HR & Management Tips - The Advance Group

Is “Blind Hiring” Good For Your Workforce?

Raza Rauf on April 15, 2016

In the quest to improve diversity in hiring, companies are turning to “blind hiring” practices, which seeks to eliminate the unique characteristics of candidates before they are considered for employment. The goal of blind hiring is to bring people on board who have the skills to perform certain tasks, and not because of other protected factors such as gender, age, nationality, or region.

Why is blind hiring popular?

In the past, research has shown that managers tend to select candidates who have similar demographic backgrounds as their own. A Fast Company article highlights several university studies that showed that humans are nearly always biased towards their own kind, and this happens on a subconscious level most of the time. Even the mention of a similarity during an interview can elicit warm feelings towards a particular candidate, and the person is chosen even if they are not the best fit for the job.

In blind hiring, these factors are all stripped from candidates.

The following elements are removed or hidden during the initial application phase:

The candidate’s full name and educational background are hidden
The resume may be masked or certain elements of the work history
The candidate’s face may be hidden and voice-altering technology is used in phone interviews
Assessments and skills testing is reserved for hiring purposes
Lower-performing candidates are never presented to decision makers

All of this may seem a bit extreme, but companies that are growing rapidly or expanding operations need to be able to comply with Equal Employment Opportunity and other laws that require fair and diverse hiring.

When determining if blind hiring may be right for your company, ask yourself the following things:

Does your company have an EEOC hiring process in place to hire for diversity?
Over the last six months, has your company tracked the hiring of women and minorities?
Is your company active in closing the gender wage gap and improving hiring transparency?
Are you hiring the same kinds of people or do you hire people based on their unique skills and qualities?

Working with a temporary staffing agency can help your company to get a better grip on hiring for diversity. It takes the responsibility off the company and places it on the staffing agency for securing workers from diverse demographics and backgrounds. If you’re looking for highly qualified candidates, click here to contact Advance Staffing Solutions today!

Are Your Workplace Policies Ready for new Legalized Marijuana Legislature?

Raza Rauf on April 8, 2016

2016 has seen the legalization of marijuana for medical use in 23 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, and recreational use in four states, prompting the update of human resources policies surrounding drug use. A Society for Human Resource Management survey from earlier this year indicates that 90 percent of organizations still do not have a substance abuse policy in place that addressed legal pot use. It’s as if the HR community has been slow to recognize these changes and how they impact the workplace.

Is your workplace prepared with an updated policy on legal marijuana, whether your state is affected or not? Here are some things your company needs to do now.

1. Update your substance abuse policy for the workplace.

As an employer, it’s your responsibility to maintain a safe workplace for all employees, and this includes cracking down on employees who either use drugs during work hours or bring drugs into the work environment. Make sure to clearly state what your company’s stance is on drugs at work, and that the only exceptions are for medical marijuana use only with an approved doctor’s note. In states where recreational marijuana use is legal, it is still advisable to have a policy on screening employees who have been in accidents or injured on the job.

2. Set up a relationship with a staffing agency or pre-employment drug-testing vendor.

The drug policy should also include recruitment factors, such as the company’s effort to hire drug-free employees. Therefore, a vendor needs to be in place, ready to handle all pre-employment drug screens for new hires. A staffing agency can easily and inexpensively handle this matter as they already have a relationship with drug-testing facilities.

3. Become knowledgeable about updates to marijuana legalization.

The laws around the legalization of marijuana are continually changing and they may continue to be confusing and complex for the immediate future. A trusted HR advisor or consulting agency can support your workplace by keeping your HR team abreast of current laws. Take the time to educate managers on this topic, and use staff meetings to educate employees about the drug-use policy. Remember that you do not have to allow drug use in your workplace, whether recreational use is legal or not.

Need help to build a strong workforce policy, or hiring employees who can comply with company policies? Let the staffing experts at Advance Staffing Solutions help!

Hiring? Make Sure Your Online Presence is Setting You Up for Success

Raza Rauf on March 30, 2016

When candidates visit your corporate website, your social media accounts, and read about the company in the news, how well does this online presence blend with the kind of corporate culture you are trying to portray? Many times, companies put a lot of effort into their marketing only to find out it’s coming up short for recruitment purposes. Candidates can be highly critical when it comes to deciding IF they want to apply to work for a company that may not share their same values. This is why it’s critical to develop a strong online presence that speaks to a positive culture.

Here are some things any company can do to ensure they are portrayed in a candidate-friendly light.

Update your company website and your job listings

When job seekers are reviewing career opportunities, they can be judging the way the company website looks. If it’s been updated recently and has a positive brand, then they are more confident applying for work. If the website looks like it hasn’t been updated since the dawn of the Internet, or if job postings are outdated, these factors will not go unnoticed by job candidates.

Mixed messages and poor information on social networks

Does your company have a central person or team dealing with the social networks, or is it a free-for-all? Inconsistent messaging, odd posts, and even potential offensive content could be hurting your company’s chance of hiring the best people. Make sure your marketing team syncs with the hiring team at frequent intervals to avoid this kind of mixed messaging.

If there a Web-friendly way of applying?

Candidates today are turning to their mobile devices for finding and applying for work. If your company has not developed a mobile version of the company career portal or created a mobile job app, you are missing out on many great candidates. Use a mobile app that’s simple to use and streamlined for job applicants to use. Try a ready-made career app to make this a quick and easy step, and get your website set up as interactive with all mobile devices.

Promoting the company career opportunities

You cannot expect candidates to find your company without doing a little marketing to get the word out about job opps. Attend career fairs, participate in job fairs, partner with a staffing agency, and more to market your careers to job seekers. The company doesn’t have to have a huge budget or team to accomplish this, just keep it simple and focused.

Need help finding top-quality job candidates in Michigan and Ohio? Click here to contact Advance Staffing Solutions today, and let us take the hard work of finding, testing, and vetting quality candidates for you!

Your Hiring Process Should Be All About Your Candidates

Raza Rauf on March 23, 2016

In the last year, it’s become increasingly apparent that it’s a candidate-driven market. It’s only going to continue as unemployment rates drop and new companies move into the Detroit, MI area. With this in mind, when is the last time you looked at your company’s hiring process from the perspective of candidates? Do you think it’s positive, or does it create a negative experience?

Perhaps now would be a good time to start thinking about improving things so that it’s all about creating a warm and welcoming experience for candidates. Here are some suggestions for making this happen.

Reduce the time to apply

There is nothing more frustrating for candidates than spending hours filling out job applications, completing assessments, and submitting information online for a single job. Take hints from the top companies and revert to a single-page application form. Utilize LinkedIn recruiting to make this process even easier for candidates.

Respond promptly to candidates

When a candidate takes the time to apply for a job, they tend to like to be thanked for their time and effort. So too, candidates enjoy frequent and courteous updates to the status of their application, and after interviews. Set up an automated system for doing this that sounds personal, and then create a system for calling candidates within seven days to advise them on next steps.

Relax during job interviews

Instead of making job interviews so formal, why not create a nice relaxing environment for welcoming them and going through this process? Start with a meeting room right off the front entrance where candidates can be invited to sit and enjoy a cold water before the interview time. Then take candidates on a brief tour of the building. Once they are warmed up, conduct the interview in a comfortable area and make them feel at home.

Following up with candidates

A big part of the candidate experience is also understanding what will happen next and when they can expect to hear back on a decision. Provide a brief overview once you have completed the interview, with a time frame and next steps. Then check back in with candidates at regular intervals (like once a week) at the very least. If a candidate is not to be selected at this time, send a nice rejection letter along with a gesture of your appreciation (such as a gift card for a free lunch).

Need help with your hiring process? Let the experts at Advance Staffing Solutions take the hard work, time and stress off your hands! We have a pool of talented, vetted candidates who are ready to fill roles in your company today! Click here to check out our Talent Showcase today!

How to Tell When Your Employees Are Wasting Time at Work

Raza Rauf on March 16, 2016

You may remember the CBS News story about a report detailing the work habits of employees. It turns out that as much as 60-to-80 percent of the average adult workforce is engaged in non-work activities when they are at the office. These activities include checking in on social networks, texting on mobile devices, and surfing the Internet for personal enjoyment and even job search reasons. All this slacking leads to millions of dollars in lost revenue every year. Since when is stealing company time ok?

Are you concerned that you employees are wasting time like this at work? It can be hard to tell sometimes, especially when employees are great at hiding their covert activities. Some may even be wasting so much time that they are creating other bad habits, such as eating lunch at their desks and staying late on the company dime.

Here are several signs that your employees are participating in “cyberloafing” on the job.

Employees find it difficult to meet project deadlines.

Do you have a number of employees who consistently struggle with meeting their deadlines for work projects, don’t keep their commitments to clients, or just don’t manage their time well? This can be a big red sign that they are spending their valuable working hours to goof off.

Employees seem distracted or irritated often.

Have your staff meetings turned into grumbling from a group of employees who are set on looking at their mobile devices moreso than paying attention? Or maybe every time you call one of your subordinates they act like you are annoying them? This can be a sign that employees are being distracted by other activities that they cannot seem to pull themselves away from long enough to actually get some work done.

Employees update their social networks frequently.

Take a moment to locate the social profiles of your employees – on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn. Are they updating their profiles more than once a day? Check the times that they are logging notes into their social accounts too, are they happening throughout the day (not at lunchtime)? This can be a real problem.

Employees aren’t interacting with team members.

Another sign of employees who are not focusing on work during work hours is that they tend to disappear from the rest of the team. Or they just don’t make an effort to interact or socialize with peers. This happens during peak work hours when they should be an active part of the team. Observe these employees and find out what has caused them to become disconnected.

If you need help managing your workforce, or finding new talented employees to add to your team, contact the staffing experts at Advance Staffing Solutions today!

5 Apps That Can Make You a Better Boss

Raza Rauf on March 9, 2016

Have you ever wondered how you can learn how to be a better boss when you have so much on your plate all the time? Turns out, there’s an app for that. Here’s a rundown of the best apps for management skills development on the market today.

Dispatch

As a boss, are you continually weeding through hundreds of emails each day, only to find yourself buried in responses? You are not alone. The average manager gets around 150 to 300 emails a day. Luckily, there is an app called Dispatch that can help you chop down those emails and get back to actually being around your people — instead of sitting behind a computer all day. Dispatch “lets you get rid of mails by swiping, respond faster with snippets, and process your mails with other apps.” It’s available on Apple iTunes.

EasilyDo

Always forgetting important tasks, employee birthdays, ordering office supplies, setting up travel, and other critical team-building activities? EasilyDo is an app that can help you stay on track with daily reminders of what’s priority as a boss, and executing some of these things for you. It’s akin to having a personal assistant to help you stay above water. It can even integrate with your email and contacts for smooth transitions between tasks, and sending alerts and reminders to others.

Flow

Managing a team, tasks, and projects can be the bane of every boss’ life. The Flow app makes it easier by creating a collaborative task management space where managers can allocate tasks, communicate with team members, and stay on top of deadlines. Use the Flow app to separate tasks into teams and individuals who have the right skills to achieve them.

TimeTrade

Tired of the back and forth emails asking you to schedule meeting times and get phone numbers and other contact info in place? TimeTrade is a perfect management app that helps you to streamline meeting schedules for yourself and your team members. Powerful analytics also let managers see where they are spending the bulk of their time. The best part is that there is a free version.

Talkboard

If you have a creative team or employees who spend a great deal of time working in silos, why not bring them together during meetings using the collaborative whiteboard of Talkboard? It’s simple to use, and interfaces with Apple iPads. Integrate video and images, social networking, and more to make presentations and meetings fun again.

How to Quantify the Real Value of Your Workforce

Raza Rauf on February 27, 2016

In the world of human resources, it’s hard to put a number on certain aspects of the personnel management game. Typically, businesses can be slow to adopt HR metrics and it can be difficult to quantify certain strategies in HR. But as HR professionals, it is up to us to make a case for the decision that we make each day in the office. Here’s how to quantify your workforce.

Experts advise that it’s best to focus on three core areas of the workforce that impact the bottom lie the most – all related to hiring and retaining the best possible employees.

Where are you sourcing the best employees for your company?

Where you are finding your new hires is a major factor in quantifying your workforce. The source of your hires needs to produce a good track record of placing high-quality employees with the right skills into the right jobs. Part of the problem with doing recruitment on your own is that decisions can be made out of haste during employee replacements or rapid growth cycles. A temporary staffing agency partner can drastically improve the quality of your workforce, and reduce the time and cost of staffing the company.

What areas or departments have the highest turnover rates?

Turnover among employees can be a sign of trouble. In fact, is can be the only sign that things are not going well with the workforce. Quantifying your human resources means nailing down the problems that are causing employee turnover. Sometimes they can be related to poor management or outdated business practices. A strong workforce is one that is actively engaged and loyal to the company. This is a valuable asset to have, and worth the effort.

Who is tracking or managing the departing employees?

Just as your company needs an onboarding program for bringing new hires in, it also needs a strategy for dealing with off boarding of departing employees. This very critical time when an employee is leaving the company can be the only opportunity to capture certain information that the company needs to quantify its workforce goals. Exit interviews are a must. Find out who is handling employees who are leaving and if there is any correlation with certain departments or managers where there is high turnover. This could be an opportunity to retrain managers on ways to keep good people instead of losing them to the competition.

When your company can quantify the value of its workforce, it will be well on its way to being a better place for employees to thrive and the company to meet its earnings goals. Partner with Advance Staffing Solutions today, and let us place top-quality candidates in your workplace!

Underqualified Candidates Can Be a Valuable Company Asset

Raza Rauf on February 19, 2016

Very often, hiring managers are faced with the decision of what to do with great candidates who have the right personality and fit for a company, but lack certain qualifications of a job. It’s a shame, because they could have potential in the company’s future.

Have you ever wondered if an underqualified candidate could be a valuable asset to the company? Here are some reasons why.

Not every company has the budget for “superstar” candidates.

In the startup or rapid growth phases of companies, the funds may be limited in terms of offering a superstar candidate enough to convince them to join the company. Therefore, hiring an underqualified candidate at a slightly lower salary may make better sense. This person can be developed into an outstanding employee and over time can get a promotion to a higher earning bracket.

Underqualified candidates often make the most loyal employees.

It’s hard finding loyal employees nowadays. Especially with the younger generations, candidates are prone to skipping from job-to-job within a year or two. When you give an underqualified candidate an opportunity, they will generally be more loyal to the company. This grateful attitude will also help the company to develop the person into a future leader because of the need to prove themselves.

People can learn if they have the right qualities to begin with.

It’s really hard to say if there is such a thing as a perfect candidate. However, when you give an underqualified candidate a chance, they have the ability to learn new skills that will enable them to excel in the job. Focus on some of the more important traits that the candidate has; such as a positive personality, a track record with former employers, and their ability and desire to learn new things.

Refer underqualified candidates to partner companies.

You may not be able to give an underqualified candidate a career right now. This is ok. But do not dismiss this candidate. Instead, refer an underqualified candidate to a partner company or to an area of staffing agency that you work with. The candidate will appreciate a chance to be introduced to another opportunity, and you will not lose track of them. Who knows? The candidate may be the perfect fit in the future for your business.

Is the Candidate Your New Soulmate?

Raza Rauf on February 12, 2016

You stare across the desk into the dreamy eyes of a well-dressed and attractive individual. Then, suddenly your heart and mind starts to race, you get sweaty palms, and you stumble over your words, giggling nervously. Uh, oh? Are you in love?

Sounds a little like dating, right? Sadly, no…this isn’t another Nicholas Sparks movie scene. In reality, you are just another recruiter engaged in an interview with a job candidate.

It can be funny to think about recruitment in terms of the dating game, but it also makes sense. You are presenting a certain brand to try to impress a person you’ve never met before. You smile, shake hands, make small talk, and try to make the other person feel comfortable. You even selected a small, intimate office space where you can get to know the candidate on a deeper level.

How can you know if all of this effort will be worth it? Will you do enough, say all the right things, and get the person to take an interest in what you are pitching – in this case, an opportunity with your company? And then, is this the right person for the company? Do they have the perfect qualities for the job? Will others like this person when you introduce them?

Finding the right hire is like finding your soulmate.

Think about the concept in practical terms. This has to be someone who connects with you and the company brand. An interview is not just a meeting. It’s a chance to exchange meaningful words and energy between you and the
candidate. How well you do this can make a big difference in the way the candidate views the career opportunity. If you are not on your game, the candidate will sense this. If the candidate is turned off, not feeling it, or finds that they are not all that interested – things are bound to end up not working out.

When you interview candidates, think about the interpersonal skills you have. Can they be improved upon? Are you seeking that perfect candidate with every work order you try to fill or are you merely hiring based on shallow traits? Don’t settle. Hire the best person for every job and think about this as a start of a new and beautiful relationship.

Start Planning NOW For Baby Boomer Retirements

Raza Rauf on February 5, 2016

According to current statictics, nearly 10,000 baby boomers retire from the job market every day. Research indicates that employers are growing increasingly nervous about the loss of certain job skills and knowledge as a result. How well is your organization prepared for the exit of your most knowledgeable employees? Perhaps it is important for you to start looking for ways to transfer this knowledge and replace your baby boomers with quality employees.
Here’s some ways to start planning NOW for Baby Boomer retirements.

Identify the baby boomers who will be leaving in the next two years

It’s important to have a good understanding who is nearing retirement in your company. You will want to evaluate the skills and qualities that these folks have that will need to be replaced. For example, you may have several baby boomers who have above average sales skills. Naturally, you will want to replace them with equally skilled sales professional at your mid-level. Then you will bring entry level employees on board and train them on the scale.

Match your baby boomers up with lesser experienced employees

It’s really important to start thinking about the mentoring opportunity that is available right now. Your baby boomers will probably start to disconnect someone in the next year or two therefore you will want to maximize this time by matching them up with skilled employees who will be around in the next 5-10 years . Utilize your baby boomers to train other employees and reward them with additional financial support for their retirement goals.

Create opportunities for baby boomers to stay on at least part time or as consultants

Many baby boomers dream about retiring, however, they also like to stay useful in their older years. Having the opportunity to work at least part time or on a consultant basis can be a great way to retain some of the skills and knowledge of your older workers. After baby boomers to work with employees on developing their soft skills such as being leaders in the workplace, having strong communication skills, and team players.

Partner with a staffing agency to replace your baby boomers

This is an opportune time for your organization to start looking at ways to effectively and efficiently replace baby boomers before they leave the job site. You can bring on new employees in temp to hire positions and have them work under the guidance of baby boomers. In this way, the knowledge is passed on to the next generation of workers and you have adequate personnel to cover all your projects.

Partner with Advance Staffing Solutions to find the candidates you need to keep your workforce running at full capacity!

New Year, Same Old Hiring Mistakes!

Raza Rauf on January 29, 2016

As the saying goes, “Old habits die hard”. This is very true when it comes to many aspects of business, including recruitment practices. Oftentimes the HR team or the recruitment team goes into a New Year wanting to do things better, but keeps falling into the same old ways of doing things. The problem is at this takes away from the effectiveness of the recruitment team and can actually put your company at risk. In order to improve processes this year, here are some recruiting and interviewing behaviors to leave behind.

Not conducting a thorough background check

One of the biggest hiring mistakes that companies can make is not conducting a thorough background check for every single applicant. You cannot take a candidate at face value no matter how professional they look or act during the interview — they could be hiding things in their history. Take the time to call all career references and verify work history and character. Criminal background checks are a must. Failure to do so can put your company at risk and it also caused harm to other employees.

Forgetting to follow up with candidates

Another bad habit to shake in the New Year is forgetting to follow up with candidates. Whether they have applied for a job online or they have been screened by phone for a particular job, please take the time to follow up with candidates at least with a courtesy email. It’s not fair to leave people hanging and it is a measure of goodwill when you respect candidates enough to follow up with them and give them a status update. This goes for sending out rejection letters too.

Selecting candidates based on skills only

It can be tempting to just hire people based on the skills that they list on their resume and those that are proven through assessment tests, but this leaves out a large chunk of candidates who may be otherwise qualified and perfect for a position because of their personalities. Work with a staffing agency to assess the personality and culture event of every candidate before you toss them into the rejection pile.

Hiring under pressure instead of planning staffing needs

Human resources is not meant to put out the fires in our organizations. But often times we find ourselves in the position of having to scramble around to replace a lost employee or to find a large number of workers to cover busy seasons. To make better use of our time and energy it’s important that we develop the habit of planning out our staffing needs by staying in touch with our point of contact managers. By planning ahead it’s possible to augment current staff with temporary workers and create a true succession strategy.

How to Perform Meaningful Employee Evaluations This Year

Raza Rauf on January 22, 2016

Each year, thousands of HR practitioners and managers are faced with the task of conducting annual employee evaluations. This is a task most often used to measure each employee’s effectiveness on the job, a factor that increases productivity and company revenues. But the biggest complaint about employee evaluations is that they don’t have any real meaning for employees … other than to stress them out.

How can the company conduct employee evaluations in such a way as to increase the meaning behind them so that employees can experience the positive results of their efforts and focus on real goals for the coming year? Here are some tips from Advance Staffing Solutions that may help.

Establish the “what’s in it for me?” factor for employees.

When employees understand – without a shadow of a doubt – that their efforts will produce positive outcomes for their work status, salary, and future, this makes the job of conducting evals much more meaningful. Use a system for connecting pay for performance, recognition for achieving more, and rewards for top-performing employees.

Make the evaluation fair and simple to administer.

An employee evaluation system does not have to be complex. In fact, it’s better to maintain a simple rating system of one to five for rating employees on their performance. Give the employees a chance to self-evaluate before having a meeting to go over things, then adjust ratings accordingly. This puts performance into greater perspective for employees.

Set reasonable, but challenging goals for the year.

Allow employees to set goals for improving their work performance, which will make the evaluation process go smoother. Let employees know you are there to support their goals, and they can choose whatever direction they want to go in their careers. Make goals attainable, in a certain time frame, and challenging enough so they won’t lose motivation.

Design employee development programs around skill growth.

The very purpose of employee evaluations is to identify gaps in the skills of employees and then take steps to fill those gaps with development and learning programs on the job. Make sure your company is prepared to address these gaps with a combination of onsite training programs and offsite learning opportunities.

We hope that the above tips will help make your employee evaluations smoother and more positive for your organization.