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Management Strategies

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The job of management has never been more important. Finding ways to keep the company flourishing, while at the same time keeping the employees and customers happy, is not only management’s job, it is the key to the success of the business.

In this troubled economy, keeping spending to a minimum is very important. Making every company dollar work to the fullest will taking planning and strategy, with all employees from the lowest paid to the highest level of management participating completely.

Start by keeping everyone informed. Employees who are constantly worried about their jobs are not performing at their best. Have frequent meetings, let everyone know where they are doing great, as well as where improvement is needed. Good strong leadership will be able to spot the potential problems, settle them quickly, and keep everyone on the right track.

The management team should be hiring the people who are good for the job, as well as training them well, making sure they are well versed in all aspects of the job they have signed on to do. A good team is able to communicate well with one another, being able to ask questions and knowing that someone knowledgeable will be able to answer their questions. Marketing your business in tough times will take some pretty clever planning. Make sure you have a marketing team that is up to the challenge.

Businesses can survive a recession. No one knows how long it will last, but a smart management team can help their employees weather the storm, and be a better team because of it.

Filed Under: Business, Management Tagged With: , ,

Locating Your Next Great Employee

Generating applicants to your open positions may or may not be a problem for you. But for many employers generating applicants that will become your next great employee that is going to stick around can be difficult. For many employers this requires a wide search, that includes a number of ways that you contact possible employees.

for many employers the best employees move up the ladder and fill a position a little bit longer than it takes to train them into that position. Of course as an employer you want to keep successful people moving through your company but with a job market that is having fewer jobs for a large population it would seem the statistics are in favor of the employer. That may be true but how do you find those employees.

It is important today to look for employees through electronic means. Yes, that means the internet. There are plenty of companies that will charge you to help you find employees but that isn’t the only option. There are many job boards that do not charge you a large sum to search for employees. Put your advertisement out there on these job boards but include a link to your website.

It is important to keep most of the information for employment on your website, so that you the possible applicant gets more information about your business. Getting the right employee to apply for the job starts with this information. If an applicant knows a bit about your company, they can more easily explain to you how they can help you. the employees are out there, you just need to communicate with them.

Filed Under: Business, Spending Tagged With: , ,

Employers Give up the Goods to Keep the Good Ones

Retention is a big word to some companies. It means to keep something, and what the businesses want to keep is good employees. Employee retention is something many business owners are considering these days, and they’re coming up with good answers.
Even though the recession is looking up – or that’s what they say – only trickles of hiring have been seen. More people are getting jobs, but that’s like five more (exaggerated to make a point), not enough to say that hiring is up.
Google plans to hire 6,000 more people and Facebook just started construction on a new plant in arid Prineville, Oregon. These companies have a lot of money and they spend a lot on their employees, with scooters to go from meeting to meeting, foosball and ping pong tables scattered around the workspace and in-house health clinics, they do not have a hard time  keeping good workers.
Raises are on the Low, Retention is on the Rise

Nobody else is Google or Facebook, though. Small businesses are the ones most at risk these days, and they not only can’t afford to hire, they can’t even afford deserving raises and bonuses. They have to find a way to keep their employees happier there than they could be elsewhere. That’s where retention comes in. Retention can be spendy, but works best in the long run.
There isn’t a business owner alive who doesn’t care if their employee turnover is high. It takes money to train each person that’s brought in, and it takes work away from others so they can help train the person, slowing production. If turnover is too high they’ll lose money and service will be bad because people are in training all the time.
They’re giving away memberships to spas, gyms and wholesale retail stores like Costco, and employees are getting musical instrument lessons, discounts on products, movie tickets, gift certificates to restaurants, Ski lift tickets, passes to children’s activities like the zoo, museums, community farms, and all kinds of great things. Does it work? It must; everyone with a staff is doing it.
Filed Under: Business, Hiring Tagged With: , ,

Job Hunting Isn’t the Same Anymore

Job hunting has completely changed from what it was 20 years ago. People used to make looking for a job a 40-hours-a-week, pounding the pavement until their legs and feet ached. Rain, snow or sunshine, people had to go.
Now, it comes as a shock for the over 50 crowd that’s job hunting. A person can go out and attempt to apply at every place they walk into, but they’ll be told over and over, “Go to our website to apply.”
No longer are the days when someone has to get up at the crack of dawn to make sure they’re out there on time to be the first applicant. Now, the routine is more like this; wake up when rested, get coffee, sit at computer, fill out applications and post the resume. Do this all day, making sure to take breaks and for lunch, and stop at 5pm.
Ready, Set, Stay Home to Job Hunt

People can post their resume at a number of sites that are regularly trawled by employers and talent scouts. These sites are well-known and millions of resumes are stored, making it the jackpot find for employers looking for potential new hires. People can highlight a specialty and change the resume to appeal to different professions, which can help a great deal.
Hiring over the Internet helps everyone involved. It helps the applicant, because not only can he sleep until 10 and apply in his pajamas, but he can get his resume out to more companies online than he ever could on foot. As for employers, it helps them because they can sit to look at the potential hires when there’s time to, and not because one happened to come into the business. They aren’t interrupted and can take care of business as they can.
It also benefits the employer because now the boss can search through the resumes for the people with the best experience and skills, without having to interview every one that comes in the door. Again, they can take their time.
So, take it easy, look for work online.
Filed Under: Business, Hiring Tagged With: , ,

Corporate University

There are a multitude of reasons for a medium to large sized company to invest in in-house training in what could be referred to as ‘corporate university’.

  1. It is a great means to ensure that employees have met certain guidelines or restrictions. For example, if the members of the Healthcare division are required to review and sign-off on HIPAA guidelines, special curriculum can be developed to communicate those guidelines and have them electronically signed by the employee.
  2. It can offer a means for employees to familiarize themselves with other products and services offered by the company in local and remote offices. Familiarity with these products and services can enable staff members to cross-train and truly be in a position to solve seemingly un-related problems as they arise.
  3. It can offer new strategies and differing points-of-view from one department/division to the next. Areas of expertise can be paid forward as new means of achieving goals that might have previously been unheard of. What if financial know-how was brought to bear on a software design problem, for example. What might the result be?
  4. It can offer new skills and practical knowledge that might otherwise only be offered through separate courses offered at college or university. Principles of accounting, systems analysis and project management are some of the fundamentals that can be learned during down-time that will benefit the company and the individual.
The key to providing a corporate university is empowering employees to be self-motivated and have the ability to solve their own problems. This can lead to a staff that is more efficient, has increased job satisfaction, experiences lower turnover and is altogether better at mitigating risk on the projects that they are faced with.
When the majority of a company’s employees are trusted and enabled to perform in this manner, the end result is a team that not only meets goals but exceeds expectations.
Filed Under: Business Tagged With: ,

Success Profile

The job market is tougher than ever, for both employer, employee and unemployed. With high unemployment rates remaining as the status quo, at least for the foreseeable future, the question arises: How does a company match the job that needs to be done with the staff to do it?
The answer is the creation of a Success Profile.
Success Profiles are tools that can be used by Human Resources Personnel and Department Managers to take a snapshot of the skills, traits and behaviors that they believe are necessary in order to fill a certain role within the company. The profiles are meant to be used as a model to measure the current staff against in order to provide guidance for future development AND also as a checklist when the demand increases and more people are required to fill the gaps in employment.
What should be included in the Success Profile?
1. What skills does the person have? What knowledge do they bring to the table? How do their knowledge and skills compliment each other?
2. What has the person done in the past? What problems have they solved that are similar to what they’ll be working on currently? What previous experience can be leveraged?
3. What can this person do in the future? Are there any particular areas or direction that they have indicated they would like to focus on? Do they see the position as only temporary and therefore, only worth a half-hearted work effort?
4. What is their personality like? What are some of the more important facets of their behavior? Can a negative personality trait be turned into a positive while on the job?
When questions and answers such as these have been documented, managing the human resources will be a less daunting task because the manager will have a score-card on hand to assist him.
Filed Under: Business Tagged With: ,

Are You Offering Benefits in your Business?

Are You Offering Benefits in your Business?

One of the biggest debates that exists when it comes to running or operating a business is what types of salaries and other benefits you should offer your employees. What side of the fence are you on? Here is an interesting trade off that you should consider when it comes to hiring staff for your company. The better the benefits that you offer, the higher quality the staff will be that you hire. So while you may be spending more money on a monthly or annual basis to offer your staff the best possible benefits, the trade off is that there will be more competition when you are hiring someone new, and you will be given a chance to hire a higher quality staff. Because you are offering higher caliber benefits, you can afford to be picky with who you hire.

The truth is that you are going to need to find a happy medium between what your employees want and deserve, and what you feel comfortable offering. You should offer paid vacation time, health and dental benefits and other benefits or incentives that will draw in higher caliber workers. You are much more likely going to attract workers with extensive experience and degrees when you are offering benefits and salaries that are commiserate with their experience and education. This is the best way to make sure you are being given the “pick of the litter” when it comes to your potential workforce.

If the salaries that you offer are less than competitive, or if you are not offering good benefits, then you will struggle to bring in good talent for your company. The trade offs are well worthwhile when you consider the benefits on both sides of the coin on this particular issue and determine which is best going to benefit your business.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: , , ,

Paid Time Off (PTO) Guidelines for Human Resources

Paid Time Off (PTO) Guidelines for Human Resources

The purpose behind PTO or Paid Time Off is to provide your company’s employees with a flexible amount of paid time away from work that they can use to meet a variety of different needs including family illness, personal illness, vacation, school, doctor’s appointments, volunteerism and any other activities at the choice of the employees. The goal of the company should be to use PTO in order to reduce any unscheduled absences and to reduce supervisory oversight as well.

The PTO days may be accrued in different ways depending on your company, such as bi-weekly or monthly in hourly increments depending on the employee’s length of service with the company. Each employee could have a bank of PTO hours that they can keep track of, and then tap into when they need to do so. When PTO is taken, the number of hours arranged will be subtracted from the accrued bank of PTO time in the form of one-hour increments. Typically a business will not give PTO to temporary, contract or intern employees unless under special circumstances.

Ultimately it is up to you as a business owner to decide who can accrue PTO, how much they can accrue and how they can accrue their PTO hours. You may decide only to give PTO hours to your full time employees, or may decide to let full time and part time employees accrue paid time off hours at different rates. You are not obligated to offer PTO hours at all, but this is a benefit that, when offered, will help you attract a more attractive work force, because offering good benefits allows you to bring in better talent. If you want a higher quality work force, offering vacation or PTO benefits is a great way to make your company more attractive.

Filed Under: Business Tagged With: , , ,

Business Tips: Increasing Productivity Through Incentives

It might sound a bit silly to have to reward employees for doing their job but many companies are finding out that incentive programs are actually very beneficial when it comes to increasing the productivity of their employees.

The idea of work based incentives goes back hundreds of years ago. However, due to the increase competition within the market companies are working more than every to entice their employees to work faster, better and harder than ever.

If you are looking to start a work based incentive program in your company there are a number of ways that you can offer incentives. Here is a look at some work based incentive programs that companies have developed.

General Contests. General contests are work based incentives that allow any employee who reaches a specific level within the company to be entered into the contest. This general line is usually the company’s “bottom line” that they expect workers to work at. It encourages everyone to work at a level that will keep the business in operation.

Achievement Incentives. Companies have started to develop achievement incentives. These are usually contests or rewards that are given to special employees that have gone above and beyond what the company asks for in regards to work. These type of incentives encourage employees to work beyond the norm in order to get that extra special incentive.

End of the Year Bonuses. Employees need to have incentives to keep working hard all throughout the year and that is where the yearend bonus comes in. Companies will look at an employee’s overall work history for the year and reward incentives, usually cash for a job well done. The bonus will be based off of a number of factors and will keep the employees wanting to do a good job all year long.

Filed Under: Business, Management Tagged With: , , ,

A Guide to Creating an Effective Employee Training Program

CHENGDU, CHINA - JANUARY 12: Job seekers line...
Image by Getty Images via @daylife

A Guide to Creating an Effective Employee Training Program

Have you ever experienced an employee training seminar where you completed the session and felt as if you knew even less walking out of the program then when you walked in there? This is a major sign that the employee training program that was developed for that particular program was either ineffective or not planned out. What many businesses do not realize is that employee training programs take a bit of planning in order to create an effective and useful training employee program.

If you are looking to develop an effective employee training program it is a good idea to keep some of these factors in mind.

Focus on the Important Facts. A lot of employee training programs try to teach a lifetime of learning into a matter of a few hours or a few days. The fact of the matter is that most employees will not remember or retain all this information. As a business it is a good idea to sit down and figure out exactly what is important information that any employee should know and focus on that. The rest of the training can come later.

Make it Fun. Just because you are training the employees does not mean that you have to make them fell as if they are back in school. Try to make the employee training program fun and exciting. This will encourage employees to learn and it will give a good impression of your company to future employees.

Remember Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day. Remember that all employees are going to learn at a different pace. Do not expect every employee to learn all the information in one training session. Some will fly through the training courses and be star employees in no time, others will take time to develop. A little patience goes a long way during training sessions.

Filed Under: Business, Hiring Tagged With: , , ,
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