Posted on Mon, May 14, 2012 @ 10:07 AM
Workforce productivity is very important in business. Anything that effects workforce productivity positively or negatively directly affects the profitability and sustainability of the business. There are a number of factors that can improve workforce productivity in a small business. The business management needs to understand and implement these factors in order to motivate the work force for peak performance.
Accountability
Every employee needs to know that he or she will be held accountable for their decisions and actions. This will cause employees to be more conscientious and careful with their work, thereby doing a better job.
Follow up
Employers must follow up with employees on instructions and targets to ensure the job is being done as expected and that interim measures are taken if necessary. This will keep the employee on track to complete work assignments as expected and head off problems before it is too late for corrective action.
Manage the work force without micromanaging
Employees need to be managed, but also given a certain amount of freedom to use their talents and style to best deliver results. Micromanagement is a human tendency that is usually counterproductive. Employees must be allowed to think for themselves to produce the best results for their job.
Set realistic targets and goals
Production targets and goals should be challenging, but must also be realistic and achievable. If the targets and goals cannot be achieved they will discourage and burn out the employees rather than motivate them.
Use Work Teams to Accomplish More
Team work always improves workplace productivity, the more minds at work on a project the better the results. Team work brings out the best in employees by allowing them to compete with each other to do the best job possible.
Employees Must Enjoy their Work
Happy employees perform better than unhappy employees. In addition to good working conditions and a positive work culture the employer should find ways to make the work challenging and interesting so the employee enjoys the work. Cross training and rotating assignments will give employees a more holistic view of the business and break the monotony of always being assigned the same tasks, which will make the work more interesting and enjoyable.
The Right Tools and equipment Increase productivity
The latest technology for getting a particular job done quickly and efficiently will provide the most productivity and best utilize the employee’s talents and capabilities for completing assignments.
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Posted on Sun, May 06, 2012 @ 01:48 PM
Every company should develop a hiring system to fill vacant job positions. Using an effective hiring process to recruit new employees can help to ensure logical job placements that will benefit both the new hires and the company. Attracting well-qualified applicants to fill job openings in your organization should not be taken lightly.
1. Create a job description. This can apply to an existing or new position. The description should include required qualifications, preferred qualifications, and details about the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual aspects of the job opening. This information can be gleaned from the current job holder, coworkers, supervisors, and even clients or customers. Company administrators and HR personnel should review and edit the job description before it is posted.
2. Establish an interview panel. This may take the form of a committee or task force, and should include staff members who are trained in skilled interviewing techniques. For example, interviewers must know which questions cannot be legally asked, such as marital status. Interviewers should also understand the type of questions that can elicit meaningful responses that can aid in filling the position with the most qualified candidate.
3. Appoint application reviewers. These persons are equipped to analyze application materials, including resume or vita, application letter, references, and any other supporting documents. They know how to obtain previous employment information, legal records that are available for applicants, and perhaps review Internet websites posted by candidates or personal videos for this purpose.
A responsible hiring system is prepared to manage a job opening from its inception to its filling with the best applicant. Recruiting and retaining top-notch employees can cut turnover costs, reduce benefits expenses, and ensure a cooperative and productive workplace environment.
Photo: renjith krishnan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Posted on Mon, Apr 30, 2012 @ 09:59 AM
Filling job openings can be a laborious task. Not only does it take a monumental effort to get everyone to agree on the job description, but once it's posted, wading through all the paper cover letters and resumes in search of applicants who meet the minimum requirements can take hours upon hours of staff time.
Here are five ways online job applications can save your small business time and money:
Customize your application
In today's specialized employment world, it's important that you get the right information from the right job applicants. What you need to know about a communications professional is different than what you need to know about an engineer, for example. Having applicants apply online allows you to ask for and receive specific information for each position you have open. Want to know if a communications person has search with social media? Customize your application to ask them.
Search the applicants
Another nice thing about online job applications is that they are searchable. You can quickly find out who has the specific skills and experience you seek by doing an electronic query for key words or phrases. Anyone who has ever had to hire for a highly specialized or technical position can appreciate the time and cost savings of being able to quickly and effectively search applications.
Access anywhere
One of the most frustrating parts of trying to fill a key position within an organization is waiting for everyone involved--senior leadership, hiring managers, HR--to provide feedback on applicants. Online job applications make it easy to stay on schedule by allowing everyone involved access from anywhere in the world, as long as they have internet. No more waiting for people to get back from vacation or business trips.
Easily sortable
Online job applications can easily be sorted into groups. These groups can then be shared with the hiring committee, and each member can share their thoughts on a message board, meaning the hiring process can keep moving forward without those hard-to-schedule, time-and-money-consuming meetings.
Fast follow up
Once you have your top candidates selected, online job applications allow instant access to them. They applied online, which requires an email address, so they expect to be contacted electronically. They'll be checking their email frequently. No more phone tag or waiting to hear back from them to schedule interviews.
In business, time is money. Online job applications can save your business both.
Photo: renjith krishnan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Posted on Mon, Apr 23, 2012 @ 10:04 AM
Bringing new employees into your business is a necessary part of growing your company. Acclimating these new workers to your business work can, however, present a challenge. To make it easier for yourself to welcome these new workers into your established business, prepare a clear and easy-to-follow new hire checklist.
Interview Question Sheet
To ensure that you always have the perfect queries on hand each time you interview a potential new employee, put some time into creating the an interview question sheet. Gather standard interview questions, as well as some specific to your industry, and compile them into a list to use as an interview guide. While you don’t necessarily want to ask every question on the list each time you interview a potential new employee, you will likely find that just having the list helps make the interview process an easier one.
Paperwork Upfront
Filling out paperwork is no one’s idea of a good time; however, when you hire a new employee completing the necessary paperwork is a must, making this a vital item on your new hire checklist. Instead of delaying this paperwork portion of the process, make this the first thing your new employee does after receiving her job offer.
Plan Training Modules
Regardless of how much prior experience or education your new employee brings to the table, he will still have to become acclimated to the basics of your office, including how to operate different programs that you use heavily within your business. Prepare training modules in advance and assign some current workers to serve as trainers. Prepare these trainers by familiarizing them with the training material so whenever a new worker, or group of workers, comes into your company the training process will be a seamless one.
Probationary Period
After your shiny new employee is processed and trained, you can unleash her to perform the work for which she was hired. This does not, however, mean that you shouldn’t supervise her closely. As a final item on you new high checklist, determine a probationary period and create plans for more closely monitoring these new employees during these first weeks or months on the job.
By breaking down the new hire process into these manageable steps, you can make the task of bringing a new worker into your business easier and reduce the likelihood that you will forget an integral part of the new hire process.
Photo: David Castillo Dominici/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Posted on Mon, Apr 16, 2012 @ 10:00 AM
Guest Author: Jennifer King
In this day and age, we all have an Internet persona. With all the tweets and status updates, we’re all searchable in some way, shape or form. And, as we’ve all read in the news as of late, some hiring managers know this and try to take advantage of it to screen potential job candidates throughout the recruiting and interview process.
But what are hiring managers and recruiters actually hoping to accomplish by doing this? And what happens when they find something questionable?
I spoke with a lawyer/social media experts and a few recruiters to get their take on using social networks to check up on potential job candidates.
Why Do Recruiters Care?
With social media, recruiters can easily learn a lot more about a person than what’s on their resume, giving them better insight into the behaviors and personal lives of their candidates.
“Businesses and recruiters want to know as much as they can about a person who they may give a job offer,” says Eric Meyer, partner in the labor and employment group at Dilworth Paxson LLP. “But the real purpose behind screening is to make sure the person you’re hiring doesn’t have any red flags that would make them a bad fit or a potential liability for the business.”
Red flags for hiring managers will also likely vary for companies. Amy Henderson, account executive with Technisource, may check out a candidate’s Facebook page (if it’s public) to make sure they’re representing themselves in a way that doesn’t hinder their chances of being placed.
“If we find questionable photos or status updates, we’ll use that as a coaching opportunity and try to consult the candidate on his or her online reputation so the client [hiring company] doesn’t get the wrong idea when and if they choose to screen the candidate on social media sites.”
While recruiters have rejected candidates based on what they’ve found on a social network, some would prefer to give the candidate a chance to explain the reasoning behind it.
“I think it’s a good practice as an employer who’s doing really any kind of a background check to give candidates a chance to explain themselves,” Meyer adds. “Oftentimes there’s a story behind what was posted online or what might show up in a background check.”
A Few Reminders for Job Candidates
Whether they’re active on just one or multiple social media profiles, job seekers can’t assume anything they put online is private or restricted from employers.
“You may have privacy restrictions set up on Facebook and the like, and an employer may not be able to view what’s behind those privacy restrictions, but you never know how they might gain lawful access to that information,” says Meyer.
And if more hiring managers start demanding login information for candidates’ social networking profiles, employers will have more to worry about than what’s on a job seeker’s Facebook profile, such as the legality of accessing electronic information without authorization, or the of risk losing top talent due to a perceived lack of trust.
“Employers run the risk that if they require job candidates to relinquish Facebook logins and passwords as a condition of employment, those candidates will respond by removing their names from consideration,” Meyer says. “At the moment the company requests that private information, it projects a lack of trust, which is a bad building block for an employer-employee relationship.”
What other tips do you have for job seekers trying to maintain a positive online perception?
Photo:
Jennifer King is an HR Analyst who writes about human resource management software for Software Advice, a company that compares and reviews HR systems. She writes about trends, best practices, and technology in the HR market.
Posted on Mon, Apr 09, 2012 @ 09:21 AM
Finding the right person to fill a job can be a challenge. To ensure the success of your company and keep productivity at its highest, you have to hire people who are not only capable of doing the job, but also committed to giving 100-percent on every task you assign. Top employees strive to do their best and make your company shine.
Hiring top-notch people means looking for job candidates with the following good employee traits:
- Consistent Initiative: Top on the list of good employee traits is the initiative to move forward without prodding. Some employees sit back and wait for you to tell them what to do. They may pitch in a helping hand or do extra work but only if you ask them to do so. Your company has a better chance of thriving when it's staffed by people who take the initiative to identify areas in which they can help and then perform the necessary tasks. These are people committed to contributing in every situation and going the extra mile.
- Reliability: There's little worse than expecting an employee to perform a task or show up on time but getting disappointed repeatedly. Your company's productivity and overall success depends on having employees who do what they promise to each time.
- Team Focus: While you want employees who are motivated to help your company succeed, you don't want those who seek success at the expense of others. Employees who work as team players are motivated to do their best and help others realize their full potential. They're the first to pitch in a helping hand or say a kind word to a coworker. Their team spirit is often contagious, so they keep your other employees motivated as well.
- Performance Excellence: When you're looking for workers with good employee traits, reliable performance is critical. Some employees perform well some of the time or under certain conditions. Your company's success depends on having employees who provide top-notch performance with every assignment.
- Pleasant Personality: Having a diligent worker won't mean as much if the person you hire doesn't have a pleasant personality. People who have pleasant personalities put others at ease and serve with smiles on their faces and in their hearts. Your other employees will enjoy working with them, your customers will rave about the service they provide and you will feel comfortable knowing your business is in their capable hands.
Photo: renjith krishnan/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Posted on Mon, Apr 02, 2012 @ 09:07 AM
In order for a business to flourish, it's important to establish and retain a solid base of quality employees. Otherwise, a high turnover rate can often inhibit productivity and ultimately hurt the growth of a business. Fortunately, it's often possible to improve retention and avoid replacing hourly workers by following a few guidelines.
Perhaps the most effective way to keep hourly workers around is by maintaining open communication. For example, you might want to schedule periodic meetings where employees can discuss any pertinent issues and give suggestions on how business practices can be optimized. It can also be beneficial to allow employees the chance to give you or your managerial staff constructive criticism and other feedback. Providing an outlet of communication and ensuring that each worker's voice is heard often makes workers feel valued and can improve retention.
Another way to avoid replacing hourly workers is to give these individuals the opportunity for growth within your company. This could involve offering promotions to workers who have proven their loyalty and professionalism. Besides this, you could offer training to employees in order to develop a new skill. In many cases, workers who see the potential for growth and advancement will choose to stick around for the long run. On the other hand, employees who don't see an avenue for growth sometimes lose ambition and are more likely to leave for better opportunities.
Along with this, it's important to make sure that you or your managerial staff effectively communicates with workers on a consistent basis. For example, you or your managers should provide workers with clear expectations and feedback on their job performance. Essentially, workers should have a full understanding of what is expected and how they can perform their jobs successfully.
In addition, it doesn't hurt to provide hourly workers with some type of motivational benefits or financial incentives when possible. This could involve offering an annual bonus to employees who consistently reach sales goals and exceed expectations. You could also provide workers with some added perks such as catered lunches and coupons for local businesses. While these types of perks are simple, they can often help boost morale and increase retention.
Photo: Grant Cochrane/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Posted on Mon, Mar 26, 2012 @ 09:57 AM
There are thousands of employment tests, and thousands of job types—how can you know which test to use for hiring for which job? The process starts with deciding what you want to accomplish. Where do you have room for improvement? In many hourly positions, important outcomes include productivity, retention, involuntary termination, safety, service quality, and sales volume, among others. Right now there might be higher priorities than reducing turnover. Using tests to screen for generically better employees doesn’t work very well. You need to define “better.”
Think in terms of a three-level model of job information. Employers specify the first two: outcomes and behaviors. Choose outcomes that are worth the effort, and then identify employee behaviors that produce them. For example, behaviors such as working faster, taking limited breaks, taking initiative to start work, and following through to completion are behaviors that roll up across a workforce to the outcome of higher productivity.
Take the example of workplace safety. The outcome of interest is reducing the cost of accidents and injuries, including insurance premiums and days off the job. The behaviors that lead to cost reduction are following safety practices, working carefully, avoiding shortcuts or goofing off, paying close attention and staying focused, and returning to work quickly after a safety incident.
The third level of information is the foundation of the first two: To choose appropriate tests, you need to find those that measure the human KSAPs (Knowledge, Skill, Ability, and Personal Characteristics) that underlie the required behaviors. The core principle is that KSAP-traits lead to behaviors. A test doesn’t literally measure behavior. It measures skills or traits that predict behavior. You know what behaviors are important; you need to find tests that link to those behaviors.
This might require consulting with an Industrial Psychologist who has expertise in assessment, or you could make that judgment from the test publishers’ materials. To improve safety performance, a test would measure traits of rule-following, attentiveness, boredom avoidance, impulse control, orderliness, and cautiousness. People who score higher on the test have more of these traits and will exhibit more of the related behaviors.
To use tests that make a valuable contribution, link the three levels: Define your intended outcome, figure out what individuals’ behaviors will get there, and find a test that measures the traits that lead to those behaviors.
Posted on Mon, Mar 19, 2012 @ 10:02 AM
There's much more to motivating someone than money. Income and occasional bonuses are certainly influential in an employee's overall drive in the business world, but in order to inspire someone to reach his or her full potential several other employee engagement factors can help to bring your work force to its peak performance.
1. An employee needs to feel purposeful
The secret to tapping into an employee's underused creativity or ingenuity can start with simple praise. Employees want to know that what they're doing is being recognized and that they're well-received by the organization and those they work with. If an employee doesn't know that they're hard work is appreciated then he or she will be less inclined to put forth the effort necessary in excelling the business. If employees are congratulated and smiled upon for having done their part in ways beyond simply being paid, they'll be more likely to be consistently effective.
2. Building beneficial professional relationships
Employees should feel they're working with equally stimulated and cooperative coworkers. Having a positive working relationship with other employees of an equally serious mindset can drastically increase their productivity. They'll know they're working with competent employees and will be driven to achieve and keep up the same level of competency, or perhaps to shoot beyond it. Employees together need to feel a part of an overall team in order to truly work together.
3. Employees should know their work is actively doing something
The last thing an employee wants is to never see where their efforts are going. They shouldn't be left in the dark about the company's progress in relation to their own. Showing an employee specific areas and changes in results that are forming can help them to understand how they're affecting the organization. Comprehensive examining of an individual, looking in which areas they need to improve as much as where they're succeeding, will help them lend even more to the work force.
4. Working for proper leaders
One of the most important employee engagement factors is strong leadership. A true leader of any business will have the reputation among the work force to back it up. A good leader will be known as someone who respects his or her employees and will belong to a sturdy web of leaders who are just as reputable. There is no reason why a company's leadership should fault when it comes to motivating the team, and in order to thrive a successful business requires tough yet thoughtful leadership.
5. Working for a strong business
Right beside leadership and as a result of it, another one of the biggest employee engagement factors is for the employees to know they're working for a more than competent organization. In addition to leaders who know what they're doing and can help to lead the business, it's important for the business itself to be driven, clear and sound in its goals, and for it to have a well thought-out plan for the future that can help guide it. An organization that doesn't stand up too well can mean that employees will be more uncertain about the direction in which they're headed and can lead to drops in motivation.
Employee engagement factors are plentiful outside of monetary means. Employees want to succeed and will want the business to succeed as well if a proper professional relationship between the employees, their leaders and their work efforts are reached. Appealing to individual skills and abilities utilizing beneficial employee engagement factors, recognizing what makes each employee a crucial cog in the machine, will strengthen an organization tremendously.
Photo: Kromkrathog/FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Posted on Mon, Mar 12, 2012 @ 10:01 AM
Competent, productive and loyal people are an organization's most valuable asset. Finding the best fit for each position is not an easy task for business owners, human resource managers and recruiters. Although still in use, the traditional ways of recruiting involve tedious processes and review methods that can be time-consuming. In this electronic age, the hiring process is fast shifting to the next level with the use of online employment application software.
Advantages
Online employment application software streamlines the hiring process for both applicant and employer. It is a paperless job application process that allows applicants to submit their resume and other relevant details to job boards and websites from anywhere any time of the day. By valuing job seekers and making it easy for them, you need to start it right in order to attract the best candidates who might have shied away if it was too complicated and took much of their time.
For employers, online recruitment is a cost effective and time saving hiring process especially for small and mid-sized businesses. There is no need for extra staff to man application counters, minimizing additional manpower costs. It eliminates the need for their human resource staff to manually enter data as the applicants do the data entry themselves, saving precious time that can be used for more productive tasks. Employers are assured of employee longevity, efficiency and productivity because only the most qualified are chosen through a careful matching of qualifications and job functions. Depending on the type of business that you have, a suitable recruitment tool enhances the quality and quantity of the company's applicant pool from which candidates can be conveniently drawn as the need arises.
How The System Works
The main functions of a good online employment application software are sourcing, assessing, and interviewing applicants. Good sources can be the company job website, job fairs, onsite hiring events, external job boards, advertisements and social media. Social media networking is one of the most effective sources of candidates because it allows you to connect with companies and professionals in the same niche or industry you are in as well as with qualified candidates whom you can add to your applicant pool.
Assessing is getting to know applicants better by digging into their work history and behavioral tendencies. This is an important step in the hiring process because potential employees need to be trained before they are allowed to assume their positions. Training is expensive and if wrong assessments are made and the wrong candidates are hired, losses are sure be incurred. You can save time and money for your company by carefully determining the best fit and discharging candidates who are not qualified or offering them alternative positions.
There's more to it than what can be seen on the resume. Most of the time, resumes are enhanced to make them appealing to employers. Interviewing the candidates to get information about themselves firsthand is a necessary process to validate their resumes. An effective online employment application software includes a comprehensive interview guide to ensure perfect matches between qualifications and jobs. Since businesses exist for profits, interviewers should be able to elicit candidates' work ethics and attitudes toward work, making sure that these candidates will be valuable assets rather than liabilities to the company.
Great employees make up a great company and it starts with a great hiring process. Hiring is a crucial business chore and is as competitive as selling or providing services. Whether you are an entrepreneur, retailer or service provider, recruiting is now made easier, quicker and more purposeful by online employment application software.
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