Tag Archives: Employment

Secrets to Successful Job Posts in LinkedIn Groups

Promoting terrific job opportunities is serious business. And nothing is more serious about business than LinkedIn, the professional networking site.

With over 200 million members—in 200 countries—LinkedIn has truly become a global phenomenon. More than 2.6 million businesses now have LinkedIn Company pages, making it a valuable resource for employers, employees and job seekers.

LinkedIn Groups can play a significant role in your recruiting strategy as millions of potential employees add their profiles each year.

LinkedIn: A Matter of Trust

The biggest reason for LinkedIn’s popularity is trust; users look to if for accuracy and veracity. In a recent survey of LinkedIn users, 47 percent say they rely on the site for real word of mouth info on brand experiences; 87 percent trust LinkedIn when making critical business decisions.

This reputation for truthfulness makes LinkedIn a natural for recruiters and candidates—both active and passive—to turn to when looking for quality job posts and genuine career advancement.

Image: commons.wikimedia.org

Network with Professionals in LinkedIn Groups

One of the most popular LinkedIn features is LinkedIn Groups. Groups are where professionals with similar interests, or in the same industry, can share content, place job posts, establish business contacts, and shape reputations as industry experts.

LinkedIn Groups are ideal for employers to network and recruit exceptional talent. Fostering LinkedIn contacts is an effective way to refer potential employees and establish contact for difficult-to-fill positions.

It is just like face-to-face networking, but considerably easier and with a significantly larger reach.

Several Ways to add Job Posts to LinkedIn Groups

As a member of a group, you have three options:

Use the LinkedIn Commercial Job Posting Service for job posts.
Search for an existing job post and share it with the group.
Add a job post to the Jobs Discussion tab.

Even though LinkedIn gives a company different ways to promote job posts, the most effective is the commercial job posting service. Remember, for this method, there are fees involved. The cost for a job post depends on the geographical location. To find out how much it will be for a single job post, go to the Post a Job page. Then enter the location of the job at the bottom of the page.

Employers can also buy a 30-day listing for a job post, or purchase a discounted 5- or 10-pack of job credits.

The Job Discussions Tab

Group members can share and discuss job posts from outside the LinkedIn job post service in the Jobs Discussions tab of the group. A job post on the job discussions tab is easy; simply copy and paste the short-URL into a post in LinkedIn Groups. Job seekers can follow the link back to the original job post to apply.

The job post link will refer interested candidates to the company website or other location, such as posts through Ovation Technologies. Ovation helps you broadcast posts to a wide range of social networks (including LinkedIn), as well as job boards, social media and more.

Although there is no charge for posting on a group’s discussion tab, timing is limited. The page automatically removes the job post after 14 days.

Best Practices for Job Posts in LinkedIn Groups

If you can, put a LinkedIn share button on every job post. This way, all interested parties—even those who not right for the position, but know someone who is—can pass it on to others in their network.
When using the discussions tab for job posts, it is essential to avoid appearing to spam the group. Group managers and administrators monitor all posts and have the ability to move, cancel or reassign job posts they consider spam. Too many unrelated job posts and you risk being dropped from the group.
LinkedIn Group members with good reputations, those regularly engaging in the group, will have the most successful job posts. Your best bet for participation is to start by asking and answering relevant questions, post related content and participate in discussions. Your standing in a LinkedIn Group is crucial, and can be vital to having a job post looked on favorably. A good group member will gain exposure to a larger audience of qualified professionals.

Yes, a good reputation on LinkedIn Groups means work. However, a long-term recruitment strategy for your business is certainly worth the effort, especially when you find your next superstar employee!

Hiring Professional Truckers: Seven Ways to Get the Best!

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It’s not fuel costs that are a problem with the trucking industry. It is the lack of qualified big rig operators.

Seven best practices to get the right drivers for your trucking jobs.

One of the most critical issues recently facing the trucking sector has been, oddly enough, not fuel costs or rising insurance rates.

The biggest problem is a lack of drivers.

Even for businesses not directly related to the trucking industry, the shortage of qualified operators is distressing news. At the very least, it means a company has to be even more aggressive in recruitment efforts. That is if they want any chance of hiring the right people.

For jobs in the trucking industry, the cloud has come to the rescue. Cloud-based technologies have risen to meet the challenge of driver shortages for both the trucking and related industries. Software-as-a-Service has developed programs specifically engineered to assist companies in solving their trucker talent crunch.

The cloud has made recruitment, screening and hiring on-the-road talent both quick and convenient; some websites even have “employer” tabs, which allow a recruiter to fine-tune hiring to meet specific needs.

On these specialty websites, you—the employer—can be able to post relevant listings and openings. The convenience of cloud-based hiring keeps budget-conscious businesses from over spending on recruitment—in time, energy and money—all the while getting only the best candidates for all levels of job openings.

There are three basic realities you should know about hiring drivers:

You should focus your efforts on hiring a specific type of driver you want or class of trailer you want them to drive.
All drivers must be thoroughly vetted, to have the proper licenses or are otherwise certified: CDL’s (Commercial Driver’s Licenses) are required for all kinds of CDL jobs.
You need to recruit drivers through various sources—local, regional or national. Never put all your hiring eggs in one basket.

Seven best practices for hiring short- or long-haul drivers, as well as heavy equipment operators:

1 Always screen and perform background checks for any jobs requiring driving.

Truck drivers do a lot more than transport your product. They are specialists that will maneuver massive, potentially dangerous machines over hundreds or thousands of miles of road. When choosing recruiting companies, they must require candidates go through rigorous background checks and testing.

2 Always have a large pool of candidates.

The best truck drivers for your job opening begins with certified candidates. The right recruiting websites can provide a pool of applicants, from which you can choose the best for all your truck driving job openings.

3 Advertise CDL jobs in industry-specific publications.

For Commercial Drivers License (CDL) jobs, openings should be listed in leading print and online trucking magazines. Online job sites must also be used to bring in quality candidates for truck driving jobs. Lists of influential trucking publications are an ideal place to start; post job openings in national, regional, or local publications or upload to industry-specific websites.

4 Recruit through big-rig trucking schools.

Trucking schools an excellent source for drivers, they are filled with students who are determined and ready for further experience. Students are there with a genuine effort toward beginning a career in trucking. The majority of schools will also provide job placement in national or local trucking companies, as well as various other positions operating heavy equipment.

Start with directories of different truck driving schools and training programs. This is ideal for employers to get certified truck drivers and other heavy equipment operators.

5 Attend industry events.

Another suggestion for filling CDL jobs is attending trucking industry events. Presence at national, regional and state events will give a great deal of recruiting possibilities. Check with online listings for dates and times conferences. For example, there is an annual Mid-America Trucking Program, compete with a Recruitment Facility. This provides event-specific support for candidates considering trucking jobs.

When attending these events, don’t forget a pile of specialized company brochures. All data should clearly list the benefits of pursuing a truck-driving job with your organization. Put your promotional items in truck-stop kiosks, as well. Don’t forget, you have to go where the people are.

Successful hiring for truck operator jobs is a combination of finding the right applicant, someone with a variety of formal licensing, a safe driving record and experience driving the type of vehicle that you need him/her to operate.

6 Be competitive, more than just pay.

Two common grievances from long-haul truck drivers—lack of income and too much time away from family. If you cannot be competitive on wages, certainly look for creative compensation. One outstanding advantage would be to ensure drivers can make it home on most weekends.

7 Remember laws on driving times.

There are state and federal laws that restrict consecutive hours truckers can drive in a 24 hour period. They were established for a significant reason—safety! Long-haul drivers get tired and less alert after several hours of driving. Pushing the limits will put themselves and others in danger. Make sure all candidates are aware of the various Department of Transportation rules, and that they follow them closely. Your business cannot afford the liability for weary truckers.

The need for trucking employees is growing and is very competitive To hire the best, simple hiring practices can increase your chances your trucks on the road with reliable, well-trained drivers.

Tips on How to Treat Your Employees

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Here are some real tips to use in your relationships with your employees. They are from a blog by James Altucher who is an investor, programmer, author, and entrepreneur. He is Managing Director of Formula Capital and has written 6 books on investing. His latest book is I Was Blind But Now I See. You can follow him on Twitter @jaltucher

Here are James’s rules for employees:

A) Treat them as if they are eventually going to be better than you. You can learn from every one of them before you have to fire them or before they abandon you.

B) Picture that all of them will eventually start their own businesses and you are just training them. This doesn’t mean be nice to them all the time. It means train them to start their own businesses. In my first business a bunch of employees broke free, stole some clients, and started their own business. Now they are doing very well. My partners hated them. I love them. It’s good to have many friends who look back and appreciate what you did for them.

C) If an employee gets the “disease” (all they want is more money and they don’t care about anything else and they start to have an attitude) then instantly fire them. There is no cure for the disease and it’s highly contagious.

D) No employee is allowed to say a bad thing about any client. Everyone has to love the client’s products. No gossip. No jokes. Worst situation: One time we had a proposal to send to the U.S. Post Office. Everyone worked very hard on it and we got it done just in time. The project manager FedExed the proposal to the Post Office. Fed. Ex. He was tired because his wife had just had a baby in the prior month. We had to fire him that very night. Nor did we win the job.

E) No gossip about anyone. I was guilty of this as a VC. I would talk badly ab0ut one of the CEOs we invested in. One of my partners told him everything I said. The CEO eventually went bankrupt anyway but he has since written a novel where I am the evil character. Gossip is a seed that gets twisted into history.

F) I picture every employee calling home at night to their mother. The mother asks, “how was your day at work?” I picture the employee saying, “Mom, it was the best.” I picture the mother crying tears of happiness because the baby that once came out of her is so happy to be working with me. I try to make that happen every day.

G) Teach the employee how to exploit you for their own gains. You certainly exploit them. Not in a bad way. You have to exploit them. You charge more for their services than you pay them and than you pay for all of your fixed expenses. That’s how you get rich so it’s worth it. But ultimately they have to exploit you to feel good about the relationship. When you both die there should be no bad feelings that linger among the maggots you share between your graves.

H) How can they exploit you? By building a rolodex off of yours. By learning your skill set. By learning how you deal with your failures. By learning not to repeat your mistakes. By eventually stealing some of your clients and employees and breaking off to start a business or take a higher position at a competitor. None of these things are bad things. You want them to do this. If you train them how to do this then it all becomes a good thing for you in the long run even though you might not see that. If you act with abundance in these situations then abundance will come to you. Too many bosses act with fear and scarcity and ultimately scarcity will come to them.

I) Teach them how to sell. Even if they are programmers. Programmers are often introverted and think they can’t sell. I’m a programmer. Because of their introversion, programmers are often seen as more trustworthy by the clients. Bring programmers or introverts to your meetings. They listen the best and they are the best sales people but they don’t know it.

J) Surprise them. Employees are like “reverse clients.” You have to please them just like you please a client. It doesn’t cost much to reward an employee who gets a job done. Gift certificates, dinners, get a masseuse to come in every Friday, write employees personal notes about what you liked about their work, and so on. Employees, like clients, are the gift that keep giving. They are all there to make you wealthy so you need to be infinitely grateful to them and, ultimately, help them get wealthy.

Read James complete post on TechCrunch

Save Time Using Job Search Websites to Find Employees

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Are you tired of looking for employees?

In today’s competitive global job market, finding quality employees continues to be a challenge. Job search websites are a very powerful tool for recruiting applicants, with benefits that often get overlooked by small businesses.

So, what are job search websites?

Job search websites are sites where job seekers can apply for jobs instantly. Conversely, they are sites that employers can post job openings. There are websites that gather the results of many of such sites, and plainly present the choices to the job seeker. Indeed.com and Simplyhired.com are two such sites, with up to 7.5 million visitors per site each month. According to a survey conducted by Beyond.com, “87% of Baby Boomers choose job boards as the resource they turn to first in a job search, followed by 82% of Gen X and 77% of Gen Y where all generations spent between 5 and 20 hours per week searching for jobs online”.

How do these sites work?

Whenever a prospective employee fills out an online application, it is stored in a database. The same goes for when an employer posts a job opening. Then these indexing sites gather all the information from these databases, from multiple different sites. Think Google, except they specify in searching employment websites for data instead of the entire web. This saves both the employer and applicant time by only having to visit one site, and getting the benefit of visiting many.

What are the benefits of using employment websites?

If your not already using job search sites to advertise your jobs, your missing out. Employers who have adapted benefit from:

Saving time by only posting your opening on one site.
Employment websites are usually free for the job seeker. This increases the number of people that visit them.
Search engines help narrow results, allowing you to see only the relevant information.
With internet based searching, job seekers from all over will see your post.
A resume can be uploaded, allowing employers more searchable data.
The time it takes to update your post is significantly less.

How can employers get more applicants for the job?

There are many tools available that can help employers create high-ranking job listings, effectively increasing the number and quality of applicants you get for that listing. This works like SEO for normal websites. Through certain techniques, these tools can help get your listing at the top of its class where everyone can see it.

Starting the search for good employees is easy

If you want to hire the best employees, you have to start by being visible where the best talent is spending the majority of their time searching; online. The Ovation hiring tool will help you find good employees. Try Ovation free for 30 days and see how your business can harness the power of job search websites.

Your Best Employees Are Working for Someone Else

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For most hospitality businesses, hiring is a chore—eating up time and money—and as a result, restaurants have become notorious for high turnover rates.

The task of finding new people is seen as a constant distraction to most restaurant owners because it takes them away from what they believe to be most important—providing the best service possible for their patrons! Over time, the cycle of hiring-training-firing-hiring has become known as a necessary evil and for many restaurant owners this is still the case.

But does it have to be this way?

Look around your restaurant. Do your employees convey the quality, excellence and friendly environment you worked hard to establish?

Most restaurants, bars and nightclubs rely exclusively on walk-ins for their hiring pool. Why? The main reason is that we like to size up potential employees in-person to see if they fit the look and feel of our establishment. As you may have learned the hard way, relying solely on walk-ins can limit the scope and therefore the quality of employees that you have to choose from.

So where are all of these seasoned, experienced service industry job seekers? The answer is simple. They are currently working in other restaurants, and an alarming 74% of them are actively looking for a better place to work. In fact, 35% of these applicants, known as “passive job seekers”, start preparing for their next job search within weeks of starting a new one.

According to Careerbuilder.com, “long before candidates even step through a potential employer’s doors, they’ve already engaged with that employer in some way to find out about its reputation as an employer – much the same way consumers research potential purchases before even going to the store”.

So how do you reach this untapped spring of talent? Well, they’re certainly not “walking-in” your door but they are searching for job opportunities on the internet. Job seekers are conducting their job search by visiting your company website, social media and job boards.

The Ovation hiring tool allows you to reach more of these passive job seekers without the hassle of logging in and out of multiple job boards and social networks. Simply create your open job position in the Ovation app and it is automatically published to several popular networks with the click of a button. These highly-qualified job seekers can now find your business while searching on the web.

So, who would you rather spend your valuable time interviewing, walk-ins off the street—or hospitality workers with excellent customer service running deep in their blood; people who love what they do?

Great people are out there and you might even see them now and then—working for someone else. Try Ovation absolutely free for 30 days and see the difference hiring automation can make on your quality of service and your bottom line.

Onboarding New Hires in the Hospitality Industry

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If you are in the restaurant, nightclub, bar or hotel/resort business, you are in the hospitality business. It is an exciting, people-centric and time-demanding business that is not for the faint of heart. It can also be one of the most “fun-centric” industries as well, since your customer is usually in the leisure mode when you see them, either eating, drinking, traveling or kicking back.

Most jobs below owner/management level are semi-skilled, typically low paid, tip-dependent and attract a younger worker. Oh, by the way, the work is hard. A big challenge in the hospitality business is the revolving door of workers. It is logical that turnover is great because of the age and demographics of the workforce. Young people change directions with the wind and hospitality workers generally aren’t in for a career. In fact, your training model becomes a key indicator of your company’s success since it is constantly in use.

A company’s culture is perhaps the most under emphasized component of small to medium sized businesses. A company’s culture is the assumptions and behaviors that the people in an organization use in engaging with each other and with the customer. The culture typically evolves on its own in a small business from the top down, for good or for bad. Large companies invest heavily in their culture since a good culture makes a business operate smoothly and affects the customer’s perception of the business.

The Four Seasons chain of hotels and the Nordstrom department stores are often used as examples of companies with culture built around an excellent customer experience. That is a great premise for an industry that must please a lot of people with different levels of satisfaction. Part of the instilling of a culture in an employee is providing a good experience when they join the organization. This experience is called the onboarding of a new employee and can set the tone for the relationship; again for good or for bad.

The key to a good onboarding experience is completeness, friendliness and consistency. In small business, onboarding begins with the delivery of new hire paperwork and the general instructions and expectations to the new hire. Believe it or not, businesses have a difficult time delivering complete and timely new hire paperwork since most have a rather harried environment and operate with a sense of urgency.

Every employee must fill out certain paperwork to comply with the law and to set up for payroll. This includes completing an I-9, a W-4 as well as various forms like basic employee data forms, and direct deposit forms. All this, plus the time an employee handbook is delivered, benefits information is made available to the employee and perhaps a welcome letter from the owner rounds out the batch of paperwork the new hire receives.

The job of collecting the information usually falls on the operations manager or human resources department if one exists. In the hospitality industry, people aren’t usually hired until they are needed so, the sooner they can be put to work, the better.

The proper completion of some forms requires verification of identification documents or submission of banking info for direct deposit. Inevitably, new employees arrive without identification or some other documentation. This often results in starting the employee off without a complete enrollment and often the follow-up falls short. Not a smooth transition for either the employee or the employer.

Providing new hire paperwork electronically to the employee before they show up for work through either an email or a link to the documents can take some of the strain off of the first day and allow the employee to complete the paperwork in a more leisurely manner. The employee simply shows up with the forms completed and identification in hand for verification.

Ovation provides such an electronic new hire onboarding tool with its hiring and background screening tools in an affordable, easy to use, and effective one stop platform. The platform was designed specifically with the small business in mind and is a great resource for the hospitality industry where, time and first impressions are all important.

Are Employees Happy in Their Current Job?

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One half of existing employees will consider looking for a new job if the economy improves according to the Fourth Quarter 2012 Glassdoor Employment Confidence Survey. This may prompt employers to take a look at their retention efforts. Employees don’t search for new job opportunities merely when they are unhappy. Many people are constantly evaluating their options in an effort to improve their job situation and to advance their career.

According to the survey, forty percent of all employees expect to get a pay raise in the next 12 months which means that most employees either don’t expect a raise or just don’t know.

Employee expectations of re-hire are about 41%. Of course, currently employed people typically stand a better chance of being hired than do unemployed individuals. Unemployed individuals surveyed had a slightly lower (37%) expectation of being hired in the first quarter of 2013.

What Should Employers Do to Increase Employee Satisfaction and Retention?

There are several positive actions employers can take to improve retention including

1. Award non-compensation perks such as

Option for employees to work remotely
Casual dress codes
Flexible work hours

2. Other compensation options such as:

Restore previously eliminated benefits like 401k matching, health and dental
Stock awards
Salary increases that consider recession year omissions

In addition to retention programs, companies can put recruiting and hiring programs in place to prepare for business needs. Establishing relationships with vendors such as Ovation, Taleo, and direct recruiting firms like Robert Half can provide a candidate pool that can be tapped at a moment’s notice. Having job posts constantly running can cast a wide net to improve the quality of a company’s workforce. “Top performers are instrumental in helping organizations grow,” Phil Sheridan, managing director, Robert Half UK, said in a news release. “However, it is all too common for companies to wait until they receive resignations in order to enhance their retention efforts, but by then it is often too late to keep those key staff.”

What Signs Might Indicate that a Valued Employee May Quit?

In the environment described, key employees may look for greener pastures. According to Robert Half, an international recruiting firm, these are some major signs that current employees might be looking for other opportunities:

A change in attitude in the employee while performing their job
Long lunch breaks or frequent absences
The employee is dressing in more professional attire
The employee is exhibiting a noticeable drop in productivity

If an employer suspects a valued employee might quit, they should consider meeting with the employee and asking them if they are looking and emphasize the value that they represent to the company. Often, employees feel under-appreciated and need reinforcement. Even offering an incentive to stay is appropriate as this is not a time to resent an employee’s loyalty to the firm.

Job Search in 2013? Try Social Networks.

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There is no doubt that the job market has changed dramatically in the last couple of years. Traditional means of finding a job – newspapers, sending resumes to a ton of companies, even search firms – have been replaced permanently by job boards and social network postings.

The infographic below shows where job seekers are and which social networks they are using.

Social Networking for Jobseekers, Employment, Employment website, Facebook, Information graphics, Labour economics, LinkedIn, Social media, Social network, Social networking service, social recruiting, Twitter

Social Networking for Jobseekers infographic

What Does Obamacare Mean to My Business?

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What is Obamacare and when will it become effective?

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as it is commonly referred to, is the most comprehensive overhaul of the healthcare system in history. Over 50 million Americans are currently uninsured. Obamacare intends to attack that number with a vengeance. While 2012 and 2013 have and will bring changes, the big ones become effective in 2014. That is the year employer mandates come into effect and mandates on individuals as well. Many small businesses will become subject to the Obamacare rules.

Do I have to provide health insurance to my employees?

In 2014, under the employer mandate, employers are required to offer a minimum level of health insurance to full-time employees, or pay a penalty. This requirement is for employers with at least 50 full-time employees with full-time defined as at least 30 hours per week.

Failure to offer coverage to eligible employees will result in a $2,000 per year penalty, per full-time employee in excess of 30 employees, if at least one employee receives a subsidy amount instead of direct coverage.
Failure to offer affordable or minimum level of coverage will result in a $3,000 penalty per year, per full-time employee who declines a company plan and receives a subsidy instead of direct coverage

These penalties are exclusive, but not intended to both apply.

What level of insurance do I have to provide if my business has at least 50 full-time employees?

A business must offer affordable or minimum level of coverage to full-time employees if the business is subject to the coverage rules.

Affordable coverage means the employee’s contribution for employee-only coverage must be below 9.5% of his/her W-2 income
The minimum level of coverage means the plan must cover at least 60% of covered health expenses

Can I limit worker’s hours in order to fall under the 50 full-time employee minimums?

So far, nothing in the law prohibits adjusting the hours of workers to allow a business to fall under the 50 full-time employee minimum. Bringing the number of full-time employees to fewer than 50 seems to be the most common strategy. This is not to say that further modifications to Obamacare won’t be enacted in the future. Each business must decide what actions to take to balance the welfare of its employees with the realities of running a business for profit.

FOUR NO-FAIL SOCIAL MEDIA HIRING TIPS

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Need to hire an employee fast? Social media has straightforward, effective and inexpensive (or FREE) ways to reach out to qualified candidates.

More than 90 percent of companies are using social media to find new employees, according to a recent Jobvite study. The most popular: Twitter and Facebook and LinkedIn.

If you’re up to the challenges presented by recruitment, here are four no-fail tips for using social media to find your next superstar employee:

Ovation – Hiring, Background Checks and Onboarding Tool for Business

Post to job boards and organize applicants

Tag Archives: Employment

Hiring Professional Truckers: Seven Ways to Get the Best!

It’s not fuel costs that are a problem with the trucking industry. It is the lack of qualified big rig operators.

Seven best practices to get the right drivers for your trucking jobs.

Seven best practices for hiring short- or long-haul drivers, as well as heavy equipment operators:

1 Always screen and perform background checks for any jobs requiring driving.

2 Always have a large pool of candidates.

3 Advertise CDL jobs in industry-specific publications.

4 Recruit through big-rig trucking schools.

5 Attend industry events.

6 Be competitive, more than just pay.

7 Remember laws on driving times.

Tips on How to Treat Your Employees

Save Time Using Job Search Websites to Find Employees

Onboarding New Hires in the Hospitality Industry

Are Employees Happy in Their Current Job?

What Does Obamacare Mean to My Business?

Follow “Ovation - Hiring, Background Checks and Onboarding Tool for Business”