May 17, 2012

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Hiring Tips

All bosses know what they are looking for in new employees.  Once you are actually meeting with the person, you have already seen a resume and have spoken to the prospective employee via telephone.  Make sure that by the time you are asking a person to come in to speak with you for an interview you have chosen the right person.  Check the resume thoroughly.  On line job sites have people post their resumes so that prospective employers can search through them, learning the skills that an employee possesses and seeing if they want to pursue this relationship further.  Read through the resume.  Make sure that what the person stated is true, and that it can be verified.  If references are given, call them.  Make sure that the person represented on this application is truly who they say they are.

Continue to get to know the person when you call to set up an interview.  Make the call yourself.  You can have an impression of the person through their voice and the way they present themselves.  Did you like their voice?  Were they articulate?  Were they able to answer your questions without hesitation and with confidence?  The answers to these questions will help you decide if indeed, you want to have the person come in for a face to face interview.  If you found anything questionable on the submitted resume, straighten out.  Ask the person to clarify any misunderstandings or explain something to you.

When you do see the person face to face, read their body language.  All employees on interviews are nervous.  This could be the career they have been searching for.  Put the person at ease and you will get much more information than if they feel intimidated.  Give them the opportunity to ask you questions.  You may learn exactly what they are looking for in this business relationship.

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Hiring Costs

The hiring of new employees is inevitable in any business.  Companies open new divisions or are expanding and require more manpower.  A new company needs lots of help in its infancy, and a complete staff may need to be hired.  When making the all important decisions of who will be working for your company, there are many factors to keep in mind.  While you are concentrating on hiring intelligent, loyal, hard-working people to staff your business, you must also take into consideration the cost of hiring extra people.

First and foremost is the salary.  The salary you offer new employees should be commensurate with the experience you require, as well as the experience the employee has.  If you are hiring management, the expense will be even higher.  The old saying, “You get what you pay for” is very true.  If you want to attract highly qualified individuals, you must be willing to meet their salary demands.  You do not always have the luxury of hiring someone on the ground floor so that they can work their way up, gaining the necessary experience along the way.

Another expense to be considered in your hiring costs is the benefit package.  In today’s economy the benefit package can be the big attraction.  While many positions can garner around the same salary from business to business, the benefit package can differ dramatically.  By offering more benefits, or better benefits, you may attract the cream of the crop.  Just remember to budget for those benefits.

You may need to consider the additional cost of training.  New employees need to learn the ropes.  If trained properly the first time, you will save money in the long run.  More employees mean more computers, more work stations, maybe even more bathrooms or a bigger break room.   Remember to keep all of these costs in mind when considering expanding or taking on more employees.

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Making The Interview Count

You already know you are interested in an employee.  You have seen his resume and are impressed with his qualifications.  You have made the phone call and you have spoken to him.  You liked the way he handled himself on the phone and you have decided to meet with him face to face, that final step to see if he is the employee you are looking for, the all important member of your team.

While there are certain things you can count on, he will be nervous, he may stumble a little, but you will get to know him a little better.  You can overlook the awkwardness that comes with nerves.  You realize that putting him at ease will make this interview a lot easier on both of you.  Making him nervous will only cause him to lose confidence and you will not get to know exactly what he has to offer.  As well, you will come off as a rigid boss, and perhaps one he would rather not work for.

The face to face interview is the last piece of the puzzle.  If all goes well, you will offer him a position with your company.  If it does not go well, he will leave and you will feel as though you have wasted valuable times.  If you have interviewed dozens of people for positions you probably have a good routine.  You know the obvious, he has the qualifications you require, you liked the way he looked on paper and you have spoken to him.  During the face to face interview, make sure you cover everything you will require of your future employee.  Make your business practices well known.  Converse about how he will be an asset to your company.  Remember, as much as you are learning about him, he is also making his final decision, and if he is what you are looking for, let him know it.

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The Best Ways To Recruit

You need more employees.  You need employees who have a special skill.  What is the best way to go about accomplishing this?  There are many, many websites today that will advertise for you.  You can post the position and its requirements and allow people to contact you or send in resumes.  If you choose to go this way, be very specific about what it is you are looking for.  Make it clearly known if you require secondary education or a degree.  There are a lot of people out there looking for work, and many people are applying for anything and everything.  In order to save yourself and your company time and expense, make sure you are getting the applicants you are seeking.

Entry level positions are obviously the easiest to fill.  The salary is not as high and the requirements are not as extensive.  Entry level positions are great ways to train people on how your company works, start at the bottom and learn the ropes, work your way up.

Another great way to recruit employees is to go to technical schools and vocational high schools.  These schools have their students divided by the occupation they are seeking.  You can forge a relationship with the head of the department of the type of employee you are looking for, and this will help you get quality employees who are trained and schooled in the area of expertise you are looking for.

You can also recruit at the colleges in your area, contacting the head of the department of the area of expertise you are hiring for.  A student fresh out of college has the latest in education, as well as the drive to succeed, along with a willingness to start at a lesser salary in order to gain badly needed experience.  There are good quality employees out there, and they are probably looking just as hard for you as you are for them.

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Recruiting Your Team

Your business is running quite smoothly.  You find yourself in the position that you need to recruit some new employees.  Maybe you are expanding, maybe a new position has been created.  Whatever the reason, proper recruiting can save you a lot of time and money.  There will also not be the need to turn down so many people.  Narrowing your search as much as possible will give you a legitimate pool of the right candidates for what you need.

Start with defining exactly what the need is.  What exactly do you need from this employee?  Is manpower the main motivation, or is there a certain expertise required?  These are all things that need to be considered.  Once you have narrowed the field, you can begin to search for the right people.  There are many, many ways to do that.   The three line ad run in the local paper is not going to attract the person you need.  We do have the Internet, with literally the power to reach thousands of interested applicants.  There are job websites that you can utilize, where you can define the job description, have prospective employees submit resumes and you can choose from there.   There are also technical schools, if there is a certain area of expertise you are looking for.  A lot of these schools have school-to-work programs that will allow the students to work part of the school day.  This is a great way to see if a young student is the right fit for your company, and they may work for free or less of a salary, as they are getting course credits.  Once graduation comes, you may be in a position to offer that person a full time position.

Defining exactly what it is you are looking for is more than half the battle of hiring the right person for your company.  This process can be beneficial for boss as well as employee.

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Recruiting The Best

You need to recruit employees for your business.  Maybe you are just starting out and need an entire team, or just need to replace one open position.  Doing the footwork beforehand can save you a lot of useless interviews and seeing endless people who are not the right fit for your business.  In the computer age we are all a part of, there are many, many new ways to get your want ads out there, to let the possible new employees know exactly what you are looking for and exactly what is expected of them.

There are job search engines.  You can post the position and its requirements, and prospective employees can respond by sending in a resume.  You can also search these sites for already posted resumes, and you can do your own search, contacting those who you feel have the initial qualifications you are looking for.  Face to face interviews can now be saved for the select few who meet your rigorous criteria.  You will not have to spend days in interview sessions with people who you know from the first “hello” are not what you are looking for.

In recruiting for employees, be as specific as the job description.  This will help those seeking employment to know if they have what you need from them.  List the exact amount of schooling required for this position, the special skills needed, even the hours required, and mention if travel is required.  For some people, this may be the difference in sending in their resume or looking elsewhere.

In these precarious financial times, time is money.  If you have to spend your valuable time sifting through many employees, you are wasting time you can be using getting your product or service out there to the consumer.  There are a lot of people looking for work out there, let the right one find you.

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Investigating HR Issues: Questioning the Complainant

Investigating HR Issues: Questioning the Complainant

For each and every single allegation that a complaining employee raises, you are going to want to ask a specific set of questions. This set of questions is going to help you determined what happened, who was involved, who was at fault and what you need to rectify the situation. Here are the questions that you should ask the complaining employee:

Ask what occurred. Ask when it occurred, including the date and time, and ask where it occurred. Find out how it happened in as much detail as possible. Find out who said what or what was done, and in what order. Find out about any physical contact, and ask to have it demonstrated. Find out how the complaining employee responded.

Find out if the incident has been reported before. If it has, to find out who it was reported to and when, then find out what response has already been carried out if any. Find out if the complaining employee has already discussed the situation with anyone else, and if so, who. Find out if there have been any other incidents involving the same person, and if so, who, what happened, where and when.

You are also going to want to ask the complaining employee if he or she knows why the incident occurred, what his or her relationship is with the respondent and why he or she is coming forward at this point? Are there any additional pieces of evidence that support the claims of the employee, such as notes or documents? Has the respondent given you anything in writing or any other items? Who was nearby, and were there any witnesses or people within earshot that can attest to the incident occurring?

All of these things can be important in determining what happened, who was involved and who can corroborate the story so that you can investigate the incident properly and completely.

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Human Resources: Hiring the Best Employees

Human Resources: Hiring the Best Employees

If you want to attract the best possible hires to your organization, then there are a number of things that you can do in order to make it happen. The job interview is not a time for you to chat with an applicant, but rather it is time for you to really dig and investigate an applicant prior to hiring them. Preparing for an interview is actually a two step process. First you are going to want to use the job description so that you can identify what skills, traits and abilities you actually need. If you do not already have a job description, then you need to write one before you look for the employees that you need.

Next, you are going to want to determine how you are going to figure out if a specific candidate has these traits or qualifications or not. You cannot outright ask “Do you have such and such skill?” because applicants are likely to say yes even if they are not the right candidate for the job. Instead, what you are going to want to do is pick out key issues in a job description and design your questions that are going to help you to get at those specific issues. Ask routine questions that will be deal breakers, such as “Do you have the degree we require?” But also make sure you’re asking questions that are going to help the applicant actually tell you whether or not they are ideal for the job. When you ask questions that do not allow for yes and no answers, then you are much more likely to find out good information from the applicants rather than simple and meaningless answers.

You need to have an interview strategy so that you can benefit from the interview process rather than accidently hiring someone that you are not satisfied with down along the road.

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Hiring Process: What You Can and Cannot Ask During an Interview

Hiring Process: What You Can and Cannot Ask During an Interview

There are a lot of rules and regulations that tell companies and business owners what they can and cannot ask during an interview process. The last thing that a business needs is to have some type of legal lawsuit against them for age discrimination or religious discrimination. If you are considering hiring some new employees here is a look at what you can and cannot ask during an interview process.

Age. You cannot ask a job applicant their age. This is viewed as age discrimination if you do. However, you can ask birth date so you are welcome to do the math and figure out the age. There is a way around the age law. If your company or business has laws and restrictions that prohibit people of a certain age working for them you may ask if the person is over a certain age. An example of this is a job that handles alcohol where people need to be over the age of 18 or 21.

Religious Background. You cannot ask a job applicant what their religious affiliation is. Even if the job is around a certain religious organization you are not allowed by law to ask about their religious beliefs.

Sexual Orientation. You are also not allowed to ask any job applicant their sexual orientation. This includes whether they are gay, straight or bi-sexual. This question is completely off limits.

Veteran Status. You are allowed to ask job applicants if they have served in the armed forces. Many jobs will give special consideration if the person applying for a job is a veteran. You are also allowed to ask if they were disabled in the line of duty.

Credit History. While you cannot directly ask if a job applicant is in debt, you can run a credit history. However, the job applicant must sign legal documents that grant you permission to run a credit history for the job application process.

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