Posts Tagged ‘Hiring and Human Resources’
The Best Consultants Money Can’t Buy
Friday, May 9th, 2008
No no…I’m not referring to Paris and Nicole. Sorry for the bait and switch.
As savvy as those two are at marketing (themselves) I’m referring instead to good old fashioned business students.
We all know how the internship program works. Companies offer students an opportunity to gain "valuable experience" and some times even compensation in exchange for a semester of what can be boiled down to as free labor. The students will file, fax, answer phones and fetch coffee in the hopes that their time has been spent earning them a good recommendation and bonus points on their resume.
But now entrepreneurs are looking for a more mutually beneficial relationship between their businesses and students. And this simple twist on the old standard seems to really be taking off.
A recent New York Times article highlights a few of these examples including a parachute company that requested students compile a semesters worth of recommendations for updating their website and a gourmet foods start up that had the students compose their business plan. The students garnered real life experience as well as some other perks (the parachute company offered the students a free sky diving trip!).
Business students as contractors can offer a world of insight in the form of consultations and for the low low price of real world business experience, many jump at the chance to participate.
It’s certainly something to think about. For more information about the benefits of student contractors check out Hiring Cheap Help - How Student Contractors Can Benefit Your Business
Tags: contractors, cost cutting, hiring, Hiring and Human Resources, HR, internships, Rebecca Button, small business, startups, students
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A Primer on Finding Good Employees for Your Small Business
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
All my life, I have heard people say that good help is hard to find. Why is that?
Actually, there are several reasons that increasing numbers of small businesses are turning to spouses and other family members to help them fill their staffing holes.
Let’s take a look at a few of them.
Benefits
The first reason lots of small business owners cannot find good employees is that they want something we do not have. Most qualified people are looking for a benefits package. As small business owners, we can’t always afford to offer benefits like medical and dental insurance, paid holidays and vacation time.
In this case, the solution is to find a qualified worker that is willing to help you grow your business. They may be comfortable looking forward to the time when you have built the business up enough that you can afford to give them a great benefits package.
You can further help yourself find that person if you are willing to draw up a contract that outlines the benefits package once that employee helps you grow your business.
Qualifications
Another reason that we cannot find the right employees for our small businesses is that people are not qualified for the job. In this case, you must be willing to train someone for the job.
After that, if they need more training, you can pay for them to take a course at a at a college campus that offers a course in your area of business. If they do not have the course at a bricks and mortar college in your area, offer to pay for the employee to take an online course.
Personality
In some cases, small business owners need to make some changes. Sometimes, people just do not like working small business owners because they are so demanding and like things done a certain way. Many business owners get into an "I can do it better myself" mentality. Sometimes we need to learn to lighten up and accept compromise.
If someone is willing to do a job that you will not have to do later, you should be grateful. If the job is done well, you should be happy and enjoy the fact that you have someone to help you move towards your goal of growing your business.
If you are able to offer benefits, and are easy to get along with, then finding good qualified employees should not be a big problem. If you realize the problem is within you, you need to take some time to focus on changing your attitude. If you are willing to make these changes, then the good employees you need are out there - all you have to do is find them.
Tags: advice, finding good employees, hiring, Hiring and Human Resources, Leeia Ladpoh, tips
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Use a Professional Employment Organization and Save on Recruitment Costs
Friday, April 18th, 2008
If your business is successful enough to have numerous employees, then you’ll be aware of how costly it can be to administer. Whether it’s employee benefits, health plans, simple payroll details or more, the costs to maintain your employee base can soon mount up. If you’re finding that it’s a cost that’s draining your finances, then you may want to consider using a Professional Employment Organization, or PEO.
What is a PEO?
The best way to look at a professional employment organization is to consider it an outsourced part of your existing HR department. They can handle everything that an in-house HR department can, and often much more as well. For example, because experts in HR staff an outsourced HR company, you can be sure that people who know what they’re doing, as opposed to a single HR specialist in-house with normal administrative assistants, are meeting all your employee details.
Additionally, as well as the cost-effectiveness of a professional employment organization, they can also handle the legal aspects that having a business with employees can entail. This includes hiring the employee; setting up their payroll details, insurance and taxes; and generally employing your staff member for you.
One area not to confuse a PEO with is that of a temporary employment agency. Although a PEO is providing you with your staff, it’s actually as a full-time employee, as opposed to a temp who could move on at any time. This means that should an employee provided to you by a PEO wish to leave your company, they have to work to your requirements. So if you need one month’s notice or three months, that’s what they have to abide by.
The Benefits of a PEO
One of the biggest benefits of using a PEO is the overall savings it can make to your company’s finances. Since you’re not responsible for any of the employee’s costs, you don’t have to worry about the extra costs that these can incur - setting up taxes and the related admin costs, health plans, training, etc. All these costs are taken care of by the PEO.
Additionally, since a PEO handles all of the employee’s financial details, they can also offer benefits that you might not be eligible for with a normal recruitment agency. For example, you could enjoy the benefits of group insurance, enabling you to save even more money on your usual employee costs. A PEO can offer you this package since it supplies numerous small businesses with employees, and can therefore offer the savings involved back to the employer.
If your business looks set to expand and you need new staff, consider a PEO before you set any advertising in motion for recruitment purposes. Not only will it save you the cost of the advertising, but it can save you much, much more in the long run.
Tags: advice, danny brown, hiring, Hiring and Human Resources, professional employment organizations, recruitment, tips
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Non-Compete Contracts and Whether or Not You Should Use Them
Thursday, April 17th, 2008
With businesses constantly wary of losing staff to rival companies, many are now enforcing what’s known as non-compete contracts. This is where new employees sign a contract that states they cannot contact a client of their old company to take them to their new place of work. It usually applies for anywhere between 2-3 years from the date the ex-employee leaves the company. However, whilst it’s an excellent way for business owners to protect not only their clients but also their intellectual property, it can also have its negative sides.
The Pros of Non-Compete Contracts
The obvious benefit of having a new employee sign a non-compete contract is the protection it offers you and your business. Say you have an excellent sales person who accounts for over half of your annual sales alone - there’s a reason they have such a high success rate, and a lot of it has to do with the relationship with the client. If that same salesperson was to leave your company, there’s a strong possibility that they could take their best clients with them, which could prove extremely costly for your company. Having them sign a non-compete contract will negate this possibility.
The other benefits of having a non-compete contract is that they can save you a fortune in legal fees if there was a case of an ex-employee stealing your best clients. Since they signed the contract in question, any defense they would have had would be null and void, as they would be in breach of contract.
The Downside
While there’s no question that a non-compete contract can offer you a high level of protection when it comes to your core business, they can also have the opposite effect as well. One of the biggest downsides of enforcing these types of contracts is that it can actually put people off wanting to work for your business.
With employees changing jobs as frequently as they do in today’s job market, anyone looking at a company that has a non-compete contract in place might actually prefer to look elsewhere. This is particularly true if it’s a sales role that you’re looking to fill, with many salespeople preferring to build from an old client base as opposed to starting from scratch.
They can also be difficult contracts to enforce, even in a court of law or employment tribunal. In the US especially, there are many states that won’t officially recognize a non-compete contract. And although a decision may go your way in court, the cost of bringing it to trial in the first place can be an expensive endeavor.
The Alternative
Since there is no clear-cut strength and weakness of a non-compete contract, many companies are now looking at alternatives. One of the most popular is the “300% Contract”. Instead of a new employee signing a non-compete contract, they will agree instead that should they leave and take any of your clients with them, they will have to pay you compensation to the value of 300% of that client’s annual spend with your company.
Tags: advice, danny brown, employees, Hiring and Human Resources, legal, management, non-compete contracts, tips
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Tips and Ideas for Motivating Your Employees
Monday, March 31st, 2008
Knowing what will motivate your employees is tough. Thus, it is important to determine how and what makes each of your employees tick. This will help you to establish different motivators that will appeal each person.
Regardless of what you do to motivate your employees, it is important that you do something. If you do not do anything to motivate your employees, they will care less about the success of the organization, or about their jobs. Motivation does not always come in the form of financial rewards. That is an important motivator to have in place, but money is not the only thing that will keep people excited about their jobs or organization.
First, it is important to make work fun. If you establish different fun things to do around the office, such as a daily drawing for prizes, or conduct a bingo game that is related to your business and the prizes will be an extra half an hour for lunch, or to leave early one day, those are motivators that will get people excited and want to accomplish more, which will result in more success. Other non-compensatory motivators could be as simple as having a dry cleaner that comes to the office once a week to pick up their laundry or employee of the month where it is the employees who nominate potential recipients, where they get the choice parking spot for the month or anything else you come up with for a reward.
When you reward employees’ successes, this is most likely the easiest way to motivate your employees. Depending on what type of acknowledgment they like, either public or private, complimenting them on their hard work is always welcomed. Another thing that you can do is to give them a handwritten note about their success and put a copy of it in their file for their annual review.
Additionally, keeping your employees excited about their job and knowing when they are becoming complacent in their positions is very important. One way to help your employees to continue to grow before they start to become complacent is to introduce new projects. Of course, you will need to know your employees pretty well to know if they can handle new responsibilities. Perhaps they have too much on their plate already, that it is not the amount of work, but the challenge of new things. Shifting around responsibilities where appropriate will encourage everyone to continue to grow and master new skills, which is great for them and for your business.
Monetary incentives and rewards are always welcomed, but should not be the only thing that you offer to employees. The monetary rewards can come in a variety of different incentives, such as bonuses, gift certificates, trips (even just an overnight somewhere in town), or an increase in their compensation.
There is not a one-size fits all when it comes to motivating employees. Individuals are motivated in different ways thus having an array of different programs in place is one step. The first step is to know your employees and what types of things will motivate them. Money is always good, but should not be the only thing offered.
Tags: advice, employee morale, Hiring and Human Resources, larry Slusser, management, motivating your employees, tips
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Recruiting Staff Needn’t Cost A Fortune
Friday, March 28th, 2008
An important part of any company’s success is the staff it employs. Although the management team may be the driving force behind a business, the people on the “ground floor” are just as important - without them your business would probably struggle to meet demands. Therefore it’s important that you attract the right caliber of employee.
Often this can be extremely expensive, with advertising costs in newspapers rising all the time. However, there are other methods in which you can recruit new employees, and often at a fraction of the overall cost of traditional advertising. Some of the most effective methods include:
* Advertise on your website. Many people looking for jobs will often use online searches to find companies in the industries that interest them. If they find your website, then having employment vacancies on your site is a great way to attract new employees. Plus it’s free, so the cost-effectiveness is 100%.
* Use online resources such as Craigslist. This is a hugely popular method for jobseekers to search for the latest job vacancies, and more and more employers are turning to this approach. With the web being such an integral part of everyday life, websites such as Craigslist has become normal for millions of Internet users everywhere. Again, like advertising on your website, it’s free to post on Craigslist and the results can speak for themselves.
* Recruitment agencies can also be a relatively low-cost way of finding your next employee. Although many of the larger ones can be expensive, many smaller agencies will charge you an extremely reasonable rate to find potential employees for you. This also saves you money by taking away advertising costs, and you can even employ someone via an agency on a trial basis. This means that the agency pays the employee’s wages, eligible holiday pay, etc, and that lets you determine whether the employee is right for you or not before taking on full-time.
* Job fairs can also offer excellent ways of meeting jobseekers in a cost-effective manner. Because of the way that job fairs are set up, there will be literally thousands of potential employees being put in front of your company. Now compare these figures to how much it would cost to advertise several hundred times to find the same amount of potential employees, and you can see why job fairs are becoming more popular with both businesses and employees.
* Perhaps one of the most effective ways of advertising for or attracting new staff is simply by having an open day at your place of business. This can be advertised in your local newspaper, and it will ensure that people that are genuinely interested in working for your company will come along.
Tags: advice, danny brown, hiring, Hiring and Human Resources, staffing, tips
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Accentuate the Positive - Motivating your Employees through Positive Reinforcement
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
There are two types of reactions to everything in life - positive and negative. This goes all the way down to the operation of the smallest atoms and molecules that make up the environment around us. It also comes into play at the workplace.
As a small business owner, you regularly have to choose between positive and negative reactions to things that happen. When dealing with your employees, you may let things continue as is - until something goes wrong.
You may then resort to using a negative reaction to effect course correction. While negative consequences do work, at least in the short term, this is not always the best way to deal people that work for you.
Employee Psychology
By only dealing with your employees when there is something wrong, you ensure that they will try to remain under the radar as much as possible. That is, no one will take responsibility for anything for fear of negative repercussions.
Instead, wouldn’t it be better if your employees were all vying for your attention for the right reasons? With positive reinforcement, they can be.
The best employees are those who feel appreciated. They feel their boss and company care about them, how they perform, and the job they do. They also know that you notice their hard work and their attempts to ‘go above and beyond’ for the good of the business.
Set Goals
One important way to set effect positive reinforcement is to set goals for your employees to reach. These could be goals for sales, customer service, or in any other area.
Make sure each employee knows individual and group goals, so they can aim to reach them.
Recognition
When your employees reach their individual goals, take notice. Make sure to praise that employee at a meeting or other staff gathering.
If there is a group goal that has been met, give the team praise for working together and reaching the goal at hand.
Rewards
In addition to praise, you may want to institute a reward system for employees who are meeting their goals. This could be a cash bonus, free vacation day, or anything else you can think of as a reward.
If it is a team goal, come up with a way that everyone can take part in the reward, such as having a bagel breakfast brought in for the team to enjoy in the morning, or a group lunch in the afternoon.
Above and Beyond
Some employees will do more than just meet goals. Many are self-motivated to go ‘above and beyond’ every time there is an opportunity.
Whether it is going out of their way to make a customer happy or coming up with a plan to reduce shoplifting, recognize your employees for their initiative. This will encourage other employees to step up and be more productive.
Note Improvement
For some employees, improvement comes hard. While they may not be the shining stars of your organization, when they work to improve themselves and the job they do, it should be recognized. This will encourage them - and other employees - to continue to strive to be better.
While there are positive and negative reactions to any situation, the only way to really motivate employees is through positive reinforcement. The more you show your employees that you appreciate their work, the more they will work to gain that appreciation.
Tags: advice, company morale, employee morale, Hiring and Human Resources, Leeia Ladpoh, managment, motivating employees, tips
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Getting The Work Done - Outsourcing Trends
Tuesday, March 18th, 2008
At some point in your career as a small business owner, you will realize that you can’t do it all yourself. There is a limited amount of profit you can make when you’re responsible for every piece of the puzzle that is your business. It may be time to outsource.
Outsourcing is finding someone else to do parts of your job, so you can spend more time moving your business forward.
Let’s take a look at what happens in a business day.
A Day in the Life
You may start the day by dealing with customer questions in e-mails. You check the phone messages at the office. Next, you may go through the regular mail that arrived the afternoon before. Is it the end of the month? Then it’s paperwork time, dealing with all the accounts billable and payable.
Once the doors open, you may be the one dealing with all the customers who come into your business, as well as the one making all the purchasing and supply phone calls and pickups.
Add these little jobs together, and you are not getting a lot of time to think about taking your business to the next level.
Outsourcing - What’s In It for Me?
The key to doing outsourcing the right way is to find someone who can do the job you need done at a price that will be more profitable by you not doing it, freeing up your time to focus on higher-level tasks.
If you have a retail location, these jobs may have to be done by someone who can physically be in the store. But if you have a company that is run out of your home or a virtual office, you can have employees that are virtual as well.
Many online websites specialize in outsourcing parts of your business or personal life.
* Elance.com - Elance is known as a freelancer’s website. Many people do not equate freelancing with outsourcing. The words may be different, but they mean virtually the same thing.
Freelancers who are experts in accounting, customer relations, appointment setting, website design, ghostwriting and many other skills can take on some of the jobs you need to have done.
* Guru.com - This is another site where you can find a number of freelancers who are able to take on the tasks you have at hand.
By posting the project to be completed, a number of professionals will bid for the chance to do the job for you.
* Craigslist.org - While many people think of craigslist.org as a site for getting rid of junk or finding a roommate, this is also a great place to look for professionals, especially if you want someone in your area to do a job.
You can post your needs on a Craigslist regional forum.
When you are ready to take your small business to the next level, it is time to get out from under the piles of minutia and turn those jobs over to outsourced employees. Then you can do what you do best - taking your company into a more profitable future.
Tags: advice, Hiring and Human Resources, hiring cheap help, Leeia Ladipoh, outsourcing, outsourcing trends, tips
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Getting Ready for the Ups and Downs of Summer
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
When it comes to planning a retail strategy, you should always be one season ahead. While others are spring cleaning, you should be doing a fair amount of summer planning.
Planning is not just about making sure you have the right inventory on the shelves; it has to do with boosting morale and creating sales as well.
Employee Morale
If yours is one of the many small businesses that experience a summer lull, you may notice that your staff mood follows suit. While your employees stand in the store day after day, you may notice a little bit of a melancholy mood - especially when they are not getting the sales they have been accustomed to.
As a business owner, you have to come up with ways to keep the morale high, even through low sales times. Here are a few ideas:
* Lighten Up - One great way to get your staff in a better mood is to make their workplace a more fun environment. You may want to institute special days at work for the staff, such as “Bagel Fridays” where you bring in a bag of bagels and cream cheese for everyone to enjoy in the morning.
It may seem like something small, but it will be appreciated and make them happier to be at work. Happy workers make your customers happy as well.
* Time Off - In the summer, most people have plans to take at least one vacation. Talk to your employees about when they plan to take time off, and work those days out in the schedule to the best of your ability.
If you really want to boost morale, offer them an extra day of free vacation in addition to their scheduled time off. Employers who offer such incentives often get much more productivity and loyalty from their staff.
Creating Sales
Just because the beginning of summer is a traditionally quieter time of year does not mean you should hang up your hat and expect to not make any money.
Instead, you should be using this time to create a sense of urgency in the minds of shoppers to get them in your store, or plan for upcoming sales opportunities.
* Promotions - This is a great time to plan to bring in new business. Try to come up with new promotions that will get people’s attention. While they may not be planning to shop this time of year, a knockout promotion that piques their interest will get them into the store.
Initially, customers may come in “just to look”, but you can always help them decide to buy once you have them inside. Additionally, plan for upcoming holidays beyond the summer.
This slow time will give you more time to plan for over-the-top fall and winter holiday promotions.
* Major markdowns - There are always a few shelves of items you would love to move out of your store. These are the target items for a major markdown sale. Create large and catchy signage to let people know there is a big sale coming up.
If they think it’s a deal too good to pass up, they may just come in to see what’s on sale, giving your cash registers another sale.
While summer may be a usually slower time of the year for retail sales, it is how you use this time that will decide if you are maximizing your business potential. Even down time can be used strategically to craft plans for future profits.
Tags: advice, employee morale, employee time off, employee vacations, Hiring and Human Resources, Leeia Ladipoh, tips
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Boss skills
Monday, March 3rd, 2008
According to a survey conducted by Yahoo!HotJobs here are the top 10 qualities employees consider necessary for being a good boss:
(in order of importance)
1. Communication/listening skills.
2. Effective leadership skills.
3. Trust in their employees to do their job well.
4. Flexibility and understanding.
5. Intelligence.
6. Teamwork skills and even temperament (tie).
7. Interest in employee development.
8. Ability to share credit.
9. Successful in finding and retaining new talent.
10. Presentation skills.
So if you are looking to cut down on employee turnover consider these things for yourself as a boss and also as qualities to look for when you are hiring for potential managers. Happy workers = happy business.
Tags: being a boss, Hiring and Human Resources, HR, interpersonal skills, leadership skills, Rebecca Button
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