Category: Human Resource

It’s difficult to argue with the fact that a business that does not feature strong management is a business that will likely fail. In the world of business, management is everything. As soon as things begin to falter, sales and profits often begin to drop off. More often than not, management issues can be easily corrected, so long as you take the right steps. As a business owner, it is essential to intervene when poor management begins to become apparent, regardless of one’s relationship with the staff. Fortunately, improving the quality of one’s management doesn’t have to be difficult at all, so long as you take the right route.

Consider the following 3 tips, each of which can help you to improve the quality of your business’s management:

Encourage Management to Go Back to School

A lot of individuals who find themselves in management graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree and simply stopped there. After all, why bother continuing one’s education if you can get the job you’re looking for? The sad fact of the matter is that the vast majority of people in management feel this way, and thus miss out on opportunities to further themselves.

Going back to school to get an advanced degree is a great way for someone in management to not only learn more about their craft, but also potentially make more money down the road. A masters in project management, for example, is the perfect degree for someone who finds themselves working in management, and can usually be obtained within two years. You may even wish to offer a tuition-reimbursement programs, which will further show your interest in having your employees pursue higher education.

Hire Upper-Level Employees

If you have an opening in your management staff, this is the perfect time to start thinking about hiring upper-level employees. In today’s economy, competition in the job market is stiffer than perhaps ever before. The result, however, is that businesses who are looking for high-level employees can often scoop them up for lower salaries than they’re used to paying. If you have upper-level employees working for you, your chances of running into huge issues with their performance will be far lower than they might be otherwise.

There are plenty of scouting websites on the Internet that can help you to find the perfect employee for the position you’re looking for, and utilizing them doesn’t have to be difficult or expensive if you go about it correctly.

Stay Engaged

One of the most important things that a business owner can do when trying to improve their management staff’s performance is to stay engaged at all time. It can be very tempting for business owners to step away once they feel as if they’ve hired a good manager, and for good reason. The fact is, however, staying engaged is truly the only way that you can show that you care about their performance, and can make all the difference in the world when it comes to taking your business to the next level. A lot of people think that staying engaged might be exceptionally difficult, but it doesn’t have to be at all.

All you really need to do is hold a weekly status meeting with your management staff to ensure that they’re on point with what they’re doing. Don’t hesitate to make it clear that you wish to stay engaged in their work process, yet don’t want to interfere with their methods. Many managers will appreciate this thoroughly, as it helps to keep them on task and makes them feel more appreciated than they might otherwise.

Article contributed by Jenna Smith

Employers never want to find themselves in a situation where they have to deal with false resume claims after they hire a person. An even worse situation is discovering that a prospective employee is not actually who he says he is! There are potential and unfortunate consequences of such issues that are not always apparent.

Falsified Details are Detrimental

The usual way businesses hire employees is by placing ads and waiting for the resumes to roll in. Hiring managers then go through the resumes to find candidates that have the right qualifications. Traditionally, hiring managers would then call a prospective employee’s previous employers and references to vet the information given on the resume. While that system is still useful, former employers are not always reachable, and references may not provide the best point of view.

Illegal Workers

Just as it is possible to falsify experience on a resume, it is possible to falsify work authorization. People can get photo identification in most places with very little information, and they do not have to present a Social Security number to get one. When it comes to providing a Social Security number for employment deduction purposes, a person does not have to present the actual card. In fact, the Social Security Administration recommends that people do not carry the card around with them to protect the number from being stolen.

Most employers take prospective employees at their word when it comes to that information. However, there are hefty monetary penalties a business can suffer when they hire illegal workers. Not only are there fines, but when an illegal employee is caught, the business is down a worker and out the expenses it paid to train the employee in the first place. Additional problems arise when a worker has stolen another person’s identity, whether the person is a legal resident or not.

Using Employment Verification

A business can only go so far to verify the information an employee provides on a resume and on tax forms. The ability to dig deeper is not something most businesses have. However, using a background checking service like LexisNexis employment verification is a great way to ensure prospective employees are who they say they are. Not only will a background check suss out illegal workers, but they verify previous employment and reveal criminal records, if they exist.

Trust is important in business, so knowing a person’s history provides a company with peace of mind. It also saves time and money in building the best possible staff.

Article contributed by Jenna Smith

Article Contributed by Bert Doerhoff 

From the early stages of creating a business it is well known that a board of advisors benefits, adds value and provides guidance for your business’ future.   The key is to not only discover and engage the right advisors for your business but to build a network of trusted advisors and keep them.  Just as any business advisor must invest their time to provide your business with advice, the business itself must as well invest time into the relationship.

How to Discover the Right Advisors

1.     Define your needs

Here is where you lay out your objectives, key areas where guidance will primarily be needed, and the type of advice and information that is essential in or$er for you to achieve your business’ primary objectives.  This is when you come to understand the complementary skills and diverse area of expertise needed within your board of advisors.

2.     Grasp your struggles

Build your dream team of knowledge.  It is likely that you as the business owner will not financially be able to hire from every area of expertise, but a few must not be overlooked.

Experts with related intelligence from your industry, especially areas you lack, is crucial. For example, you struggle with keeping your books, and would much rather focus on other areas of your business. This is where outsourcing yourkbookkeeping services to a professional accountant comes in handy.

Financial professionals that are well respected can significantly benefit your business.  If possible, hiring those with an extensive amount of experience in addition to their expertise and past success in their area is a wise decision.

3.     Set up-front expectations

If you desire a formal board, you must consult with each advisor about what they expect out of your relationship. Scheduling monthly meetings to discuss what needs to be done to continue the success of your business is a great idea. However, you may prefer more of an “informal” board to advise your business.

Informal boards are less structured and more of a mentorship opportunity for those looking to assist early entrepreneurs. Whether you decide on a formal or informal board of advisors, it is best to cover all details and expectations from the start. 

4.     Friendship

This is your business.  Choose advisors that you can get along with, challenge and cooperate with effectively.   You will want to keep an open and honest exchange of feedback with your advisors in order to maintain a mutual understanding of your vision. Since they are there to optimize the future of your business, this type of two-way relationship is essential.

5.     Matching objectives in mind

You want advisors that provide honest and applicable advice to your company.  These advisors should share the vision you have for your company, and should aspire to achieve the same goals. If not, there will be a constant push in different directions, putting the company at risk.  People who keep the company’s success top of mind make for excellent potential candidates.

Remember to remain strategic and precise in deciding on your board of advisors.  These individuals will help guide your business as it grows, and will enjoy the success with you. Good advisors are an invaluable resource to your success as a business owner.

About the Author:

Bert Doerhoff is owner and founder of Accubiz, a firm providing accounting services out of Jefferson City, Missouri. Accubiz specializes in small business accounting, bookkeeping services, and wealth management. Prior to opening his own firm, Doerhoff worked for Peat, Marwich, Mitchell & Co, which is currently known as KPMG. Frequently, he speaks at state level and national conferences on various business management topics.

This is a guest blog post by Olan Ahern, a specialist in social media created on behalf of Sentiment Metrics.

According to a recent report from ABCNews, 80% of today’s jobs are landed through networking, social networking being the main reason for this. In recent years, we have all seen the rapid development of social media; from Facebook check ins to pinning your favourite interests. Everything about everyone seems to be available online. This has been the catalyst for a dramatic change in the recruitment process. From multinational organisations to small local businesses, the change has been evident across all levels!  Employers are sick of dishing out thousands on recruitment agencies, veering away from recruitment agencies; employers are using the power of social media to bolt them into the future. Job seekers and graduates a like have recognised this shift, identifying that social media is the best platform to connect with employers.  Pimping up there profiles and connecting with those who bare influence in their aspiring industries. More and more job seekers are becoming aware that having a strong online presence can be the difference to landing their dream job or not. Here are some helpful tips to secure you landing that dream job.

Social media tips to improve your online presence

Register on Linked In and get involved; LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network. In March, 2012, there was a reported 161million users. More than 2 million companies have LinkedIn Company Pages making it a prime place to engage with potential employers. With over one million groups, LinkedIn is the best platform for exchanging ideas, chatting with potential employers and connecting with old and existing colleagues who may help you in your job search.

Tips;

• Ask for recommendations from your ex-colleagues and employers.
• Add your written work such as guest blogs and academic coursework to your account.
• Add work experience, an excellent opportunity to highlight your skills and qualities.
• Leverage your second degree connections – you’ll be shocked at the amount of relevant people your friends and other connections can introduce to you.

Get blogging; It’s important in this day and age to difference ate yourself and stand out from the crowd; there is no better way to do this than by setting up your own personal blog. This gives you the chance to highlight your skills and passion for your industry. One can write about anything, from topical issues in the news to their pet hates. Many people have used this as a platform in the past such as Aman Basanti who says his blog was the reason for landing his $100k job.

Tips;

• Use Twitter to leverage your blog and contact influencers. This broadens your reach. It’s a good idea to mention influencers in blog posts and tweet at them; grabbing their attention and getting noticed in your industry. People love having their egos boosted by being referenced to. This is an excellent way to engage with them.
• You need to remember two things when writing your blog; authenticity and quality. It’s important to be authentic when creating content and good content is essential to engagement. Communicating authentically can get you noticed in any industry and can give you an edge. So write original posts with your own point of view.

Be proactive on Twitter; Twitter has become the main source of communication to connect directly with individuals, whether being recruiters or employees at companies you want to work for.

Tips;

• By conducting Twitter searches, following recruiters on your account and communicating with them on occasion, you will start to learn a lot about them and their companies.
• Follow professionals and recruiters in your field, a lot of the time jobs may be advertised online and appear on their Twitter feeds.

Connect your social media accounts; connecting your social media accounts enables you to reach a larger target audience. More importantly it allows you to showcase what you have to offer.

Tips;

• Ensure your social media accounts are secure, so potential employers can’t find anything too damaging about you. Hence, choose wisely when deciding upon your profile pictures, and comments you make, especially around the time of applying for a job.
• Be smart; if your social media accounts are connected make sure your content is not explicit or damaging to your online presence.
• Link your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Engage with the employees of jobs you are interested in and relevant people that could be interested in your skills and you as an individual.

Remember, social media is now the first part of the interview, so every time you create something authentic via social media you are giving yourself an edge over a person who may have the exact same qualifications as you.

When running a business you really need to make sure that your employees work to their full potential. To do so you need to build a good relationship with them, starting from the first time you meet. You must make them feel welcome, rather than making them feel like a distraction from your own work.

It is important for you to allow your new employees to work at their own pace. Even if people have experience in the relevant field they will still take time to adjust, as although they may have done a similar role in their previous job, every company does things a little different. Although it is important to set targets, you must give your new employees targets that are easy to reach, and possibly surpass. Once they have learned the ropes you can start setting them more difficult targets; targets that they will really have to push themselves to achieve. If they have high aspirations they will work hard to try to meet these goals.

You must also allow your staff the chance to progress. You should provide training for anyone who wants it, so that they can learn new skills in a bid to move up the ladder. Doing the same thing day in day out can get very stale, and so if people are not given the opportunity to move up, you might soon find them moving on. You wouldn’t want to lose your best employees.

If you fulfil your employee’s aspirations, they should be happy. But you can always make them happier. People often feel like they’re stuck with their colleagues, that they have no say in the matter, which I guess would be true. But if your employees become friends, then they’ll look forward to coming to work, and work will be more fun. You may want to think about organising a staff night out or a team bonding trip. Events like these will always bring people closer together, meaning that when it comes to work, they will work better with each other.

Finally, to get the best out of your employees, you need to treat them as equals. Always listen to what they have to say, and take their opinions into account, because you will probably need them more than they need you.