Employers

09 Mar How to Motivate Employees

Posted at 07:00h in Employers, Small Business Owners, Startups

People look for new jobs for a variety of reasons. If they’re just entering the job market, say, straight from college, their primary motivation might be to just get experience, even if the pay isn’t great. For others, they might be looking for more flexible work hours, or an opportunity for promotion. But whatever the reason for looking for a new job, one of the ways to keep people at the current job is to keep them encouraged. It's important to know how to motivate employees, not just lead them. Often feeling encouraged at work can be more important than an incremental raise, more vacation days, or other purely economic benefits. For most of us, the paycheck matters, but money isn’t everything.

Here are some ways to motivate employees:

24 Feb How to Hire Millennials

Posted at 07:00h in Employers, Small Business Owners, Startups

Everyone under 40 is entitled. Or is it ambitious? A self-starter? Or addicted to social media? If you want to hire millennials, you might have to get past the sound bite and learn more about this segment of the workforce. What motivates them, what value they bring, how to engage them might not be as intimidating (or frustrating) as it sounds.

If you want to hire Millennials, consider this:

03 Feb Run, Don’t Walk: Signs of a Great Job Candidate

Posted at 07:00h in Employers, Small Business Owners, Startups

Hiring people isn't fun. It seems like it ought to be -- you meet lots of new people, you get a chance to give someone a new job, there's something empowering about choosing among applicants. . .but it's not that. What it is -- tiring, stressful, disappointing, confusing, nerve-wracking -- and that's if you're doing it right. Finding a great job candidate is a mix of investigation, instinct, inquiry and experience. Someone seems great, but everyone is putting their best face forward. You know the talent mix that you want, but can you afford it? If not, what do you sacrifice? See -- hiring people is not fun.

If you're looking for a great job candidate, here are some clues.

20 Jan Small Potatoes, Big Talent: Small Business Hiring

Posted at 07:00h in Employers, Small Business Owners, Startups

Ok, so your company is not GE or AT&T. In fact, your business might be just you. But if you’re small and growing, you can find ways to attract great employees without an HR department or a big LinkedIn budget. There are potential hires out there, you just might have to look a little harder.

Here are some tips for small business hiring:

06 Jan Keeping it in the Family: What to Consider When Hiring Relatives

Posted at 07:00h in Employers, Small Business Owners, Startups

You’re the boss. You get to make all the decisions. Or at least that’s what your Aunt Edna told you at Thanksgiving. Just before she reminded you that your cousin Teddy, who just graduated last May, is a great guy and a hard worker. At least he would be, if he just had a job.

Here are some things to consider when hiring relatives.

23 Dec Lead On — What to Do to Be a Great Boss

Posted at 07:00h in Employers, Small Business Owners, Startups

Whether you run a small department or the whole company, how to be a great boss means a lot of different things. Making sales targets, managing budgets and supervising team members, are just a handful of everyday obligations. But being a good leader is often associated with being an effective manager of people. As cliché as it might sound, a company’s most valuable resource is often its people, so taking care of the most important asset should be the chief concern of every boss.

Here are some ways to be a great boss:

09 Dec ‘Tis the Season – Hiring Seasonal Workers

Posted at 10:00h in Employers, Small Business Owners, Startups

The holiday season is well underway, as we are constantly reminded by commercials, sales, decorations and red-suited welcomers at every store. If your business sees an uptick this time of year, it is not too late to consider hiring seasonal workers. While the obvious businesses are retailers, a whole slew of different companies see more activity this time of year. Some organizations want financial advisors to review their accounts at the year end. Other companies see a surge in manufacturing and packing. Caterers, photographers and event planners are in demand for company holiday parties and family gatherings. And within retail, it’s not just more cashiers at the registers, but more stockers, delivery people (UPS announced that it planned to hire as many as 95,000 temporary workers this season), security personnel and customer representatives. Especially needed is help with online sales, as nearly half of Americans plan to do at least part of their shopping via the Internet. Hiring for this time of year begins as early as October, but the positions can last well into January (someone has to handle all those returns and post-holiday sales).

Hiring seasonal workers for the holidays can be entirely manageable if you plan and are organized.

25 Nov Speak up: How to Give a Good Performance Review

Posted at 07:00h in Employers, Small Business Owners, Startups

Bosses dread it. Direct reports dread it even more. It’s often unhelpful, always stressful and happens every year. It’s annual performance reviews. The idea of offering feedback to your team comes from a good place, a great place actually. In a perfect world, you would have a comfortable conversation about how the past year had gone, what your direct report feels they accomplished and where they would like to improve. You would have a concise but thorough document outlining their important projects, where they had demonstrated leadership and how they could plan for the coming year. If only it were that easy.

But here are some tips on how to give a good performance review:

11 Nov Create Office Cheer: Here are 5 of the Best Company Perks

Posted at 07:00h in Employers, Small Business Owners, Startups

For decades, many companies have provided employees with benefits like pensions, medical insurance and vacation. But in recent years, employers are getting more creative in what they offer. Useful perks – things really perceived as having value – can increase morale and encourage loyalty. And not all ideas have to be a huge investment.

Here are five of the best company perks that can really matter:

28 Oct Hire someone you know: Five Recommended Background Checks on Potential Employees

Posted at 07:00h in Employers, Small Business Owners, Startups

There have often been comparisons, rightly or wrongly, to hiring employees and finding dates. Both require a certain mutual positive chemistry, shared interests and alignment of goals. Many can result in long-term relationships. But whereas it can be a bit touchy to run a criminal background search, do a credit check and interview references on a date, it might well be best business practices before sharing computer passwords with your next employee. An applicant can look great on paper and sound fantastic in an interview without ever tipping off that they have a less than stellar past. Some of that might not be a cause for concern – after all, do you really want to hold against someone an arrest for a student protest from decades before? But people are aware of the stakes when they are applying for a job, and can selectively forget to mention criminal histories and financial difficulties that can take them out of the running. It is also not unusual for people to get “creative about their educational or professional pasts – a correspondence course gets reinvented into a four year degree, a summer internship is elongated into a two year role. Whether it is truly misleading or just poor judgment, it can be an important step in your hiring process to ensure that you have independently researched your potential employee. In fact three-quarters of small businesses now conduct background checks.