Talent PoolTalent Pool
Tough Choice: Promoting One Employee over Another
Decisions about employee advancement are rarely straightforward, and they can be especially difficult if you have multiple worthy candidates. Plus, in smaller organizations, promoting one employee over another can create resentment leading to a negative work environment.
Should You Hire Based on Talent or Experience?
It can be a struggle to attract talented candidates for a job opening. However, if you’ve kept your talent pool filled to the brim then you may run into the opposite problem – having to choose from multiple worthy candidates.
Keeping Talent without Increasing Payroll
Retaining high-quality and talented employees is a serious concern for many Canadian small businesses. A recent survey noted that 30 percent of small businesses have struggled with employee retention.
Baby Boomer Workplace Exodus: Is It Real?
Baby boomers are about to retire in droves – or are they?
Start Recruiting Before You Need to Hire
The hiring process can be long and difficult. Establishing a pool of talented potential candidates can make filling a vacant position at your business much less stressful.
Control Your Staffing Costs
In today’s uncertain economic conditions, many small businesses are trying to do more with less. Staffing is one area where business owners struggle to control costs yet maintain output.
Measuring employee rewards
Your workforce is one of your most important business investments so it just makes sense to keep them motivated and happy. Employee rewards are one way your business can recognize, honour and encourage staff to keep up the good work.
Is your employee also an entrepreneur?
Set some rules for an employee running a business on the side
Hiring on a budget? Play up your strengths
Your growing business needs more employees…but you’re on a budget.
Is red tape hurting your business?
This January, the federal government announced that it wanted to cut back on the regulations that stand in the way of small business growth. So it has formed the “Red Tape Reduction Commission,” which will consult with small businesses to identify and reduce unnecessary bureaucratic requirements.
Easy ways to check out applicants online
Hiring a new employee is a big commitment. You want someone who can do the job, will represent your company well, and is honest about their work history. One way to tell the good applicants from the bad is to find out what they’re saying online.
When an employee is off sick
When one of your employees is off sick due to an injury or illness, it can have a big impact on your business. Important tasks may be left undone, client calls not made, production deadlines missed, or bills not paid. Worse, the rest of your staff may not even be aware of these dropped duties. However, there is one thing you can do today to help avoid these problems: create workflows for everything your company does.
Mentoring on the Job
It can be a challenge for small businesses to compete with larger companies to find and keep the most talented workers. Big companies can offer higher salaries and clear paths for career advancement. But small businesses have an edge: They can offer personalized attention to help workers hone their professional and leadership skills.
5 tips for sorting job applications
In today’s tough economy, help-wanted ads can generate a wealth of applicants. If you are suffering from that type of success, here are five tips on how to sort through the resumes to find the best people to interview. [Link to: https://getgrowingforbusiness.scotiabank.com/articles/small-businesses-finding-employees-they-need?]
Annual checkup: what to include in your employee performance reviews
Odds are, no one interviewed you a year after starting your company to ask what you thought worked and what didn’t. And with a small workforce—possibly staffed with family and friends—you may not think you need annual performance reviews. But the informal nature of a small business can prevent the exchange of constructive criticism without a structured time to share.
Invest in your staff with training
There’s some good news on the employment front: according to Statistics Canada, overall employment increased 2.1% between September 2009 and September 2010, which makes up for the job losses during the recession. And while part-time work has made up a disproportionate share of those job gains, in September full-time jobs increased while part-time jobs declined.
Human Resources Staff Management Worksheet
When small business owners are able to create staff friendly work environments, their businesses are best positioned to benefit from greater efficiency, favourable customer perceptions and improved bottom line performance. Use this worksheet to systematically assess your company’s human resources management practices.
Staffing
Nineteen percent of small business owners said that staffing was their biggest challenge this holiday season. Indeed, finding help is becoming a big issue for Canadian businesses. The economy is strong, unemployment is low, and boom industries in the West are drawing workers from across the country. Small businesses will increasingly need to try different things to attract workers.
Small Businesses Finding the Employees They Need
Small business owners are not having any problem attracting good employees, according to a recent survey of Human Resources (HR) issues facing entrepreneurs.* Eighty percent of those surveyed reported no difficulty attracting or retaining talented workers. Whats more, one in five respondents reported that it has been easier to attract good employees over the past year, while just over 10% said it has been more difficult. This may be one of the silver linings of the economic slowdown of the past two years. The survey indicates that HR issues appear to be driven by the size of the business the bigger the business (typically five employees or more), the higher the incidence of HR concerns.
Recruiting Done Right
10 steps to finding and hiring the right person for the job
By Ceridian
By following these ten basic steps, you’ll be better able to identify and hire the best people and ultimately realize a higher return on investment for your organization.
Help Wanted: How to Find and Keep Staff
Finding help is becoming a big issue for business. Finding qualified help is an even bigger problem. And every indicator points to more of the same — particularly as the economy is strong, unemployment is low, and boom industries in the West are drawing workers from across the country. Small businesses will increasingly need to try different things to attract workers. This article can help get you started.
Integrate HR Into Your Business
Even in today's challenging economy, finding qualified help remains a big issue for small businesses. When the economy improves, it may be even harder to find and hold on to good employees. Developing sound human resource policies is not only good practice; it can even help you attract and retain staff.
Make Learning a Part of Your Business
Is investing in real estate right for you?
There are many ways to take part in the real estate market. You can invest in property management companies, purchase a vacation property, and even become a landlord. What’s right for you will depend on your finances, objectives, and your personality. Not everyone, for example, has what it takes to be a landlord.
Your Business Team
As an entrepreneur, you may be have specialized skills in functions like marketing or sales. But there are areas where it makes good sense to draw on the experience of professionals. Here are three professionals who should form part of your business team.
