Category: Newsletter

Tips, Advice and Newsletter for Managers, Executive, Leaders, Employers

How to Hire Collaborative People

In today’s densely interconnected workplaces, employees work in teams of all types — virtual, task force, and ad hoc combinations. and a company’s success hinges on workers’ ability to collaborate, share knowledge, and handle conflict productively within teams. as a manager, you need to help foster a culture where these things can blossom.
One way to do this is to hire for collaboration. Make sure candidates are interviewed by as many people as possible. (If all interviewers approve, a candidate is likely promising. And if hired, the newcomer will have an instant network for collaboration.) During interviews, present real-life work scenarios to candidates and ask how they’d respond. Their answers will provide invaluable insight into whether they prefer to work collaboratively or independently

Five Traits of A Great Leader

Here are five things you can do to succeed as a great leader:
  1. Instead of commanding, coach your team and organization toward success.
  2. Don’t manage people, empower them. The know-how, experience, and solutions are often out there; it’s a matter of helping people discover them.
  3. Cultivate respect by giving it, instead of demanding it.
  4. Know how to manage both success and failure.
  5. Show graciousness in your management, rather than greediness. Be humble about your successes, and whenever possible, give someone else the opportunity to shine.

How Staffing Agencies Can Save you Time and Money

There are a number of ways that staffing agencies can assist you in hiring the right talent for every job opening, but essentially they act as an extension of your existing human resources department. If your HR department consists of only you, the owner, then outsourcing some of your hiring practices can be a tremendous boost to both your productivity and your sanity.

Certain HR decisions, like hiring, can be overwhelming and often bring no immediate monetary return to your company. And hiring the wrong person can have a lasting impact on company morale, productivity and the bottom line. Here just a few ways staffing agencies can take the headache out of hiring.

Easier to Find Employees with Specific Talent

While you probably know your industry very well, you may be hopeless when it comes to understanding some of the niche roles in your company. If you’re not a writer or a designer, you may not know how to attract the right marketing professional to your team. If you’re looking to launch an annual fundraiser, you’ll need an event planner who can help realize your vision. Staffing agencies can help you identify and contact talented individuals you might not know how to find. They can help you assess employees, check their references and identify candidates who will fit your needs.

Reduce the Cost of New Hire, Bad Hires

Hiring any employee is a large investment of time, effort and resources to post a job, screen applicants, interview and then train a new employee. Staffing agencies take that cost out of your hand when you contract their services. Yes, it requires a relatively hefty fee to actually work with the recruiting company, but think about it in long term.

Additionally, using a staffing agency can drastically reduce your chances of making the wrong hire. The Department of Labor estimates the cost of replacing a employee to be one-third of their salary. However, hiring the wrong employee and fixing the mistake within 6 months can cost as much as 2.5 times the person’s salary. Even at $40,000 a year, that is a $120,000 mistake, including their salary.  Isn’t that worth the cost of doing it right the first time?

A Motivated Job Search

Let’s face it: there are a number of tasks that you would prefer to do instead of combing through resumes and applications for the right hire. Many small business owners will drag out the process, costing themselves more money as they struggle by without the proper staff.  Since you’re paying them to find the right employees, a staffing firm will not suffer from a lack of motivation. And since they can only compete on their reputations, these agencies have become skilled at weeding out potential job candidates who are not properly motivated or lack the skills necessary for a specific job. Since they are working for you, not a jobseeker, a recruitment agency will work to assess potential employees to make sure they’re a perfect fit. This will help you cut down the risk of a bad hire, while also minimizing the time and effort spent identifying quality candidates.

Write a To-Do List That Works

If you’r like most people, you’ve got some tasks on your to-do list that you just dread tackling. If tasks seem overwhelming, it’s usually because you’re looking at them as whole projects, rather than individual tasks. To create an approachable to-do list, break each project down into bite-size, easy-to-complete actions.

For example, planning a launch meeting consists of small tasks like emailing participants and reserving a meeting room. if you write all those small tasks on your to-do list rather than the daunting “plan the launch meeting”, you’ll find them much easier to take care of because each one won’t require much thought or time. Complete enough of these small tasks and your big project will soon be done.

Four Tips to Improve Your Team’s Performance

Managing your team’s performance is a challenge no matter what the environment. Take the extra time and effort to help your team successd in what will likely be a tough year for all.

  • Give your team much-needed perspective. Relive pressure by encouraging them to have fun, and remind them work is not the only thing in their lives.
  • Spend time with all your team members, not just the stars. It’s easy to focus on A+ performers, but success relies on everyone doing his or her job well.
  • When something doesn’t go as planned, acknowledge the setback and move on.
  • Focus on team sucess. Celebrate what you have accomplished together, rather than individual achievements.