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The First Things You Must Do When Hiring Anyone

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Hiring |The First Things You Must Do When Hiring AnyoneFor most people in business, the whole prospect of hiring and firing is one of the most daunting aspects of running a business at all. If you find that you are worrying about this a little in your own business, then you will probably want to try and do whatever you can to make it a little easier, and that will generally mean coming to terms with what you are going to have to do about it. In particular, it’s useful to know what you are going to have to do when you are hiring someone, so that you can make sure that you do it in a way which is fair to all, useful for the business, legal and above board, and ultimately in a way which provides the best outcome for all. Clearly, that is something that might be very difficult to make sure of for many people, and it’s going to be a struggle.

However, in this post, we will aim to make this a little easier, primarily by focusing on some of the very first things that you should do when you are hiring absolutely anyone at all. As long as you are aware of these things, and you take them on board, you should find that you are going to be able to make much more of whoever you do hire, which is essential.

Check Their Right To Work

First of all, you need to concern yourself with some of the legal proceedings that you can’t ignore. One of the most important is checking that the person you are hiring actually has the legal right to work in the country in which you are operating. It is your legal duty to check that, and if you fail to then you could get in a lot of trouble indeed, especially if it turns out that they are not able to work there after all. It also helps to protect against any inherent or institutional racism, as you are going to need to make these checks on everyone, not just those you happen to know came to the country from abroad.

The issue and practical concern of how to check their right to work is actually very simple. In the case of those from abroad, you will need to check their visa allows work, and you’ll have to take a copy of it. For everyone else, simply take a copy of their ID – passport, driving licence, or official ID card. Get all this down, and you are going to be in a much better situation with the law.

StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Hiring |The First Things You Must Do When Hiring AnyoneDraw Up A Contract

Of course, you are going to have to make sure that you and your new employee have an official agreement about what you should get from them, and what they can expect from you in return. This is the whole point of contracts, and you will need to make sure that you are working on drawing one up early on so that they can sign it when you take them on board. The contract should involve everything that is necessary to know about the position, and includes a description of basic tasks and responsibilities. It should also outline starting pay, and what chances there are for that increasing. You should also have a section there on the terms of dismissal, so that they know them from the very start and there can be no arguments about it later on. Many people find it troublesome drawing up contracts, but with Agiloft contract management software and a decent HR team in charge of the process, it should be considerably simpler indeed.

Training

In many cases, you will find that there is a need for training. If that is the case for your business and its employees, then this is something you are going to need to arrange straight away, before you actually have them sit at their desk and start working. It is useful and necessary for many reasons, but of course one of the main ones is that it is a reliable way of ensuring that they are going to do the work right. It will also help them to feel much more ready for the work, and mean that they can ease in more successfully, which is definitely something to think about too.

As long as you get all this right, you should find that you are going to be able to hire people much more successful indeed.

Phenomenal Tactics For A Hassle Free Business Expansion

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You only have to say the word expansion, and people working within a business start to sweat. It’s not that they inherently dislike the idea. It’s just that traditionally, alongside growth, you can expect additional work, risks, as well as an increase in stress and hassle. Of course, when expanding your business, there will always be additional tasks, and hazards to navigate, the same is true for any business. However, much of the hassle can be avoided if you manage the expansion right. Something that you can read all about doing in the post below.

Do your research

The first tactic for a hassle-free business expansion is to do plenty of research before you go ahead. In fact, data is one of the most valuable assets when it comes to successfully growing your business. The reason being that if you make your decisions based on cold, hard facts, rather than instinct, you have a much better chance of mitigating any risks.

What that means is you need to invest in market research before you plan to expand. This being an activity that can provide you with all sorts of information. Such as what type of demographics your products will appeal to and what kind of prices customers will be willing to pay. It can even help to inform the sort of launch that would work best for your expansion.

Additionally, market research is not the only information-gathering exercise that you should do before deciding to grow your business. You also need to make sure that you have all of the figures and projections from your current endeavor. Something that will allow you to establish whether you have the finances to fund a successful expansion or not.

Source new staff before you get big

Next, if you wish to minimize hassle when expanding your business, you need to be on top of your recruitment process. What that means is you need to start thinking about the possible roles you will need to fill. You will also need to consider the different type of employees you will need for your expansion to be a success. Well, before you start to enact your plans.

Happily, there are strategies you can use to help you with this, including creating a database of potential candidates that you can call upon should the need arise. Additionally, for some firms partnering with an agency can help them to quickly fill mission-critical positions during expansion, without having to dedicate too much person-power to this task.

Rebrand accordingly

The next things you need to get a handle on, if you want your expansion to go off without a hitch, is your rebrand. In fact, this is crucial and nearly always necessary. The reason being that there are few products that can be transitioned to other markets and demographics with precisely the same marketing materials that were used before.
Of course, savvy businesses will use the information they gathered at the research stage to inform their rebrand. Something that will make sure that it is as effective as possible for the market in which it is intended.

Particular caution needs to be taken here if you are hoping to expand into overseas markets, as international branding faux pas are common. Of course, these can be hilarious to observers but disastrous to any expansions success, and so be a costly mistake that is best avoided whenever possible.

StrategyDriven Entrepreneurship Article |Business Expansion|Phenomenal Tactics For A Hassle Free Business ExpansionUse scalable IT services

Scalability is another important concept that you will need to grasp if your business expansion is to be conducted with the minimum amount of stress possible.

In particular, scalable IT solutions are a must for any type of expansion that you want to be a success. The reason being that you will be able to expand the infrastructure of your company as your need for output increases. A situation that more practical, and cost-effective than having to rebuild everything from the ground up every time you move into a new market.

With that in mind, using a data management service for your IT before you begin your expansion is the best course of action. Then, your IT provision can expand quickly with the needs of your business, without it interfering or delaying your movement into other profitable markets.

Secure your supply lines

Finally, if you want your business expansion to go off without a hitch, you need to be sure you can supply the next influence of customers with product. This means you will also need to make sure that you have a consistent supply of materials and the resources you need to create the products. All within enough time to go through the manufacturing process.

Additionally, do not forget to factor in delivery time when you start to supply a new market either. Especially if you plan to make the product in the country in which you are based, and then ship it overseas and distribute it to individual customers.

Happily, making use of the logistics infrastructure that is already in place within a new location can help you to do this. In fact, many smaller businesses choose to partner up with companies that are well established in their new location like Amazon. An action that can make a successful geographical expansion significantly less complicated and stressful to achieve.

Summary

If you are looking for a hassle-free expansion, there are some things you need to bear in mind. The first is that there will always be some risk, and additional work associated with growing your business. However, you can ensure that things go as smoothly as possible by doing the following things.

First of all, you must do your research both in terms of what your potential new customers want. Secondly, be sure that you can staff your expansion successfully. Thirdly, at least some rebranding will be necessary if you’re going to grow your business. While fourth on the list is that you will need to grow your IT alongside the other parts of your business for things to work.

Finally, don’t forget that if your expansion is to go off without a problem you need to source the additional supplies, as well as deliver the product to your new market. Something that partnering with another company can help you do most effectively.

Talent Acquisition: 7 Ways to Make a Job Offer More Appealing

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Talent Acquisition|Talent Acquisition: 7 Ways to Make a Job Offer More AppealingThe average job seeker spends six months or more searching for a new job. The total number of job postings they read and applications they send in can be somewhat mind-boggling. It’s up to employers to make their job posting stand out to job seekers to ensure the best candidate is found.

The question is, how can that be done? Making sure a job positing is appealing to candidates isn’t impossible, but some tips may be needed. Keep reading for some tips on how to make any job posting more appealing.

1. Keep Things Simple

Mentor programs can help anyone find a quality job. However, not everyone uses these. As a result, it’s necessary to make sure job postings are simple and easy-to-understand.

To make job postings easy to read and understand, use bullet points, paragraph breaks, numbering, italics, and boldface when appropriate. Add the company logo to make the job description appear professional. Too much information is the fastest way to lose candidates.

2. A Concise Job Title

Create a job title that is easy to understand by job seekers. Adding a specific department or product in the title only confuses candidates and makes the description less searchable. Also, spell out any search acronyms to improve the searchability of the listing.

3. Get to the Point

It’s tempting to list all the details of a job to make sure the most qualified candidates are found. However, as stated above, keeping things simple is best. Choose five to seven duties and list those using bullet points for clarity. It may be a good idea to add one or two sentence descriptions of each point.

4. Benefits of Working for the Company

When trying to sell a position, include something appealing about the company. Is there something specific that’s awesome or unique about the company? If so, be sure to include it.

If a company is willing, add the salary range or specific salary for the position. Job seekers are also going to want to know about benefits. Make sure it’s clear why this job is important and needed. An individual wants to feel needed, and like they make a difference.

5. Clear Information and Location

Make sure to specify if the position is employee or freelance and if it is full-time or part-time. By adding this information to the listing, it’s going to help the posting stand out. Make sure the location of the job is clear, too.

If it is at the headquarters of the company, add the precise city and state. If there is a remote work opportunity, list where a candidate can work from.

6. Contact Information

If the position is posted on a job board, rather than a company website, this is especially important. Be sure to list the contact information or a link for candidates who are interested to apply with ease. Add a link for the company website or social media pages.

7. Post the Job in the Right Places

Posting a job in the right place’s matters. Use social media, job boards, and the company website to achieve the desired results.

Finding the Right Candidate

Finding the right candidate for an open position takes time and effort. Keep this in mind when creating a job posting. By using the tips here, a company can find a quality candidate that meets all the requirements of the job.

How to hire the best talent

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Recruiting Talent|How to hire the best talentMost business leaders understand they need great people working for them to make their business a success. People are an organisations most valuable asset. Build a workplace where people are valued and you have a much greater chance of attracting talent.

In the current economic climate, if you want to hire the best talent you also have to understand these four things.

  • It’s an employees’ market
  • Salary isn’t the only thing employees care about
  • It’s hard to hire great people
  • The B word (Brexit)

So why do these things matter in the world of recruitment? Let’s take a closer look.

It’s an employees’ market

Unemployment is at an all-time low, which means today’s job market is tough …. for employers! Successful recruitment isn’t easy at the best of times, but with record levels of employment, the search for talent and retention are a huge challenge for businesses large and small.

So, what can businesses do to entice people who are already settled in another job? Well “If the mountain will not come to Muhammed, then Muhammad must go to the mountain”!

Businesses looking for talent can no longer rely on job boards to attract people (these forums only reach those actively seeking jobs). Businesses must understand they need to connect with passive job-seekers. Businesses need to begin by broadening their search. Using social media marketing and LinkedIn to publicise opportunities is a good place to start.

Ultimately, it’s about improving online branding to publicise the fact that you are a great employer (Glassdoor reviews matter). Old-school recruitment methods just don’t work in the current business climate.

It’s now critical that businesses adopt more modern recruitment strategies. Study your competitors so you can figure out what makes you different. You want to be able to tell prospective employees why they should work for you.

Salary isn’t everything

A report by The Psychology of Business on what people really want from their job says that culture is the new salary. While the report refers to American businesses, this shift in company culture appeal also applies to the UK. Business culture in the UK is an important currency for prospective recruits.

According to the Government’s business statistics there were 5.7 million SMEs in the UK in 2018, which accounted for over 99 per cent of all businesses. This is an important fact to consider when it comes to recruitment because most organisations competing for talent are small businesses that don’t have big budgets for large salaries. It’s where culture comes in.

For start-ups and small businesses, talent is an incredibly important asset. Culture is the answer as to how smaller businesses can compete for top talent. A report on workplace culture by LinkedIn says 71 per cent of individuals would consider taking a pay cut to work at a company whose mission and values align with their own. Professionals today just won’t work for leading companies if they have a bad workplace culture.

But what is a good culture? It certainly isn’t bean bags and bowls of fruit. Positive culture is all about giving employees a sense of purpose, providing opportunities for growth, supporting people but holding them accountable, offering flexibility, fostering trust, acknowledging achievements, showing appreciation and more. It takes effort and investment.

However, culture alone won’t cut it. People need to be able to live with financial security. Poor pay is a problem and a fair salary is still important. Small business expert Gene Marks reflects on why SMEs are struggling to find good people. The solution he says is simple – “we just aren’t paying enough.

“Some say that small businesses can’t afford to pay their employees more. I’m not so sure about that. I have clients that insist on paying low hourly wages to warehouse workers and below-market salaries to administrative and support professionals because that’s what they’ve been used to doing for the past decade. These clients are profitable and have the money to pay more. But they don’t.”
Salary isn’t everything, but it needs to be competitive and fair.

Talent scarcity

A recent survey by global business consultancy PwC, found that 72 per cent of CEOs are worried about the availability of key skills, stating that it’s not a lack of people that is the problem, but a lack of people with the RIGHT skills and abilities.

Millennials will soon make up over 50 per cent of the global workforce. They put training at the top of their list when starting a new job or evaluating an existing employer. SMEs have to acknowledge this fact. For the SME, training staff is critical. Millennials want to be in learning cultures. The SMEs grasping this fact will ultimately gain from growing their talent from within.

Brexit and recruitment

Brexit uncertainty has, according to James Stewart of KPMG, “been sapping business confidence for months, and now it is causing the jobs market to grind to a halt. With unclear trading conditions ahead, many companies have decided to hit the pause button on new hires.”

As a result, there has been a sharp increase in the use of temps and contract workers, with businesses choosing temporary recruitment solutions rather than taking on permanent employees until the Brexit dust has settled.

There is a fear amongst businesses around recruitment, particularly in sectors where there is a reliance on EU workers. When (if?) we eventually leave the EU, skill scarcity could potentially be exacerbated once free movement comes to an end.

So how can businesses mitigate against the effects of Brexit?

Aviation recruitment specialist, Ryan Abbott, advises on the UK skills shortage “In a globally connected world where students are bombarded with choices, we need to shout louder to reach potential talent who are unaware of what our industries can offer. Business leaders and recruiters can partner with colleges and schools to directly engage with students and show them the variety of successful careers open to them across UK industries.”

UK businesses need to widen their search and open their eyes to new ways of attracting talent into their organisations, as well as invest more in training from within.

Six Factors to Consider When Hiring Employees for the First Time

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StrategyDriven Talent Management Article |Hiring Employees|Six Factors to Consider When Hiring Employees for the First TimeTaking on employees is a huge responsibility, particularly in smaller companies, where the employees that you hire can have a huge impact on business success. The effect that your hires have can be either positive or negative, so it’s important to choose wisely. And, taking on an extra pair of hands or more can boost company productivity and enable you to offer a wider range of services to your clients. Unfortunately, things going wrong means that you could run the risk of damaging crucial business relationships and massively losing out financially. The good news is that with the right preparation, you can prevent this from happening and get the most from hiring employees for your firm. Here’s an essential checklist of everything that you will need to do before taking on your first hire.

#1. Finding the Right Candidates:

Hiring the wrong person can lead to poor performance and damage to your small company with unnecessary training costs, wasted time and more. So, keep these tips in mind and improve your chance of getting it right the first time. Firstly, you should sit down and determine exactly what it is that you want your new employee to do. This will enable you to write a detailed job description and advert that will attract the best talent. Some key things to include are your company’s name, a job title, the salary, a description of the person required, a description of duties, and something about your company and what you do. And, your job advert should include a call to action – include clear details on how to apply, or a link to a page where your prospective candidate can start applying right away.

#2. Equal Opportunities:

Being an equal opportunities employer is more important than ever in today’s day and age. It is against the law for an employer to discriminate a person on the grounds of age, sex, race, marriage, disability, religion or sexual orientation. You should ensure that all stages of the application process are designed to treat everybody equally; make sure that job requirements do not include any marginal or unnecessary requirements that may exclude individuals due to these criteria.

#3. Employee Rights and Contracts:

Before a new employee begins working for you, it’s crucial that you make all the right preparations to ensure that they are able to work in an environment where their rights are understood and respected. You will need to collect necessary information, establish a contract, and ensure that you are aware of all the rights offered to employees. The contract that you draw up will cover the legal relationship between yourself and your employee, and should be drawn up once the offer of work is accepted. However, bear in mind that nothing needs to be written down for employee rights to exist; some come into effect from the moment that the offer is accepted, and others after the employee has been working for you for some time. Make sure that you have a solid understanding of basic employee rights and at which point during employment they will come into effect.

#4. Specific Rights:

Today, employees have a right not to be discriminated against in the workplace on the basis of sex, age, race, religion, disability or sexual orientation – these rights will come into effect from as soon as they accept your offer of employment. They also have a right to enjoy equal pay with the opposite sex, as long as it can be shown that they are doing work of equal value. Every employee is entitled to a notification of how their pay is made up, which is usually given in the form of a paycheck each month. And, employees have the right to not be unfairly dismissed during any period of their employment with you. Don’t forget that if employees become parents while working for you, they will be entitled to maternity or paternity leave. And, employees have the right to request flexible working conditions that should be taken into reasonable consideration.

#5. Insurance:

Once you start hiring employees, you’ll need to put more thought into the kind of insurance that you have to cover your company. Bear in mind that your regular liability insurance may not stretch as far as your employees, so it may be necessary for you to update your policy before bringing new hires on. Almost everybody who hires employees will require workers’ compensation insurance; this will keep both yourself and your employees covered in the event of an accident, injury, or illness that occurs as a result of work. The type of workers’ comp insurance that your company will require depends on the type of industry that you operate in. For example, the construction industry requires workers’ compensation at all times after hiring one or more employees, which includes the company owner. On the other hand, most businesses in the non-construction industry will require workers’ compensation after employing at least four members of staff. Check out this article to learn more about the workers’ comp requirements for employees in Florida.

#6. Freelancers and Contractors:

Last but not least, it’s becoming more and more commonplace for small businesses to save money by taking on freelancers and self-employed contractors, rather than full-time staff. However, there’s still plenty to think about – while workers’ comp might not be required in this situation, you will still likely be required to draw up a contract between yourself and the contractor to lay out exactly what is expected from both parties. Although this type of relationship is generally a lot more flexible compared to full-time employees, it’s still a wise idea to get everything down in writing so that disputes can be avoided further down the line. Make sure that you include their status as a contractor rather than an employee, and specific details about any project(s) that you have brought them in to work on.

Hiring employees is often a vital step towards growth for your small business, but make sure that you are fully prepared before you start.