’ll likely only be limited by what you can physically do in a day.


2) The freedom to work when you want and how you want.

There are never going to be any limits placed on your hours or how hard you’re willing to work. The income from your trucking business is yours and you can use it when you want to and in the way that you want to. Need to take a few months off to travel or to go back to school? Do it. Want to work a 12-hour day every day for two weeks straight? Go for it. Want to work part-time on weekends? Just put in the hours that feel right for you.

3) The freedom of financial security.

If your trucking business is profitable, there will never be any worries about paying the bills or whether or not you’ll qualify for health benefits at another job in the future. You’ll be able to live a life with financial security and freedom of choice, even if you want to take a break from your business or plan to take it easy in your golden years.

Many people who work at corporations dream about breaking free and starting their own businesses, but for many of them, it’s just not possible. Not only does it take a lot of money to start up a trucking business, but there are also quite a few laws that you’ll need to observe to stay in business and pay your employees.

While owning your own company requires some research and planning, you’ll be able to take advantage of all the benefits listed above without having to worry about any sort of oversight or outside control. If you feel like a corporate job just isn’t fulfilling your potential or giving you control over your life anymore, consider starting up your own trucking business.

What Are Keynote Speaker Bureaus and How Do They Work?

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |speaker bureaus|What Are Keynote Speaker Bureaus and How Do They Work?Professional speakers earn an average of $5,000–$20,000 per speech. Two-thirds of the Fortune 100 companies rely on a speaker bureau to help them source talent for events.

Public keynote speaker bureaus find the right keynote speakers to discuss topics that interest the audience.

Many of the prepackaged keynote speakers that you may find are actually through a keynote speaker bureau. Knowing what a keynote speaker bureau is and how they work is essential.

Read on how they work below.

Defining a Keynote Speaker Bureau

Speaker bureaus are organizations that help connect businesses and individuals with professional keynote speakers. These bureaus typically maintain a database of speakers, topics, and contact information.

Many also provide additional services such as helping to coordinate travel and accommodations, marketing speakers to potential clients, and event planning support.

Benefits of Working With a Keynote Speaker Bureau

When businesses or individuals need to hire a professional keynote speaker, they will typically contact a speaker bureau and request a list of potential candidates. The bureau will then provide a list of speakers who match the event’s needs.

The bureau may also provide additional information about the speakers, such as their speaking fee and availability. By helping to connect businesses and individuals with the right speaker, bureaus can help make events more successful.

Working with a speaker bureau can save you time and effort. They can also handle all the logistics involved in booking and working with your chosen speaker.


Tips for Working Successfully With a Keynote Speaker Bureau

It is essential to understand how they work and their role in making the most of the partnership. Here are a few tips for working successfully with a keynote speaker bureau:

Be Upfront About Your Budget

When you book a keynote speaker organization through a bureau, be upfront about your budget. The bureau will work with you to find a speaker that fits your budget and your event’s needs. Be aware that many bureaus take a percentage of the fee charged by the speaker, so be sure to factor that into your budget.

Be Clear About Your Event Goals

To work with a keynote speaker bureau, you must be clear about your event goals and the type of speaker you are looking for. What are you hoping to achieve with your event?

Keynote speaker bureaus can help you find a speaker aligned with your goals. To access the top speakers to reach your event goals, refer to this web page.

Ask for References

If you’re working with a keynote speaker bureau for the first time, ask for references from past clients. This can give you a better sense of their quality and service.

Find the Right Speaker Bureaus for Your Event

Searching for a keynote speaker can be daunting, but working with speaker bureaus can make it much more manageable. They will work with you to find a speaker who is a good fit for your event.

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