Blog - 1 Stop HR

June 30, 2016 by 1 Stop HR Consulting

What’s your Edge?

If you find that it’s getting more difficult to attract true talent to your open position, you are not alone. There is a lot of competition in the market for qualified candidates! So what do you do? What do you do to attract the right talent and qualified talent to your door? You need to define what your company edge is. What is it that would attract someone who may currently be employed in another role to your company instead of staying put? It must be compelling! Here are some things to think about:

What kinds of benefits do your employees have? Is there anything unique about them? Are they competitive? Are they completely paid for by the company? Do they start as of day one?
What is your working environment like? Is it fun? Do you have regular team building events? What “fun” do you have in the office? Do you have games in the office?
Do you promote learning and development? Do you financially support education?
Are your salaries competitive? Are there bonus? Is there profit sharing?
What are the working hours like? Do you offer flexible working hours? Can people work from home?

Really think outside of the box. You want to look at it from the candidate’s point of view. What is it that will really compel them to want to leave their current position to work for you?

These types of questions should help get your creative juices flowing. You want to examine what it is that sets you apart from your competition and capitalize on it! If you can’t think of anything, this may be part of your problem and you may have some additional work to do within the company. If so, it doesn’t happen overnight, but being aware of it and moving towards becoming more competitive in the job seekers market will do wonders for your recruiting process!

Interested in what some of the top companies do? Take a look at “Canada’s Top 100 Employers” by Richard Yerema. This publication comes out every year . This book will give you an idea of what other companies are doing to attract and retain their people.

Define your edge, bring in your talent and work hard to keep them – this is mission critical to your bottom line and business success.

June 8, 2016 by 1 Stop HR Consulting

Struggling to Hire? 3 Tips and a Challenge for you!

Recruiting Challenges?

So you have been trying to recruit for a stellar candidate and you are having challenges. I get it – you are getting hundreds of resumes BUT they don’t have what you are looking for right? You are doing all the right things, you are using social media, advertising on various job boards, your job description and ads are top notch – you are even targeting passive candidates too! It is a pain that is all too familiar to many companies these days.

Tap into your Internal Talent!

The good companies are getting smarter, they are learning to keep their talent by working on their internal systems and the overall employee experience. These good companies hold good people. So you could keep plugging away or you could look at things a little differently.

Just a little Guidance…

There are still a lot of great candidates out there who have the potential to be even better with some guidance, mentoring and training to fit your job description completely. So why not look at keeping an open mind and tap into this talent? This is a tough concept to “get” as we all want that perfect fit when we are hiring. Sure, this is ideal, but as I just described above, it is getting tougher to secure this talent easily.

Characteristics of Great Candidates

If I have managed to sway your thinking slightly….let’s look at what the things you will want to look for in great candidates to make this happen!

A love of learning. Look in the resume for a track record of recent and on-going training, courses, seminars. Look to ask about this in an interview. You need someone with a desire and commitment to continue to learn and grow, thus growing into the position you are hiring for.
A Positive and “can do” attitude. You will want to question the candidate with some behavioural and situational questions to assess these traits. Look for people that want to dig in, stay positive and work to get the job done with an attitude that is contagious.
Desire to grow. A desire to grow will propel these individuals to do what is necessary to gain the skills to be able to not only fit into the role that they have been hired for, but also to continue to grow with your company.

Absolutely the candidate needs the basics to be successful in the position you are hiring for – I am not suggesting you attempt to make a square peg fit into a round hole – look for the “must haves” and then look for the ability to train the others with the traits listed above.

Think Outside of the Box

If you are having challenges recruiting the right person, I encourage you to think outside of the box, keep the above in mind and bring in talent that you can be proud of, that is grateful for the opportunity to learn and to contribute back to your goals and objectives. Committing to their success in turn creates commitment to you and your bottom line.

May 31, 2016 by 1 Stop HR Consulting

Stressed out Employees?

Having problems with your employees saying that they are stressed out?

Unfortunately this is much too common these days with employers looking to do more with less people in order to save money. The impact on our people is great. So what is it that you can do as a manager to positively impact your team?

Here are some thoughts:

Encourage time off

Everyone needs and deserves time away from work. There are many studies that point to increased productivity to those that truly get away. They come back refreshed, re-energized and more focused. Whether this is time during the work day to take a break outside of the office, or whether this is time off. Ensure your people take this very valuable time.

Maintain a positive attitude.

Smile. Your employees will see this and appreciate it. A smile and positive attitude is contagious! And…it doesn’t cost anything!

Listen to your people

What are they saying? Are there things you can do to improve the work environment? Are you responding?

Celebrate!

Celebrate team accomplishments! Whether it is a cake, a fruit tray, a pat on the back, gift certificates etc., ensure to notice and celebrate these milestones. It will allow employees to look back on their hard work and know it was all worth it.

stress

Have fun!

What can you do to encourage some fun and some laughter? Team building, a bulletin board with comics and funny stories, a fun column added to the employee newsletter…think outside of the box.

Flex time – do you offer it?

Look at establishing core hours and creating some flex time in and around these times as long as the hours of work are put in in a day.

Stress management workshops

Consider offering a workshop to your employees to provide them with some additional tools to assist with coping mechanisms.

Have you looked at the workload? Is it too much? Can it be spread out? Can you hire more people? Is there anything that can be done to minimize a consistently very heavy workload?

Burnout is very common and employers lose many employees due to prolonged exposure to stress in the workplace. Keep “in tune” with your people, talk about stress, discuss solutions and act on them. When employees see action, and understand that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, it will help carry them through these periods.

February 23, 2016 by 1 Stop HR Consulting

HR Hotline Service for Startups and Small Businesses!

Whooooo Hoooooo! We have just launched our HR Hotline service geared to startups and small businesses! We are so excited about this service as it will provide much needed access to HR to those businesses that need it most and that traditionally are stretched to be able to afford it! We have made it easy and affordable!! Starting at $99/month with no ongoing commitment – cancel any time, you have access to an HR Hotline to ask any HR related questions you might have that relate to your business! Looking for more?? How about access to our HR-in-a-box template database too! We offer this as well!
I strongly encourage you to check out this new service arm and let us know what you think!

www.yourhrhotline.com

February 23, 2016 by 1 Stop HR Consulting

Thinking about HR for your Business?

I get it, you are a small business – maybe even a startup and you’ve been tackling various HR items on your own to this point. Paying for a full time or even part time HR employee isn’t in the budget and really for the size of business you have right now, you don’t need HR. Or do you?

A common misconception is that businesses don’t need an HR position until they hit about 50 employees or so. This is so wrong. Yes, I might be a bit biased, but by the end of this article, I would hope you would agree with me and what is becoming much more common place movement and advised by experts.

To look at this a little deeper, it is helpful to understand some of the functions of HR. An effective HR resource will ensure that your company has a solid HR foundation from which to build upon as your business grows and to support business growth. This foundation would include things like: Effective recruitment and selection plans including set interview questions, job descriptions, putting employment agreements in place, orientation plans, legally required and workplace specific employment policies, required employee files, employee documentation, performance management processes and procedures, documented disciplinary processes, reward and recognition strategies, goal setting, leadership and mentoring, succession planning, termination procedures and documentation and so much more.

The biggest impact on your business is the fact that potential legal issues can be minimized. It is one thing to have templates in place for various HR related items, but it is another thing to understand how to use them, pitfalls and to ensure they are implemented properly. Training is huge. In the HR world, it is very easy for a manager to ask something in an interview that is against human rights, say something to an employee that opens up a discrimination case, terminate someone without due diligence and so on. Any one of these items can open your business to huge law suits which obviously directly impact your bottom line but also your reputation and can ultimately destroy your business.

Knowledge gained from an HR professional is huge. Training provided to you and your team on HR related items (some listed above) helps protect you from massive financial loss.
I challenge you to think about the impact of NOT having HR representation for your business. You may not need to hire an HR employee for your business at this time, but I strongly advise you to have HR representation. Whether you look at engaging in HR related services through us such as our new HR Hotline service, or through another method, don’t miss out on the opportunity to minimize your risk and grow your bottom line.