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You CAN Get The Staff These Days: Improving Your Hiring Process

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Tired of hiring the wrong people for your company? Improving your hiring process could allow you to find better candidates, allowing you to build a stronger team of employees. Here are five ways that you can improve your hiring process.

Fine-tune your job description

Your job description should be carefully worded to attract as many applicants as possible. Advertise the perks of the job and use a professional sounding job title. Whilst you should detail certain qualities that you’re looking for, try not to make the job sound too demanding as you may scare off applicants – the bad ones and the good ones.

Use social media

There are all kinds of places to advertise job vacancies including job listing sites, newspapers and public bulletins. Social media is fast becoming one of the best places to advertise jobs. It’s also a great means of screening applicants to check that they’re the right fit. LinkedIn is one of the best social media platforms for screening applicants as it tells you which previous job people have worked. You may also want to check someone’s Facebook profile – even if it’s set to private, an inappropriate profile picture could be enough to tell you that a certain candidate isn’t right for you.

Create an online tests and quizzes

Online tests and quizzes are great ways of deciding if people are the right fit for your job. This could be a personality test, a decision-based quiz or test of knowledge. Afterwards, you can look at the results and determine which candidates should progress forwards. Online quizzes could save you having a trial shift and could help to weed out applicants that are good blaggers.

Hire a recruiter

To save yourself time and increase the range of your search, you could hire a recruiter. This will cost you extra, but it could help you to find better candidates. Recruiters can be useful when it comes to hard-to-fill vacancies – these may require very niche skills or could simply require gruelling responsibilities.

Leave yourself enough time

The biggest mistake that employers make when hiring new staff is rushing the process. By giving yourself more time to advertise the vacancy, read CVs and interview candidates, you’re more likely to make the right decision. Manage your time effectively so that you’re keeping interviews on schedule and replying to queries from applicants promptly. If you’re struggling to find the time to do this, you may be able to get help from a senior employee of yours or use a recruiter to handle aspects such as interviews. On top of leaving yourself enough time for the hiring process, remember that you’ll also need to pour some time into training this new staff member and taking them through introductory paperwork. Many employees that leave soon after being hired do so because they haven’t been trained properly or haven’t been made to feel welcome – even if you’re hiring someone with ample experience, you company may have a different way of doing things, so help them to adjust.

Why Career Progression Starts with Self-Improvement

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We are not always happy in our current job, and want to make changes that will improve our lives, self-esteem, and bank balance. However, to successfully improve your career, you’ll need to adapt a new approach and attitude. Instead of waiting for the opportunity to knock, you have to get proactive and search for ways of improving your knowledge, getting extra work, promotion, or new qualifications. Below you’ll find a few tips.

Talk to Your Manager

You will never get that promotion until you ask for it. It is important that you let your employer know about your ambitions, and ask for advice. You might not want to go straight to the point and ask for a promotion, however, if you ask what type of extra work you can take on to help them out, it can help. You might want to volunteer for new projects or get advice on how to secure more qualifications.

Discover the Next Step

It is also important that you look through your strengths and limitations, so you can determine which future careers will suit you. If you cannot stand stress, working as a stock broker might not be for you. If you are not sure what career suits you, it might be a good idea to improve your self-knowledge and get a better understanding of your personality. However, if you have good people skills, you can be a direct marketing expert, customer engagement officer, or even a nursing practice leader.

Take Your Qualifications Further

When it comes to progressing your career, you can’t simply sit back and wait for your chance to train with your current or future employer. You will sometimes need to take the first step. Overcome your fears and search for online courses that will help you improve your skills and knowledge. You can find a course suitable for your plans, such as an rn-bsn online that can be completed online. Once you have the qualifications and knowledge, you can meet the expectations of your potential employers better.

Request Training

Sometimes the best approach is the direct one. If you want to get that management job, you can ask your employer for further training. Find a position that is in high demand and needs qualified workers. Offer your employer to complete the training for the unfilled position. If you present yourself in the right way, you might even get your workplace to fund a part of your course, or offer you a low interest or interest-free loan for the duration of the training. This way, you can get time off to prepare for the exams and show your commitment towards hard work and your employer.

Whether you are a nurse or an office worker, you will need to start with your own personal development before you can make a career progression plan. Learn as much as possible about yourself; your skills and limitations, and find the career path that suits your needs and your employer’s. Don’t wait for the opportunities to come across; become proactive in finding them.

Benefits of Social Media for Small Businesses

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Many small businesses are increasingly focusing on the web when it comes to making their brand a success. It’s easy to see why when you take a look at the extreme success of various online businesses and take into account that almost every high street retailer also has a website which allows them to operate online in tandem with their brick and mortar store. Setting up a website gives you an edge. It allows customers to order goods from you from the comfort of their own home. This is the ultimate form of convenience, especially if you offer next day delivery options. A webstore also allows you to operate round the clock. You no longer have to work with strict opening and closing times, as you can leave an online store unmanned and operating twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Then you can open up your brand to a worldwide market of consumers with the simple addition of international shipping options! However, your brand’s online presence has the potential to reach so much further than a website alone. You can also incorporate other forms of media into your business strategies in order to make profit. For now, let’s focus on social media. Here are just a few of the benefits that it can bring to your venture.

Facebook

Facebook is perhaps the most popular form of social media. It has approximately 2.2 billion users active every single month. So, this may well be the best place to start if brand exposure is what you’re looking for. When setting up a profile for your business on social media, make sure to establish that you are a business at the start of the page setup. This will give you access to more appropriate profile editing options that can benefit you as a brand. Perhaps the main benefit of Facebook (besides exposure) is that you can add certain details to your page’s profile which help customers to receive the best possible customer service that you can provide. Your profile can detail your store’s physical location (including address and postcode) so that customers can make their way to your brick and mortar store without hassle. You can also add a contact number and contact email address so that they can contact you easily. Then there’s the instant messenger option that you can activate. This means that customers can easily contact you, you will receive a notification, and you can respond to them as quickly as possible. You can then use your feed to give customers updates and put out announcements, such as sales, new lines, and special events.

Instagram

Another extremely popular form of social media is Instagram. This app specialises in the visual, which is particularly beneficial for online companies who only have visual representations of their goods to sell to their customers until they receive the real deal in the post after purchase. For the strongest Instagram presence possible, you need plenty of followers. The more followers you have, the more likes you will have on your posts. If consumers see that other consumers like something, it becomes increasingly desirable and they’re likely to want to purchase the goods that everyone else likes. However, cultivating these followers and likes is a little difficult to start with when you haven’t yet established a presence. Perhaps the best way to get started is to buy likes on Instagram. This will give your brand a presence, which will in turn generate more attention and more legitimate followers and likes.

Twitter

While Twitter isn’t necessarily automatically associated with brands, it’s an online powerhouse that you should engage with regardless. Twitter’s main benefit for companies is convenient communication. Tweets are capped at 140 characters, so it can be used for short and sweet exchanges with your customers and potential customers. More complex and lengthy conversations can be taken to the inbox feature. It can also be used for short announcements and updates for your followers. However, you can also take a controversial approach which brings mass attention to your brand. Just take a look at Denny’s twitter feed. Their comedic tweets have resulted in the fast food chain amassing 479,000 followers.

If you haven’t started engaging with social media on a professional level yet, it’s about time that you get around to it. After all, some of the most accessed apps have the potential to bring a ridiculous number of potential customers your way and also allow you the resources to keep in touch with them and make further sales!

Stop Working For Your Business

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We don’t have an exact answer figure, but we reckon 98.1% of entrepreneurs are okay with putting in the hard work if it means they can sit back and enjoy a bit more freedom down the line. Yeah, we’re talking about creating a business that works without you needing to be there. The problem is, most founders end up working for their businesses instead of their businesses working for them.

If you’re not sure which camp you fall into, try pondering this scenario: you are kidnapped, put in the trunk of a Ford Mondeo and kept hostage (albeit well-looked after) for a fortnight, maybe even a month – what would happen to your business? Would it thrive, would it survive or would it fall apart faster than a filo pastry?

If it is the latter option, don’t despair. We’ve pulled together a few tips and tricks to help make your business start running smoothly without you. Enjoy the early retirement you’ve always dreamed about.

1. Automate All You Can

The more of your processes you can automate, the fewer things will need you – or someone – to focus their efforts on. Automate your customer service response, look at your method to manage your policies and procedure, streamline your onboarding processes, your systems for filing documents, your workflows, invoicing, anything. The more you can automate, the less chance there will be of human error getting involved and that means less for you to oversee.

2. Let Your Employees Work

Any leader that has trouble relinquishing control will no doubt have a stringent interview process to make sure they only bring on the very best talent. You don’t want anything but the right candidate to take your business forward. That means you have hired each of your employees for a reason, so let them do their jobs. Let them do the very role you hired them to do. Instead of hovering over them, inspire and empower them and let them figure out which way of doing things suits them. It will make your hopes of standing back come true, that’s a promise.

3. Step Away For A Bit

It doesn’t have to be long, a week let’s say. What you will find from stepping back for this length of time is you get a better understanding of how your company runs without you. We’re talking about turning your phone off for that entire week and then evaluating the result when you come back. This will let you see where your big weaknesses are, where the biggest issues arose and which unanswered questions need some attention. It’s about having more understanding of where your team needs further assistance, training and empowerment.

4. Be A Better Delegator

The role of CEO is a bit of an ambiguous one. That’s why you should cross this out and then make a list of all the tasks and roles you took on the past six months to a year. Once you have this in front of you, start categorizing and delegating them. This won’t be creating more work for anyone else, it will give them the chance to take total responsibility for a role and all the responsibilities that come with it and that can be immensely motivating.

What To Do When Your Business Is Struggling

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Don’t be surprised if at some point you find your business struggling, with you figuring out how and why such issues have arisen. Such ups and downs are normal in the world of business, and whether you’re an entrepreneur or seasonal business owner with years of experience, both need to know what to do when their business needs a boost in the right direction.

Try not to panic or make any rash decisions when you first realize you’re going through some tough times. What your business needs right now is you to step up and be a leader and stay determined to figure out how to get yourselves back on track. Be prepared to do your homework as to why this is occurring and then get ready to make a few changes.

Revisit your Business Plan

You can’t take action until you pinpoint exactly where you’re falling short and the gaps exist. What you need is a new and improved strategy if you’re business is struggling. It may be time to revisit your goals and adjust them for the future so you can start finding success with your company again. Pull out your business plan and go over it closely to verify areas you’re not currently executing on and figure out how you can modify your approach for the future.

Review Roles & Responsibilities

This is a good time to go over roles and responsibilities with your staff and confirm everyone’s on the same page. Make sure each person has a job they’re busy doing every day that’s helping you reach your business goals. If there are people or roles that are no longer a good fit then it’s up to you to make adjustments where necessary. You need to confirm all that’s going on within company walls is helping your cause and not holding you back.

Find ways to Boost Morale

One reason your business could be struggling is because your employees aren’t feeling very motivated. Boost morale at the office by rewarding your team when they do a good job and taking them out for a meal or participating in an Escape Rooms adventure. These are both fun activities where they’ll get to come together as a team and celebrate or problem solve their way to creating a closer bond as a group. It’ll be well worth your small investment when you start to see your employees feeling more satisfied at work and performing their job duties better.

Stay Positive & Keep Trying

What you can’t do is give up and stop trying to figure out why your business is experiencing growing pains. Stay positive and continue working your way through the hardships. Focus on what you’re doing right and always remember to play to your strengths. While it’s okay to be realistic and honest with your staff, never let them see you get down on yourself or the company as you try to minimize any long-term damage.

Conclusion

Every business goes through ups and downs and this just happens to be a period when you’re struggling. Spend time understanding the problem areas and finding solutions instead of complaining. Use these suggestions for helping you to recover and bounce back better than before.