by Mary Gormandy White, MA, SPHR, Direct of Corporate Training and Consulting Services for MTI Business Solutions

Do you need to hire someone to help out with your small business on a temporary or project basis? Is it time to add another person to your team? Maybe you have a special project going on that requires an extra pair of hands for a specific time frame or your business has grown to the point where you need assistance on the busiest days of the week or times of the month. Whether you’re looking for part time or full time help on a temporary or regular basis, it’s a good idea to consider using a staffing agency to find the right person to help you rather than trying to do so yourself.

Stay Focused for Small Business Success

As a small business owner, there are so many things that you have to take care of on your own that it makes sense to outsource time consuming tasks that are outside of your area of expertise. Working with a staffing agency allows you to remain focused on your business rather than having to take time away from working on accomplishing your ultimate goals and objectives to go through the lengthy process of searching for individual best suited for your particular needs. Working with a staffing agency can help you stay productive in your business while someone else puts the legwork into the process of identifying ideal candidates for the position that you need to fill.

What to Expect from a Staffing Agency

A good staffing agency will handle advertising for applications, reviewing resumes, screening and interviewing applicants, performing skill assessments, and even take care of drug testing and any other pre-employment requirements that may be applicable to the position you need to fill. The company will identify the top candidates for the position you have available and send them to you for interviews. You’ll be able to talk with applicants who have already been pre-qualified without having to invest a significant amount of your own time and energy to get to that point.

Once you provide the staffing agency you select with details about what type of help you need and what hours you need the person to be able to work, the company will go to work looking for the best person for you. You won’t pay anything until the right person is found, and you’ll have final say over final selection of which qualified applicant sent to you for a final interview will be hired.

Small Businesses and Staffing Agencies: The Bottom Line

There’s no better way to handle the process of hiring a new employee if you want to be able to stay productive and focused on the day to day operations of your home business throughout the process rather than getting bogged down in reviewing and filtering through stacks of applications to find the workers that you need to continue servicing your customers and building your business.

About the Author

Mary Gormandy White, M.A., SPHR is the Director of Training and Consulting Services for Mobile Technical Institute & MTI Business Solutions, where she specializes in human resources, management, and public relations training and consulting. She teaches business training seminars in Mobile, AL and provides on-site corporate training and conference presentations throughout the U.S., as well as human resource management and public relations consulting services. She is also the author of 101 Human Resource Management Tips and 101 Successful PR Campaign Tips in the LifeTips book series.

Does your recruiting strategy involve visiting job fairs, college career day events, business expos or association meetings? If so, you know just how important trade show booths are to your recruiting efforts. Standing out from all of the other exhibitors is a key to enjoying success at these types of events. After all, when you are manning a display booth that is filled with other recruiters, as well as vendors who are marketing products and services that are relevant to the attendees, your exhibit has to be eye catching and appealing if you want to have a chance of enticing people to stop by and find out what it is that you have to offer.

The design of your display unit is certainly important. For example, using banner stands to display attractive graphic images that show what it’s like to work with your company can be a great way to catch the eye of people who are looking around the exhibit hall trying to figure out where to go next. It’s also important to make sure that your booth has a finished appearance, which can be accomplished easily by using appropriate pipe and drape units. You can also personalize your exhibit by adding a custom table cloth that features your company’s logo and attractive table skirts.

Guest Post Contributed by Chip Luman, Chief Operating Officer, HireVue

How do video interviews work?

HireVue offers three interview solutions in one integrated, brandable platform that includes recruiter workflow management, interview content and scheduling management, centralized assessment and feedback collection and ongoing access to the company’s growing video talent pool. Interviews are recorded anywhere participants can access the internet – including  company locations, career fairs, candidate homes, recruiter homes, campus career centers, etc. –  and can easily adapt to most company processes. The three options are described below:

• One way, or asynchronous, video assessments – This is a completely time-shifted process that allows recruiting to occur around the clock and globe. Candidates login in and complete their interview at a time convenient to them (or may come onsite to a designated location to complete them).  The asynchronous assessment is a standardized lean process approach that can consist of any combination of video or various text based question types.  Recruiters and hiring managers can access and assess candidates at their convenience and evaluate more interviews in less time, versus traditional phone based or in-person interviews. The end result – hiring managers spend less time with the wrong candidates, and are able to identify best fit candidates sooner in the process.
• Live recorded panel interview – up to 3 interviewers can join the interview with the candidate from anywhere in the world.  The interview is recorded and can be shared with anyone within the organization.  From an assessment and evaluation perspective, this recorded process is similar to the previously described asynchronous approach.
• Live non-recorded panel interview – up to 3 interviewers can join the interview with the candidate from anywhere in the world similar to video chat.

What are the major benefits of using video interviews?

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Guest Post by Tina Chen Vice President of Operations at Employco USA.

Why are companies/ HR Managers having a hard time filling open positions, even though there are plenty of job seekers?

• Higher expectations for talent
• Lower pay scale for higher level positions
• Trading up while paying low mentality creates never ending turnover of unqualified candidates being hired for these positions because they fit the pay range or the revolving door of qualified employees who settle to work and then jump ship as soon as something better comes along.
• Misunderstanding the talent pool – when companies started laying off employees the first to go were the top and the bottom… the top being your highest paid non-working executives and the weakest of the company. As such there is such a range in the talent pool that companies don’t know where to start or what to expect.

What are your tips for filling these positions faster, with the right candidates?

• Don’t undermine the candidates’ experiences by driving the salary down so much it’s insulting to any qualified individual.
• Re-Assess why you haven’t been able to fill the positions: is the salary reflective of the job description, for example, are you looking to hire a Director of HR but only willing to pay the salary of an HR Generalist?
• Be realistic. Go online and research sources such as salary.com to what the realistic salary range is for the job description you have posted. Yes – once in awhile you will come across a great deal – like that pristine BMW Individual right in your price range – but for the most part salaries have to at least meet the basic low end of the range. For example if the range for a Director of HR is between $65k-$90k, put the position at $65k or $60k at the lowest. Any lower than the range will knock you into a different experience bracket.
• Go back to the basics and keep this in mind: You get what you pay for. If you are trying to cut corners and hire a $100k position at $50k, ask yourself why none of your applicants are qualified for what you are looking for.
• Be respectful: Great talents have worked their entire careers to acquire their knowledge, experience and titles. While they may take a position at the low range of the scale, they should not be insulted by falling completely into a different experience bracket altogether.

Employco USA is an HR outsourcing firm based in Chicago, IL that that provides human resources, benefits administration (heath care, 401ks, etc.), payroll processing and workers compensation services to over 400 small and mid-size businesses across the country.

Are you tasked with the responsibility of recruiting employees to work in Hawaii from the U.S mainland? While it may seem at first thought that it will be easy to find people who want to live in this island paradise, the reality might not be as you expected. While Hawaii is a beautiful spot, relocating to the Aloha State is not something that appeals to everyone.

Even though Hawaii is gorgeous and has a wonderful climate, the distance from the mainland might be a deterrent to people who are concerned about how to maintain relationships with family members and friends across such as distance. After all, it takes a while to travel to the mainland from Hawaii and plane tickets can be quite expensive.
Distance isn’t the only concern. People are often concerned about how the cost of real estate in any area where they are interested in relocating compares to the area they will be leaving. When you are recruiting for jobs in Hawaii, it’s essential to provide truthful information to candidates about what the Hawaii real estate market is really like.

People who are thinking about moving to Hawaii are also concerned about what employment prospects for their family members are like on the island where the position is located. The website of the Hawaii Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and the website of the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism are two of the bet resources to use when talking to candidates. It provides a wealth of information about all types of relevant employment information.

Guest post by expert Garrett Miller. Mr. Miller has extensive experience in hiring, training, attracting, and retaining top talent, and has developed an interesting method for eliminating costly hiring errors about 95 percent of the time — even when the candidate is a recent college grad with little or no job experience. His new book is Hire on a WHIM: Four Qualities that Make for Great Employees.

How far back in a young person’s resume should you consider?
Start at the beginning of senior year in high school.

How important is GPA in determining an applicant’s worthiness?
Grades matter when the subject is vital to the position for which you’re hiring. Grades also reflect commitment and ability to learn. But if the candidate’s activity level in college was high, put less weight on the GPA. Also, look for an upward trend — maybe she did poorly freshman year but improved steadily after that.

What do you look for in an applicant with no job experience?
Job history isn’t a necessity for recent grads; involvement is. If the candidate wasn’t working, check to see if she was volunteering or involved in extracurricular activities, such as clubs or athletic teams.

What can you learn about a candidate from his nonwork-related activities?
Look for activities that require commitment and dedication. Examples: varsity sports or semester-long activities such as debate club, drama club, or internships. Ask him to describe his activities. Was he learning new skills, and was he passionate about being exposed to new challenges and opportunities? Does he light up with emotion when he talks about those activities?

What type of questions do you ask a recent grad?
Ask how he feels about hard work — and ask for examples of jobs, classes, or activities that were stressful and difficult. Ask what he liked best and worst about these challenges. Ask him to name his most and least rewarding work experience.

You say there are four essential qualities for any employee—regardless of age. What are they?
That’s right. There are four qualities that can’t be taught, and they are nonnegotiable. That is, if a candidate seems really outstanding but is quite weak in one of these, he’s a no-go. I wrote a whole book and developed a hiring approach based on these four qualities, and shortened them to the acronym WHIM so they’d be easy to remember: Work ethic, Humility, Integrity, and Maturity.

How does a grad reveal her Work ethic?
By getting the interviewee talking, you can gauge her motivation, intensity, and excitement by the way she tells her story. Look for students who were busy with a purpose. It’s easy to be busy without personal growth.

How can you tell if a young job seeker has Humility?
Ask questions that help you understand how she learns and works. Individually or in a team? Does she ask for help or go it alone? Ask for specific examples from a class, club, team, or other group setting. Ask her to talk about a time when she made an incorrect choice, and what she learned. Listen for words like, “I did my best,” as opposed to pointing fingers at others. Listen for signs that this person has the desire to learn and be taught.
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Guest Post by Tom Silver, Senior VP North America, Dice.com

DHRS: What is social recruiting?

Silver: We define social recruiting as any web-based tool or service that facilitates conversations and networks with the end goal to recruit staff.

Why do businesses need to engage in social recruiting?

Silver: Expectations have changed. Many job seekers and recruiters are looking for more one-to-one communication, and job seekers want more control over their personal data. Recruiters will need to expand their tool kits beyond simply posting jobs and searching a resume database. That’s why we launched the Dice Talent Network.

DHRS: What do you see as best practices for social recruiting?

Silver: Clear, transparent communication is really the single best practice for social recruiting. Networking has been a key to recruiting forever, now it just takes place in part on-line. However, you have to keep the same standards online as you would use offline to recruit.

DHRS: Are there common errors companies need to avoid when they implement social recruiting?

Silver: Social recruiting done well takes a tremendous amount of time and resources. Companies need to be sure they are willing to make that commitment for the long run, because measuring success in social recruiting is built up over time.

About the Author

Thomas M. Silver has been Senior Vice President, North America since September 2009, after joining Dice Inc. in 2001. Bringing more than 20 years of executive marketing and management experience, Mr. Silver is responsible for overseeing our North American brands including Dice, ClearanceJobs, AllHealthcareJobs and the eFinancialCareers operations in the region. Prior to joining Dice, Mr. Silver served as Senior Vice President of Marketing at Bowne and Co., Inc from 1998 to 2001; Director and later Vice President of Marketing at American Express Company from 1988 to 1998 and he began his career in marketing at Unilever, Inc. in 1983. Mr. Silver holds a B.A. in economics from Cornell University and an M.B.A. from New York University School of Business.

Guest Post from James Alexander, Founder and CEO of Vizibility

What is Vizibility and how does it differ from other online recruiting tools?

Alexander: “Googling” is now standard practice for professional and personal reasons. 90% of hiring managers and executive recruiters Google candidates as part of the search process. However, as many know firsthand, it’s not always easy to find the right information. That wastes time and, when you unknowingly make decisions based on the wrong information, it could lead you to eliminate candidates you might not have otherwise.

Vizibility’s innovative approach, called PreSearch™, is a proactive strategy where job candidates create and share the optimal Google search for themselves. You’ll start seeing SearchMe buttons and links more-and-more on resumes and online profiles.

How can hiring managers benefit from using Vizibility as a resource for recruiting?

Alexander: The Vizibility service enables users to build a search query that brings up just their search results in Google.  A user can also select and rank up to five favorite search results.  These queries are accessed by clicking users’ Vizibility SearchMe buttons and links which appear on resumes, online profiles, etc.  If a user has selected favorites, you’ll see these results first with the option to see all of their results in Google.

The service is simple.  When you view someone’s search results via Vizibility, you are simply redirected to Google where you can see their results with the entire search query that used generate them.  These results are just as trustworthy as if you had spent the time to build the search yourself.

How can hiring managers begin using Vizibility?

Alexander: As you see SearchMe buttons and links on resumes and online profiles, click them to quickly access the candidates accurate Google results. As part of your recruiting and hiring process, you can also ask candidates to create their own free SearchMe link and include it with their submission. You and your candidates can create your own free SearchMe button and link at Vizibility. A serial technology entrepreneur, James has been involved with Internet search since starting eWatch in 1995. He has worked with Mibrary Inc., Adobe Systems, and Jupiterimages. You can Google James at http://vizibility.com/james.

As an HR professional, you are often directly responsible for selecting employees to move into management positions. Even when you don’t make the decision yourself, it’s likely that you are involved in the selection process.

You can help your company and your employees by taking steps to be certain that the people that you choose for promotion into supervisory positions have a clear vision of exactly what they’re getting into before they decide whether or not to step up into this type of job.

3 Tips to Prepare New Managers for Change

When discussing a potential change from a line level position to a supervisory role, it’s up to you to be sure that the person who is being considered for promotion has a realistic idea of just how things will change.

Here are a few things that you need to be sure to explain to potential new supervisors:

• Change in Focus – The focus changes for employees who move into supervisory roles. Rather than concentrating on the quality of their own work and productivity levels, new supervisors will become responsible for directing and coaching other people. Delegation, performance management and big picture thinking are essential for supervisory success.
• Listening Skills Are Key – Managers spend more time listening than anything else. Supervisors must maintain open lines of communication with their employees, and this means that listening is an essential – and time consuming – function of any supervisory position.
• Coworker Relationship Changes – When transitioning to a supervisory role, new managers will find that their co-workers treat them differently. It’s hard going from employee to supervisor – for the new manager as well as the former peers who are now subordinates.

By stressing these points to potential new supervisors, you will be providing them with important information that can help them make wise decisions about whether or not moving into a management job is really the right choice.

About the Author
Mary G. White, M.A., SPHR is a corporate training specialist with Mobile Technical Institute & MTI Business Solutions and the author of 101 Human Resource Management Tips and 101 Successful PR Campaign Tips in the LifeTips book series. For information on MTI’s on-site corporate training and HR consulting services, email success (at) mtimail.com or call 251-478-6848.

Guest Pots By Brett Stevens, President, The SearchLogix Group

This should be used as a solid guideline for hiring and having new employees on board and productive by January 3, 2011…

In a perfect world, you and your company want to start 2011 with strong sales and controlled expenses. In order to do so, your company and its employees must be positioned to perform at maximum level. The key is to start off strong in the First Quarter.

If you want a new team member to be productive by January 3rd, a candidate should be on board by December 1st to allow them to get acclimated to the new company. Don’t use the holidays as an excuse to wait for the first of the year to start someone.

Here would be the time line to hire in an ideal situation:

Sept 10th
* Fee schedule signed
* Job profile is set
* Search officially starts

Sept 20 -Oct 20th
* Candidates identified
* Interview process begins

Oct 20-25th
* Offer is tendered and negotiated

Nov 15 – Dec 1st
* Offer is accepted
* 2-3 weeks to resign and start

Dec 1st
* Start Date
In closing, follow the steps above and start off strong in 2011!!

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.